\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Feb. 23, 2026) \u2013 After a record-breaking grid size to open the season, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin is headed to the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida with 42 cars.
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Sebastien Bourdais
\nTwo of those Mazda MX-5 Cup machines will be piloted by world-renowned drivers Sebastien Bourdais (No. 38 McCumbee McAleer Racing) and Earl Bamber (No. 21 Hendricks Motorsports), who are making guest appearances in Rounds Three and Four.<\/p>\n
The 1.8-mile temporary street circuit is a favorite for many Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup drivers.\n<\/p>\n
Despite being made up of various roads and runways along the Port of St. Petersburg, the track still has a good flow to it, with several decent passing areas.
\nThe sun is always shining, and the atmosphere feels like a city festival for the traditional INDYCAR season opening weekend.<\/p>\n
Four drivers on the grid know what it feels like to win at St. Pete: Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering), Gresham Wagner (No. 5 JTR Motorsports Engineering), Tyler Gonzalez (No. 57 BSI Racing) and Bourdais. Of course, Bourdais\u2019 two prior victories came in an IndyCar rather than a Mazda MX-5.<\/p>\n
The Frenchman who has called the Bay area home since 2003 is venturing into MX-5 Cup in the name of charity.<\/p>\n
To raise money for Karts4Kids, donors can put their name on the car Bourdais is set to race at St. Pete.<\/p>\n
What of the other drivers with St. Pete-winning experience? Well, none of them had a great start to the season at Daytona. In fact, all three had a DNF in one of the two races and Gonzalez was the only one who made a trip to the podium.\n<\/p>\n
Now, all three need to bank major points at St. Pete to regain momentum toward the $250,000 prize from Mazda that goes to the season champion.<\/p>\n
Thomas has twice won MX-5 Cup races at St. Pete, the most recent being last year.\n<\/p>\n
Winning Race 1 and finishing third in Race 2 propelled him to the point lead, leaving Florida. In contrast, Wagner did not compete in last year\u2019s event at St. Pete, but he was part of a classic Mazda MX-5 Cup moment in 2023, when he drag-raced Connor Zilisch out of the final turn and to the line, winning by 0.021 seconds.<\/p>\n
For Gonzalez, St. Pete had been a cruel track until last year, when he won Race 2. To that point, he\u2019d never even been in the top five at the street circuit.
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Gresham Wagner\n<\/p>\n
All three of these drivers have an important thing in common; experience, and it\u2019s going to take experience to navigate the narrow, concrete-lined street circuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it takes a good setup and a lot of consistent driving to have a chance to win at St. Pete,\u201d Wagner said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of making lap time, the walls aren\u2019t much of a consideration for me, and I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a lot of quick drivers that don\u2019t let it get in the way of their driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, the track becomes tight and punishing when it comes to racing other drivers, both when defending and overtaking.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s what stands out the most \u2014 the wheel-to-wheel racing becomes that much more aggressive, with much less margin for error.
\n\u201cYou really have to think a lot more about the moves you\u2019re going to make at St. Pete, because in plenty of spots, there aren\u2019t many options besides hitting the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the drivers that come out in front usually have done a great job of managing their aggressiveness, and not getting too caught up in the moment.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than most tracks, you have to give a bit more consideration and margin to every decision you make.\u201d<\/p>\n
The big winner coming into St. Pete is Justin Adakonis (No. 23 McCumbee McAleer Racing). He leads the points after scoring a career-best finish of second in Race 1 and backing it up with a 10th-place finish in Race 2.\n<\/p>\n
The sophomore has been on a streak of strong finishes since VIRginia International Raceway last August.<\/p>\n
Of the three current MX-5 Cup Shootout Scholarship recipients, Ethan Lampe (No. 31 Advanced Autosports) had the best results at Daytona and arrives in St. Pete 11th in points.
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Earl Bamber\n<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the Kiwi wildcard: Bamber.
\nHe\u2019s never raced the St. Pete street course, but he has raced MX-5 Cup before, at Martinsville, an oval.
\nThat race was going great until contact took him out in the second half.
\nCan he duplicate his performance this week on a street circuit?
\nMore importantly, which of the pros will finish higher: Bamber or Bourdais?<\/p>\n
Watch and find out the answers when Race 1 goes green at 7:30 am ET on Saturday, February 28 and again on Sunday, March 1, when Race 2 gets going at 4pm ET.\n<\/p>\n
Both races will be streamed live on the IMSA and RACER YouTube channels.
\nSource: Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Feb. 23, 2026) \u2013 After a record-breaking grid size to open the season, Whelen Mazda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-166298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}