Global MX-5 Cup parity: A level playing field

Mazda's partners in MX-5 Cup bring their own expertise to ensure a level playing field

The appeal of a spec class is that it is spec – all the cars are as identical as possible. Many drivers love the concept because the winner is the person who raced the best, not the one who engineered the most. Still, there are those who may seek a mechanical edge, or those who may suspect others of doing so, whether it's happening or not. These advantages, however, are not the case in the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich Tires. Part of that comes from the way the cars are built by Long Road Racing, some comes from the series technical inspection team, and more parity insurance comes from Mazda's partners in the series, such as BFGoodrich Tires and AiM Sports. Both companies play a role in ensuring that the series is on a level playing field.

"We have a team of technicians and engineers that are at each event, to measure temperatures and pressures for competitors," says Ken Payne, technical director at BFGoodrich. "One, so that we can pass that information along to them if they're not taking it themselves; but also to see how the tires are behaving and if we see anything that's abnormal."

Payne explains that all the tires have a barcode on them, so BFGoodrich can track the tires and make sure the tires being used at the event are the ones that are registered for the event. BFGoodrich also builds the tires in batches, so that every tire it brings to a particular event was built at the same time – nobody has to worry about getting a set of old tires. There is one more trick that BFGoodrich does to make sure that no one is tampering with the tires after they receive them: the sniffer.

Read the full story at MazdaMotorsports.com