TeamWWF Driver Ambassador Nathan Nicholson Falls Short on Final Lap
By Kris Mills, Social Media Coordinator
It was a wild finish, but that has become the norm in Mazda MX-5 Cup racing.
Sixteen drivers competed at Martinsville Speedway on Thursday in a non-points race, with the winner claiming $25,000. The event followed the MX-5 Cup Championship season finale at Road Atlanta in early October.
TeamWWF Driver Ambassador Nathan Nicholson won the pole on Thursday but was moved to last after failing post-qualifying tech. That didn’t stop him from nearly winning the race.
Nicholson got off to a tremendous start, moving from P16 to P5 by the stage break (lap 50). After a red flag, with 27 laps to go, Nicholson was in the lead. He and Westin Workman were able to pull away from the field, but a late-race yellow created a green-white-checkered situation, just like last year.
After finishing runner-up in last year’s race, Workman had learned that re-starting on the inside, behind the leader, was the place to be. He lined up behind Nicholson for the start, with Jeremy Fletcher taking the outside of the front row. Workman was unable to execute a bump-and-run on Nicholson, the way it was used on him last year, and Fletcher could only hang on to the outside for so long before he had to fall in line behind Nicholson.
Coming off the back straight on the final lap, Nicholson went defensive, pulling to the inside, which slowed both his and Fletcher’s corner entry dramatically. The two made side-to-side contact as Workman quickly caught and tagged the rear bumper of Fletcher, who got sideways and nearly put Nicholson in the wall.
Nicholson had to back out of the throttle, and Fletcher and Workman drag raced to the finish line for a photo finish. The timing screens showed that Fletcher was the winner by 0.003 seconds.
