Six Mazda racers among newly minted titlists as SCCA’s conference wraps up its season
The SCCA Western Conference U.S. Majors Tour wrapped up a couple of weeks ago at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Washington, with several Mazda drivers earning conference titles.
Because many of the California drivers didn’t venture that far north, several of the titles were sealed before the final weekend. A few drivers, however, took full advantage of the final weekend, including Washington resident Derrick Ambrose, who raced every Western Conference Majors race in Touring 4 to win that championship.
“This has been a good season working on the development of the SKYACTIV Mazda3,” Ambrose said. “I have had some great race battles all season long with plenty of lessons learned. CorkSport Mazda Performance, Mazda Motorsports and BFGoodrich have been great partners with tech help to get the car to a level that will make it a contender at this year’s SCCA Runoffs. I am looking forward to the Indy Runoffs after last year’s disappointment at Mid-Ohio with some first-lap contact ending the race.”
Canadian Cherie Storms was another driver from the northern part of the Western Conference to earn a title, hers coming in B-Spec.
The rest of the Conference winners came from California. Glen McCready took the E Production title in his TC Design-built NC MX-5. Marc Hoover won Touring 1 in his Miata, and Tristan Littlehale bested the highly competitive Spec Miata field with five wins in 10 starts.
In the formula classes, Brandon Aleckson was the champ in Formula Enterprises, having won every race he started. And in Formula Mazda, Larry Mason eked out a victory over former SCCA National Champion Mike Anderson.
“It was great news to hear that we had clinched the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour Western Conference Championship in Formula Mazda,” said Mason. “We raced against some very tough competitors, which makes this championship feel even better. We had some exciting racing, including starting the year off right with a win at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. My Polar heart rate monitor showed a peak of 170 bpm during that race! We had to rebuild the right front corner of the car after a shunt in the second race of the season and The Fiberglass Body repaired all of our bodywork in record time to get [us] back on track and competitive again right away. Our Auto Diagnostic Services Team LMR Formula Mazda will be going through a thorough inspection and prep before the SCCA [National] Championship Runoffs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September. We’ll face even more tough competitors there, but we’re relishing the challenge to compete with the best!”
The Mid-States, Northern and Northeastern conferences are still in the heart of their competition season, each wrapping up in late July or August.