The Milwaukee Region of the Sports Car Club of America has long hosted the Cat National, named after the legend of Brian Redman’s Cat, a feline fan of the legendary British racer’s that lived at Road America. With the transition from Nationals to Majors, the Cat remained, along with Chicago Region’s June Sprints, making the 4.0-mile, 14-turn Wisconsin circuit the only track to host two Majors events in the season.

Temperatures climbed into the 80s with high humidity by Saturday afternoon for the seven race groups, which ran 10-lap races without a single full course caution. But the humidity reached critical mass on Sunday afternoon and the rain came during lunch. It looked as if the racers would get lucky, as it stopped and the track dried before racing resumed, but the rain returned in the afternoon to give the final two groups an extra challenge.

The closest race in the first group was, for a few laps, in Super Touring Lite. Tim Selby had moved his No. 48 Mazda Miata to the rear of the No. 61 Creative Technology, Inc. Mazda RX-7 of Rich Walke. However, Walke stretched his lead back out to more than a second and took the checkered flag. He repeated his victory on Sunday. Daniel Bender was the flag-to-flag leader in Touring 4, fourth overall in the No. 10 Bravo Trailers/BFGoodrich® Tires Mazda MX-5.

The Production class cars, led by Jon Brakke’s No. 89 Margaret Peterson Bars Mazda Miata, worked to the front of the field and steered clear of class competition. The overall win was decided nearly as soon as Brakke took the green flag, as he cruised to a 55-second win over F Production victor Michael Sturm’s No. 48 Sturminator Design/Hoosier Mazda Miata. Sturm was another 8 seconds clear of Dieter Griesinger, running second in FP in the No. 69 Mako Mold Corporation Mazda Miata.

The top four in Spec Miata broke away early, leaving the rest of the field behind and sorting out the podium among themselves. Todd Lamb’s No. 80 Cahall/Driving Coach/Hawk Miata led the way for most of the race, with Voytek Burdzy’s No. 41 Advanced Autosports Miata close behind, and Justin Elder and Tom Brown on the tail end of the line and pushing.

Elder spun on lap nine through Turn 5 with Brown just behind, slowing Brown’s momentum temporarily and leaving Lamb and Burdzy alone on the final lap to settle the win. Lamb led across the stripe, but Burdzy moved into the lead as the pair headed down into Turn 5. Burdzy ran a defensive line through Turn 12 on the final lap, giving Lamb a run, but a local yellow in the final corner helped Burdzy keep Lamb just behind him on the run up to the checkered flag to take the win. Brown held on for third to complete the podium.

Polesitting Michael Mallinen pulled to pit lane on the opening lap in the No. 1 Swan Motorsports Swift 016a/Mazda, opening up the Formula Atlantic battle even more. Richard Zober took advantage in the No. 66 Zober Industries Swift 016a/Mazda, staying just in front of Tyler Hunter for the distance and emerging with a 0.975-second win.

On Sunday, Bender appeared poised to sweep Touring 4 with a second win, keeping his MX-5 ahead of Jim Ebben’s No. 1 Mazda/Hoosier/Lamers Racing Mazda RX-8 in the early stages. Bender spun on lap seven, falling out of the lead, and then pulled out of the race for good on lap 11 to allow Ebben to race to the checkered flag.

Like Saturday, the best cars in E Production and F Production got in front and ran away with victories. The result was weekend sweeps for Brakke’s E Production Miata and Sturm’s F Production Miata.

The Spec Miata race was a two-car battle that took the full 13 laps to sort out. Both Brown and Elder tried to hang with Lamb and Burdzy, but the two frontrunners again found themselves alone by mid race. The two worked in tandem until the start of lap 11, when Burdzy pulled out of line and the pair crossed the start/finish stripe side by side. Burdzy held the lead, with Lamb tucked in close, for laps 11 and 12.

Ripping up the front straight to start the final lap, Burdzy moved inside while Lamb tried to use the fast line to the outside of the right-hand Turn 1. Burdzy held him off there, and again through Turn 5, a traditional passing zone. Lamb held his position until Canada Corner, where he went deep on the brakes and carried a wide line through that tight right hander.  Going through the final corner, Burdzy again took away the inside and forced Lamb to run wide to the outside to set up the final drag race to the checkered flag. Burdzy crossed just a half car length in front of Lamb to take the win. Elder, Brown and Ted Cahall completed the top five.

The skies opened up during the big-bore group in the penultimate race. The good news for the fast formula cars that followed was that they knew they needed to start on wet tires. Dale VandenBush’s No. 12 Lake Effect Motorsports Formula Mazda bested Saturday winner Jason Vinkemulder’s No. 10 Vinkemulder Financial Formula Mazda in their season-long, back-and-forth rivalry.

SCCA Northern Conference Majors Tour

Road America, Elkhart Lake, WIs.

July 26-27, 2014

Round 9 Mazda Winners

Class	Driver	Hometown	Car
E Production	Jon Brakke	Fargo N.D.	Mazda Miata
F Production	Michael Sturm	Grafton Wis.	Mazda Miata
Formula Atlantic	Richard Zober	Corydon Pa.	Swift 016a/Mazda
Formula Mazda	Jason Vinkemulder	Spring Lake Mich.	Formula Mazda
Spec Miata	Voytek Burdzy	Shiller Park Ill.	Mazda Miata
Super Touring Lite	Rich Walke	Hawthorn Woods Ill.	Mazda RX-7
Touring 4	Daniel Bender	Northbrook Ill.	Mazda MX-5

Round 10 Mazda Winners

Class	Driver	Hometown	Car
E Production	Jon Brakke	Fargo N.D.	Mazda Miata
F Production	Michael Sturm	Grafton Wis.	Mazda Miata
Formula Mazda	Dale VandenBush	Green Bay Wis.	Formula Mazda
Spec Miata	Voytek Burdzy	Shiller Park Ill.	Mazda Miata
Super Touring Lite	Rich Walke	Hawthorn Woods Ill.	Mazda RX-7
Touring 4	Jim Ebben	Appleton Wis.	Mazda RX-8