Team MSCC Mazda Miata emerged victorious at the recent Kalayaan Cup. The team took the Open A category class win, but it was not without its challenges.
Before the race, the team qualified P2, ensuring a strong start before the big event. Come race day, the Mazda MX-5 made the most of its starting position. Three laps into the race, the rear-wheel sportscar managed to bring its tires to optimal operating temperature. With Tyson Sy behind the wheel, he managed to take the lead of the pack.
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It was smooth sailing for the team until the four and a half hour mark. Team MSCC Mazda Miata experienced a rare gearbox fault while it was three laps ahead of everyone else. As a result, the MX-5 lost a couple of gears, dramatically reducing its race pace.
Juha Turalba managed to limp back to the pits. As mechanics assessed the condition of the race car, the team had to decide: pull out and retire, or continue. The team chose the latter.
By the time the car got back on track, the team was nearly 40 laps down to the race leaders, placing last. Team MSCC Mazda Miata then went all out to, at the very least, get back on the lead lap.
By the 10-hour mark, Team MSCC Mazda Miata managed to cut the lap difference to just 25 laps. Around the same time, race leaders also started experiencing mechanical and reliability issues of their own. By the 11.5-hour mark, Team MSCC Mazda Miata found itself in 7th place overall, just 21 laps down to the leaders and two laps down from its main rival in the Open A Class.
In the final hour, the team had caught up to the leader and cut down the gap b four seconds. A few laps later, Tyson Sy reeled in the class leader and eventually took the lead. Sy never lost the lead from that point on to take the class win.
Team MSCC Mazda Miata experienced all the highs and lows of endurance racing, all condensed in 12 hours. From the early lead to being 40 laps down, the racer’s mindset and persistence paid off big time in the end.
If there’s one thing about endurance racing, it’s a marathon and not a sprint, something this year’s Open A class champs have demonstrated in dramatic fashion this year.
