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REVIEWED: Skip Barber MX-5 Cup Racing Series
Written by: Michael Skeen   
04/10/2008
Monterey, CA
 
Fans of the show SETUP will recognize Skeen's familiar face. Like SETUP, Skeen quickly adapted to a new car and found success immediately. » More Photos


When the Skip Barber school rang to invite us to sample their new Mazda MX-5 Cup Racing Series, we knew we had to find a young star in the making to sample the series and report back for us. Enter one of the stars of SPEED's show SETUP, Mike Skeen. Skeen, a standout in the NASA Spec BMW E30 series and burgeoning KONI Challenge racer, gladly hopped on a flight from North Carolina to the picturesque Laguna Seca track in Monterey, California, and found quick cars, stiff competition, and a highly memorable experience to recount for us.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 10 pm ET for the season finale of SETUP and find out how Skeen fared. Did he win it all? The whole world will know in just a few hours time...

Some of you may know me from the current season of SPEED’s hit show Setup where I was fortunate enough to represent Pontiac, Geico, Stanley, and many other companies that offered the opportunity for me and 23 other amateur drivers to get some great exposure and experience. This exposure put me in the position to visit Laguna Seca to represent SPEEDtv.com and report on the brand new Skip Barber MX-5 Series. Unfortunately, I had to miss an event I had planned to run in my SpecE30 with NASA Southeast, but I guess it’s time to let somebody else win a couple races anyways!

As soon as I heard about the opportunity, I was all over it! First stop was Trackpedia.com to get local information about where to stay and go. Of course, lots of time was spent on the site analyzing videos, track data, write-ups, and information on the track to get a head start on the weekend.

I arrived in San Jose on Thursday afternoon to pick up the requisite cheap-as-possible compact rental car that would get me around for the weekend. Happy to see a handbrake on the center console, I knew this will be a good weekend. Fortunately, there was no rush to get to the track, so I had time to explore the area a bit and settle in before heading to the track Friday morning.

The schedule for the day included two practice sessions for each of the five race groups—three groups for the formula cars and two for the MX-5s. I was in the fifth group, so I would be there until the end of the day. Before all that, participants took turns doing “Van Arounds” with the Skip Barber instructors getting valuable information about the track and helping the learning curve immensely.
Skip Barber's fleet of identical Mazda MX-5 racers provide a perfect blend of speed and close competition. » More Photos

After the track orientation and driver’s meetings, I spent time hanging out with new and old friends, fans of the show, and anyone else that wanted to talk racing. I was happy to see a fellow KONI Challenge driver, Dion Von Moltke of APR Motorsport, and to have time to chat with him and his family between sessions. Unfortunately, we were not in the same race group so we wouldn’t have a chance to drive against each other, but we did share a practice session in the afternoon in which we were both under the lap record and just a couple hundredths of a second
apart—a good way to end the day and head into the race weekend!

Unlike most track days at home, Saturday morning dawned before I had to leave the hotel room. Following a relaxed breakfast and trip to the track, I was happy to see that Northern California served up some great weather yet again. After greeting new friends at the driver’s meeting, it was time for the qualifying sessions to begin. Each of the five groups would get an 18 minute session to set the single fastest lap possible in order to establish the grid order. My session felt decent, but I knew I hadn’t set any personal best times. Though the time was off by about 7 tenths, it was still good enough to set pole position in my run group by a comfortable margin.

Since our group was last in the rotation, formula cars started to hit the track for their races just as we came off. James Hunt, a friend of mine from Setup, decided to come up and hang out, so we hit up the Cruisin’ Café for lunch and ventured around the track to watch the other race groups from different vantage points. The scenery at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is amazing on its own, but watching the Skip Barber cars carving up the hills is even better.
Put Skeen behind the wheel of a race car, and this is usually the result. » More Photos

Unfortunately, in the third race group (the other MX-5 group), the #05 Trackpedia.com MX-5 that I had been running was wrecked in Turn Four, leaving it unavailable for my race at the end of the day. Luckily, the Skip Barber crew was quick to provide another car, help me transfer my camera equipment, and shorten the harnesses to a proper fit.

With the rush to get everything ready at the last minute, there wasn’t much time to “get in the zone,” but as I hit the track everything fell into place. The car felt great on the warm up laps and I was ready to grid up and see the green flag. The start was tight and the pressure behind was constant throughout the first lap, but this changed quickly on the second trip through Turn Four. As I came out of the corner, I looked up in the mirror to see the second place car drop a wheel on exit, begin a tank slapper, and take out the third place car. This left me a small margin, but my consistent times grew the gap to a 16+ second win.

I’d be remiss if I traveled all the way across the country without visiting the coast, so James and I decided to head for Monterey for the evening. After sampling the local cuisine on the wharf, we retired to the hotel early to watch some video from the day and keel over.

Check back on Monday for part 2 of Mike Skeen’s Skip Barber Mazda MX-5 Cup Racing Series report.

Be sure to visit www.SkipBarber.com to learn more about the school and racing opportunities available at tracks throughout the country.

Also take time to stop by www.MikeSkeen.com to learn more about this young American driver with an incredibly bright future.
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