Inside MX-5 Cup: Advanced Autosports comes full circle

Advanced Autosports isn’t a stranger to professional racing – it’s how the late Dave Wheeler started the outfit in 1999, racing in Grand-Am. But in the intervening decades, it’s become one of the largest and most successful Mazda-focused club racing prep shops in the country. More than 100 Spec Miatas (and now Spec MX-5s) have left the shop in the hands of happy racers, and Advanced Autosports takes care of dozens of customers from two shops – the original in Beloit, Wis., and a newer facility at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Ill.

Advanced Autosports has ventured back into pro racing with a two-car (and more coming soon) effort in Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Michelin and has done so with a bang. Now run by Wheeler’s son-in-law, Ben Merwin, following its founder’s passing in 2018, Advanced Autosports’ drivers are championship leader Nathan Nicholson (main image) and rookie Vaughn Mishko.

“Over the years, we’ve had a number of customers that have moved on to other stuff,” explains Merwin of his motivations. “So, it’s always been in the back of the mind – you invest time, effort and energy into somebody’s development as a racer and then kind of usher them off. Some went on to have decent success, and then there are people for whom just doing a little bit of pro racing is the end game. I think seeing enough of those opportunities kind of slip through, and having more and more demand for a ladder program, it just kind of made logical sense to go with them.”

Nicholson became familiar with Advanced Autosports while running Spec Miata. When he decided to race Spec MX-5 to (successfully) chase the Mazda Motorsports scholarship money, he went with Advanced and won the national points prize and an invitation to the Shootout. He went with JTR Motorsports Engineering for his rookie MX-5 Cup season in 2024, but when Advanced entered the fray, he knew it was time to go home.

“It definitely was a leap of faith,” says Nicholson. “I’d had a full season in the series and, obviously, knew somewhat about it. When Ben called and wanted to start this program, I know the effort and the quality that he puts into his product. Everyone had their doubts, but the one thing I believed in above everything else was the team of people that we had.”

Nathan Nicholson has been a model of consistency for Advanced Autosports and leads the MX-5 Cup points heading into rounds 11 and 12 at VIR.

Advanced probably benefited from Nicholson’s season of experience in the series. A bigger benefit was the series’ change to the Penske shock package for 2025 that nullified a lot of amassed setup knowledge and put everyone on a level playing field. But Merwin also found that a surprising amount of the club racing experience carried over to MX-5 Cup.

“My normal business model in club racing is one crew chief to every three cars. That’s kind of how the economic side of that works,” he says. “Typically, in stuff like MX-5 Cup, you see a ratio of one mechanic per car. So, in a way, the logistics of trying to manage a race weekend, at least on the crew side, is easier. There’s more to do, but you have more resources at your disposal.

“I think that dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every ‘t’ is that much more important in pro racing. There’s more at stake. But I think when you know how to run the flow of a weekend, and what things need to be done and when they need to be done, it certainly did cross over pretty well.”

If there is one thing that Merwin has discovered, it's that building a pro racing team isn't instantaneous. Just like it took Advanced many years to build up to taking care of 50 cars in club racing, getting the economies of scale up to the level required to be successful will take some time.

“I think the process takes longer than maybe I originally figured,” he says. “I thought, ‘Let people know we're starting a team, and I'll instantly have four or five customers.’ Most of this season, we've had two. The nice thing is, and I think partially because we've done well, we've gotten a lot of phone calls and e-mails and interest. It looks like even for the last two races of this season, I'll have four or five drivers and have a full lineup for next season.”

The growth is happening, even if it's not overnight. But growing toward what objective? Ultimately, it's to create a path within Advanced to, well, help racers advance.

“Navigating how to transition from karting into club racing, into pro racing, and then on to higher forms of sports car racing,” Merwin answers. “I think there's so many little nuances and unknowns, so having the experience that we've had over the last 25-plus years of being able to walk people through [the various stages]. Once they get to the IMSA stage, then they're exposed to how to find sponsorships, and hopefully some of those drivers graduate from there to go on to other stuff. I think we've tried to make it as easy as possible to get to that point.”

• All Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Michelin races are streamed live on RACER.com and archived on The RACER Channel on YouTube. The 2025 double-header action continues with rounds 11 & 12 at VIRginia International Raceway, Va., on Saturday, Aug. 23, and Sunday, Aug. 24. Plus, find all the latest series news at mx-5cup.com.