Guest Stars Run the Gamut of Racing in Mazda MX-5 Cup, NASCAR Trucks and Indy NXT
By John Oreovicz
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Racing championships from around the world annually celebrate when their full-time drivers compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
This year’s Rolex 24 field featured 10 active IndyCar drivers, including current champion Alex Palou and legendary veterans Scott Dixon and Will Power.
So maybe it’s appropriate that IndyCar’s season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend featured a distinct IMSA flavor, thanks to the presence of several notable sports car luminaries across multiple series.
In short, it was a big weekend for the sports car set. They acquitted themselves very well and had a great time in the process.
Bamber Bests Bourdais as Pair of MX-5 Cup Guest Stars
The Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Michelin field included Earl Bamber, whose day job is to drive the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class of the WeatherTech Championship – about as different in concept and execution as two racing cars can be.
Another notable name in the MX-5 doubleheader was Sebastien Bourdais, a four-time IndyCar champion and longtime IMSA competitor who raced the season-opening Rolex 24 with Tower Motorsports in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2).
Bamber, whose first taste of MX-5 Cup competition came in the unlikely setting of the Martinsville Speedway oval last year (left), notched eighth- and fourth place finishes out of 40 starters at St. Petersburg in his No. 21 Hendricks Motorsports entry. Bourdais, racing primarily for charity, posted a best result of ninth Sunday in his No. 38 McCumbee McAleer Racing car.
MX-5 Cup’s schedule fluctuated from practice and qualifying Friday to its first race Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. with its second race late Sunday afternoon to wrap up weekend activity. The jumbled schedule and unorthodox hours were somewhat reminiscent of sports car competition for Bamber.
“It’s great,” he enthused. “I woke up at 5 a.m. and I was at the track at the crack of dawn. The sun wasn’t even up. It’s a little bit like Daytona or Le Mans.
“I like doing these MX-5 races just because it’s really cool,” he added. “The racing is great. That close-quarter stuff is amazing. These cars are such a challenge – we watch them from trackside all the time in IMSA, and you can see how crazy the racing is. But it’s so competitive as well. The cars are so nimble and racy and it’s a hell of a time.”
Braun Back to Top-10 in NASCAR Trucks Return
For the first time, the St. Pete card included the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship – in fact, it was the first ever street race for the NASCAR Trucks.
The Truck field included another IMSA GTP regular – Colin Braun, co-driver of the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06.
Braun boasts three full-season IMSA championships and three Rolex 24 wins, including one overall in 2023, but is no stranger to NASCAR Trucks. He earned more than 20 top 10 finishes in the NASCAR ladder series including a win at Michigan International Speedway in 2009 before switching his primary focus back to sports cars.
As part of Kaulig Racing’s rotating No. 25 “All Star” Truck, Braun finished ninth at St. Petersburg, matching his last Truck Series top 10 result – also at Michigan in 2011.
The RAM Truck was night-and-day different to the exotic Acura ARX-06 that Braun pilots in the WeatherTech Championship, but he thoroughly enjoyed his return to the stock car ranks.
“In the end, pretty happy to get a top 10 considering we started 16th with little or no practice,” Braun said. “We got our Kaulig RAM better at every stage stop and I’m happy to come away with a decent finish. I learned a bit every run and from my perspective it was a pretty exciting race.”
Braun had past experience at St. Petersburg but not in a sports car. He made his only IndyCar career start there in 2024 in a race that also featured his eventual IMSA GTP co-driver Tom Blomqvist.
“It’s definitely a fun layout and a bit more open than the street courses we are used to on the IMSA side (Long Beach and Detroit), so it fitted the bigger Trucks a little bit better,” he explained.
The field also included IndyCar legend Dario Franchitti, who earned significant sports car victories in the Rolex 24 (2008) and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (2007) and raced the St. Petersburg race for his first NASCAR Truck start since his only prior start in 2007 at Martinsville Speedway. James Hinchcliffe, IndyCar race winner, occasional IMSA competitor with Pfaff Motorsports and television commentator who’s called IMSA races before with NBC Sports, made his series debut too.
Hinchcliffe rallied from being bumped off track by Franchitti to finish 10th, while Franchitti lost a certain top 10 finish when he dropped a lap following a pit stop to investigate suspension damage to conclude his popular one-off return to professional racing.
Layne Riggs, who won the race, honored past IMSA champion and Gradient Racing’s Joey Hand whose help proved instrumental in his victory.
“The first thing I’m gonna say, thank you to Joey Hand,” Riggs said. “I know he’s watching at home (he was on standby at Circuit of The Americas in a reserve driver role). He’s a big road course guy. He’s the man. He helped me so much.
“We’ve been working on this racetrack in the simulator at Ford Racing since December. I really, really wanted to get my first win on a road course. The short track guy from Bahama, North Carolina, won at St. Pete. Can you believe it?”
RLL Team McLaren’s Nikita Johnson Captures Indy NXT Win
On top of all that, 17-year-old Nikita Johnson – who is embarking on an ambitious season that combines full-time rides in Indy NXT and the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class of the WeatherTech Championship in the No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for Bobby Rahal’s RLL Team McLaren – won the Indy NXT support race in what is effectively his hometown.
St. Pete area native Johnson competed in three international open-wheel championships in 2025 and last October, he signed with Cape Motorsports powered by ECR for a full season of Indy NXT. Then came another offer he couldn’t turn down – to join 23-year-old Max Esterson, another American road racing prospect – as full-time drivers for RLL Team McLaren’s transition into GTD PRO.
It all adds up to a busy 2026 for Johnson, who will turn 18 on May 25. But he’s definitely not complaining – especially after starting his full-time Indy NXT career with a flag-to-flag victory.
“It’s going to be hard to manage, but thankfully I have my dad and Michael Moroney – that’s my agent,” said Johnson, who commuted to and from the downtown St. Petersburg track from his home in Gulfport.
“Those two help do my schedule and all that and get me to places, so all I have to worry about is driving. But, yeah, to be at this point in INDY NXT and a McLaren driver in IMSA is pretty surreal. The McLaren No. 59 deal came two weeks right before Daytona, so we hopped in the car there and did well.
“Racing both of them is going to be quite a lot, but I’m up for it. I love switching cars and gaining more experience.”
Johnson has now won three times on the St. Petersburg street course in IndyCar support races over the years. He said he thrives on low-grip surfaces and is therefore no doubt looking forward to his next outing in the RLL Team McLaren car at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. The McLaren qualified an impressive second at Daytona in GTD PRO in the hands of Johnson’s co-driver Dean MacDonald.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “Sebring is one of my favorite tracks, and I’m very encouraged about how the program started at Daytona.”
Photo Credits:
Mazda MX-5 Cup at St. Petersburg and Bamber at Martinsville by Mazda MX-5 Cup
Braun Truck at St. Petersburg by David Jensen/Getty Images/NASCAR
Johnson Win at St. Petersburg by James Black/Penske Entertainment/IndyCar