Redemption: Mezzanine Motorsports Takes a Double Win in New Jersey

New Jersey Motorsports Park was a gracious host to the United States Touring Car Championship competitors this past Memorial Day weekend. Sunny skies and excellent racing weather was the setting for nearly the entire weekend sans a few drops of rain on Sunday during the feature race.

The weekend would prove to be a successful one for Pittsburgh, PA based team Mezzanine Motorsports for the second running of their new Porsche Cayman S in ST class.

After the unfortunate incident at Summit Point during the feature race in Round 1 of the series, the team was looking to bounce back to claim much needed points in the hunt to chase down closest competitor Andrew Conner in the OnQ Racing BMW 325i


Qualifying

A clean qualifying session provided a shake down for not only the newly rebuilt Porsche but also first time competitor in Sportsman Martin Szwarc in his first time build Civic Si. Other than a splitter, there were no other casualties in a clean qualifying session. The Mezzanine car would hold up for P1 in Super Touring to lead into the Saturday race later in the day.


Saturday Race

Green flag on Saturday would show all competitors in Group 5 Big Bore off to a clean start with the Mezzanine Motorsports car off to an early lead with a 3 wide run down into Turn 1 at the 1.9 mile Lightning Circuit.

However the 66 of Andrew Conner would reduce the gap to the Cayman lap after lap. By lap 12 the gap was within 1 second to driver Coyote Black. No longer able to stay in maintenance mode the pace was picked up to maintain the lead in one of the closest ST finishes thus far in the 2023 season.

Sportsman Class would have the Martin Szwarc Civic Si car in P1 uncontested when the day concluded, as competitor Roger Maeda was unable to start in his Honda Prelude.


Sunday Feature Race

Sunday would thankfully have the Prelude of Maeda back in the action as the day kicked off. The Mezzanine car again was off to an early lead. As a few rain drops fell over the track all drivers showed respect, caution and discretion to provide a green to checker clean race. The number 13 car was able to maintain a comfortable lead and manage fuel and tires to take home the second win of the weekend over On Q Racing. Szwarc was able to take home another P1 in the debut race when Maeda had a mechanical issue leading to a second place finish.

All of the competitors will head home to repair and rest before the next round of action back at Summit Point WV in July!