Matthew Reynolds (shown at the 2014 Runoffs) won the Mid-States Conference Majors Championship in E Production.

Reynolds Named President’s Cup Finalist

E Production National Champion Matt Reynolds is one of four nominated for the highest award in SCCA Club Racing.

Four SCCA road racing superstars have been named finalists for the 2014 President’s Cup, presented annually to the driver demonstrating ability, competitiveness and success at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs. One of those is Mazda racer Matt Reynolds.

At the 2014 Runoffs at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Reynolds, of Boerne, Texas, absolutely dominated a competitive E Production field for his first National Championship in the No. 71 Reynolds Brother’s Racing/Jesse Prather Motorsports/Vintage Connection Mazda Miata. Reynolds earned the SCCA Super Sweep award with his 20.276-second victory.

He is one of four racers, along with Lawrence Loshak, Andrew Longe and Cliff White, hoping to hear his name announced at the final banquet at the 2015 SCCA National Convention, where the 2015 class of the SCCA Hall of Fame will also be inducted. The President’s cup was originally presented by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, and has gone to racing legends Roger Penske, Skip Barber, Bobby Rahal, Jim Hall, Paul Newman and more.

“The President’s Cup winners contain some of the all-time greats in motorsports history, so Andrew, Lawrence, Matt and Cliff deserve a hearty congratulations just for the nomination on the heels of their National Championships,” says Lisa Noble, SCCA President & CEO. “This year we get to recognize a larger class of future SCCA legends at the same time as our current class of Hall of Famers, and that attention is absolutely warranted.”

Reynolds says he is grateful to be among the nominees and would be thrilled to win.

“I feel very honored to be a finalist for the President’s Cup,” Reynolds says. “It is the most prestigious award in amateur road racing and you can tell by looking at the previous recipients of this award. The list is littered with famous names such as Penske, Barber, Rahal, Newman, etc.

“There are a couple other names that really pop out at me,” he continues. “Jim Hall was a fellow Texan, and I recently came across a picture of him and my father from years ago at a race in Dallas. I would love for my Dad to be able to take another picture with a President’s Cup recipient from Texas! The other name that pops out is Anatoly Arutunoff. This man is from Bartlesville, Okla., which is where my father was from as well. He previously owned Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma, which incidentally is my home track, so there is a bit of a connection there. Of course, the list of winners over the past 8-10 years is basically a ‘Who’s Who’ within the SCCA and their respective classes. I would be ecstatic to win this award, not only for me, but my team and all of those that have put forth such a strong effort to put our team in a position to win championships and consideration for this award.”

The SCCA National Convention will be held in conjunction with the North American MotorSports Expo on Feb. 20-21.