MX-5 Cup: Behind the Wrench

The focus may be on the drivers, but those maintaining the race cars in the Battery Tender Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich deserve time in the spotlight.

Assembling and maintaining a racecar is no easy job. Whether at the lowest grassroots level of the sport, or the most high-profile motor racing events, working to keep each racing machine going at its ultimate speed is a difficult, and often times thankless, job. However, in preparation for each of the Mazda MX-5 Cup's 12 races, men and women from many different backgrounds put their mechanical knowledge and wits to the test to get their race car across the finish line in first place.

Martin Chryst spends each race weekend working on No. 2 Chryst Brothers Construction/Studio Rhoad/Race4Domestic Violence Prevention MX-5, allowing his daughter and driver, Beth Chryst, to push the car to its performance limits on the track. As an independent, single-car team, Martin plays the role of everything from chief mechanic to tool gofer. With each race weekend comes loads of work, but Martin says he wouldn't trade it for anything.