Mazda Racers score championships in five classes in SCCA’s Northeast Conference U.S. Majors Tour

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone that Tyler Kicera won the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour Northeast Conference title in Spec Miata – after all, he’d won it twice already. “I don’t know that anything in racing is expected, to be honest, but I won it the last two years, so I had high hopes that I’d win it again,” Kicera says. “I didn’t do every single event in the Northeast, but I did some of the bigger ones like VIR and Watkins Glen, where it was pretty hotly contested.”

Kicera had won the national points championship in SCCA the last two years, but missed out on the Hoosier Super Tour points because he didn’t do enough of the Super Tour events. “I think I was the highest finishing northeast driver with the least starts. I won both races at VIR against pretty much everybody who’s anybody in Spec Miata. That was a huge accomplishment for me. Not winning the Super Tour this year wasn’t a huge deal. Really, I’m focusing on the Runoffs, and MX-5 Cup for next year.”

Kicera was one of five Mazda drivers in the Northeast Conference to take a championship, and while his wasn’t a surprise, some were – even to the winner. 

“It felt great…I honestly wasn’t keeping track of the points,” says Matthew Gendron, who won the Formula Atlantic title in a Pro Mazda car. “I was just focused on getting to the next race and keeping tires on the car and stuff like that. I happened to be checking out the next race on the SCCA Website and I saw the standings. I honestly had no idea – I wasn’t even following it.”

Gendron obviously wasn’t seeking a title when he bought the Pro Mazda chassis to race in Formula Atlantic, although he does plan on going to the SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this September. He was looking for something that wouldn’t take too much of his time to prep, and Pro Mazda cars are available at a decent price. 

The Miata has proven a very popular car in the Northeast in F Production, so much so that the top nine drivers in the points were all racing Miatas. Charlie Campbell came out on top in his 1993 thanks to six victories. He was on the podium 11 times in 12 Northeast Conference races.

James Ashe won every race he started in his RX-7 to claim the GT-3 title. Alex Scaler only missed the podium once in topping the Formula Enterprise points.

SCCA’s Northern Conference will be next to wrap up its season on Aug. 12-13. The Mid-States Conference follows with its finale a week later.

SCCA Majors Tour
Northeast Conference Champions
Formula Atlantic: Matthew Gendron, Pro Formula Mazda
Formula Enterprise: Alex Scaler
F Production: Charlie Campbell, Miata
GT-3: James Ashe, RX-7
Spec Miata: Tyler Kicera