BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 12, 2025) – Tyler Gonzalez (No. 57 BSI Racing) survived two late-race caution periods to win his fifth Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin race of the season. It was yet another Mazda MX-5 Cup close finish as Gonzalez beat his BSI Racing teammate Helio Meza (No. 27 BSI Racing) to the finish line at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) by just 0.222-second.
Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup races at CTMP often play out like the season opener at Daytona International Speedway; a train of a dozen or more cars glued together and drafting past each other every single lap. Saturday’s 45-minute race at CTMP was no anomaly, with the top 15 cars nose-to-tail with multiple lead changes.
The first half of the race featured a pair of BSI Racing drivers, a pair of McCumbee McAleer Racing drivers and a lone wolf Advanced Autosports driver.
Meza and Gonzalez worked well together to hold off polesitter Nate Cicero (No. 83 McCumbee McAleer Racing) and Jeremy Fletcher (No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing). Current championship leader Nathan Nicholson (No. 56 Advanced Autosports) made sure he was in the mix as well.
The race ran caution-free until lap 16, when Justin Adakonis (No. 23 McCumbee McAleer Racing) pulled off track with a mechanical issue at Turn Seven. This was a double-blow to McCumbee McAleer Racing, since Fletcher had pulled into pit lane earlier with a mechanical issue and went several laps down.
Two-time Mazda MX-5 Cup champion Jared Thomas was due to start from pole, but his car did not pass post-race tech and he started the race from the back of the grid. By the time the first full-course caution came out, Thomas was up to fourth.
Green flag racing resumed, but the field didn’t make a complete lap before the safety car was deployed again for Steve Weber (No. 68 JTR Motorsports Engineering), who contacted the tires in Turn Three.
When the green flag was back out, there were less than three minutes left on the clock, enough time for a green-white-checkered finish.
At the drop of the green flag, Gonzalez led the field with Meza playing tail gunner. The teammates managed to pull the slightest of gaps on the field as Thomas was fighting with Nicholson and Gresham Wagner (No. 81 RAFA Racing Team by MMR) for the final podium spot.
Meza, a rookie in search of his first Mazda MX-5 Cup race win, took a look at passing Gonzalez in the final turn complex, but thought better of it and followed his teammate across the finish line.
“I started up front for once (outside of row two), which is kind of an anomaly for me, and I was able to keep it clean,” Gonzalez said. “I started working with Helio really well, but made a mistake that was completely my doing, just kind of drove it off, but stayed calm. It was a long race and I worked my way back up. Helio and I got hooked back up together and we were able to check out for a little bit.
“I just figured he [Meza] was going to try and set it up for the last corner, which is what happened,” Gonzalez added. “I defended a little bit, not as much as I would have if it was somebody else, but at the same time, honestly, you know, I was super happy for either one of us to get the win for BSI. I can't thank BSI enough.”
As much as Meza wanted to score his first race win, he didn’t want to spoil a one-two finish for his team.
“With these races, you never know what's going to happen,” Meza said. Everyone can go into it saying ‘okay, we're going to take it easy the first half,’ but you don't really know what everyone's going to do and you're kind of playing offensive and defensive as things go on. I saw that everyone was pretty restless at the beginning, and I didn't want to be too nice and lose all that track position at the beginning, so I just tried my best to stay up there. Then, obviously I kind of got into rhythm there with Tyler [Gonzalez] when the first yellow came out and just kind of stayed there the rest of the race.
“We knew we were going to work with each other, so that just gives you that little bit of extra comfort knowing that you can trust the guy you’re racing with. I was trying to find a certain part of the race where I could get around them without losing too much time, but on the last lap, I didn't want to pop out on the straight, because then we just get sucked back in by the group behind. I was wishing maybe in the last corner I could send it, but just really didn't have enough for Tyler there. But still, super happy in the end to come up with a one-two. Three BSI cars were at the front there for a little bit. So that was cool, and hopefully tomorrow we can get Weston [Workman] up here with us.”
Defending series champion Wagner started from seventh on the grid and had his hands full trying to make up positions.
“Just hanging on would be the best way to describe it,” Wagner said. “It wasn't smooth sailing. I wasn't very comfortable. It helped having the yellows as a reset to get back any of the ground given up and kind of, think about how you might attack it again differently. But the marbles were so bad out there that the pickup was really, really hurting everybody on the restarts.”
Wagner has missed four races this season, and is not in the hunt for the championship, so his sights are set on helping out his team and having fun.
“I’m just on a race-by-race basis, trying to help out,” Wagner said. “We're taking advantage of the opportunity RAFA Racing gave me to get in the car. I'd love to win and to still get back out there and race for podiums, but I'd say it's more just for fun than anything for me at this point.”
Nicholson maintained his points lead with a fourth-place finish and reigning Rookie of the Year Westin Workman (No. 13 BSI Racing) completed the top five.
The late-race yellows also produced a great battle for the highest-finishing female award. Sally Mott (No. 15 JTR Motorsports Engineering) and Ashlyn Speed (No. 31 Hendricks Motorsports) went back and forth all the way to the checkered flag, where Speed crossed the line 0.19-second ahead of Mott.
“On the restart, I got in front of Sally [Mott] in the first two turns, but then we had another caution,” said Speed, a recipient of the Mazda Women in Motorsport Initiative Scholarship. “After that we had one lap to go and she passed me on the back straight. I made a little hiccup, but I stuck with it, and I had Jeremy [Fletcher’s] help as well. We freight-trained her basically down the back straight, but then she got back around me, so I made her go out wide on the exit of nine, and then over-undered her. I slowed down a little bit and just went on the inside of her and down-shifted and got her.
“I was screaming in my helmet and I got too excited and I forgot to shift up into third and I was red-lining across the finish line, and beat her by 0.19!”
It is Speed’s second Top Finishing Female Award of the season.
Sunday’s Round 10 race at CTMP will go green at 10:05am ET with live streaming available on the RACER and IMSA YouTube channels.