Road Atlanta Miata Heritage Cup

The second round of six-race championship draws racers of first-generation Spec Miatas

After testing the waters at Mid-Ohio last year, Marc Cefalo just wrapped up his second SportsCar Vintage Racing Association event of the season at Road Atlanta, and it has him excited to do more. “It gives the old cars a new lease on life,” says Cefalo, who not only won both races at Road Atlanta this past weekend, but also both at Roebling Road earlier in the year. “The entry fees are very reasonable, the contingency is nice, and it’s a nice avenue for people that want to keep their cars clean but still want to race.”

The Road Atlanta event over Easter weekend was run as a Thursday-Friday-Saturday event, with the Mazda Miata Heritage Cup having races on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Cefalo says crowds rolled in on Sunday to see the vintage cars and the Trans Am series, which also joined SVRA for the weekend.

Both of the Georgia events had roughly 20 Spec Miata entries, but Cefalo says he expects the other Eastern and Midwest events at Road America, Mid-Ohio and VIRginia International Raceway to draw bigger fields, especially as word continues to get out about how fun and reasonable the SVRA events are. “Registration is a breeze. Everyone takes their job seriously and says thank you,” Cefalo notes. “Tech is straightforward. They do look at all the right pieces to make sure people show up with safe, clean cars. The schedule is pretty easy with lots of sessions. One thing I really like is if there is not an official test session before the event, the first session is a true practice, so you don’t have people going out and trying to set a time from the start.”

In addition to the three remaining races in Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia, SVRA will run the Mazda Miata Heritage Cup at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on April 27-29. This will be the only West Coast event, thus it will be the only opportunity for owners of first-generation Spec Miatas in that area to experience running with SVRA. For more information or registration, see ww.svra.com.