Monticello N.Y. (29 September 2018) – Nikko Reger led 16 laps at Monticello Motor Club to claim his third Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires win of the year in the No. 01 Slipstream Performance entry. Reger entered the weekend with a one-point championship advantage over Selin Rollan, and grew that advantage to 15 points with the victory as Rollan came home fifth.
Bryan Ortiz led the field to the green flag, holding the point for the opening two laps before Reger took the point on lap three. It was not a clear run to victory as Reger was passed by Matt Fassnacht during a three wide battle for the lead but Reger was able to hold the point all the way to the finish.
"I think that I started on the right leg and set the precedent and hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling,” said Reger of the opening race. “We have an amazing car and the Slipstream Performance guys worked all night and it paid off in dividends today. It wasn't easy, we had a few side by side battles, but man this place is beautiful, that was a great race. I'm ready to go racing again in a couple of hours."
Todd Lamb finished in second position, also claiming the Master Class win with the run to the overall podium in his Atlanta Speedwerks-prepared Global Mazda MX-5 Cup entry.
"It was a hard fought battle,” said Lamb. “We got held up in qualifying a little bit yesterday and I knew I had a rough task ahead of me today to get to the front, but I knew we had a good car. The Atlanta Speedwerks guys have been working hard all season and we just have had nothing but bad luck. It feels good to end the season on a positive note with a podium here. The run was good and the track was wet so pretty much all of us were trying to manage the puddles and slip angles through the wet areas. We wanted to show that we could run up front and that's what we did so I'm pretty happy about that."
Alex Wolenski claimed the Challenger Class presented by Monticello Motor Club (MMC) win as he closes in on the championship title.
“it was really fun but my competitors didn't make it easy,” said Wolenski. “There were a lot of Monticello Motor club members all racing around me and that made it a lot of fun. It’s special to win here so I’m really excited!”
The second race of the weekend will go green at 1:30 PM ET. Live timing and scoring will be posted at https://mx-5cup.com/results/live-timing.