The SCCA Finger Lakes Tour was held this past weekend in Romulus, NY. Surrounded by beautiful lakes and wineries, this was a vacation destination in addition to a race weekend for many. The weather was perfect to top it off.
On to the results, in CS we saw a commanding win from DJ Alessandrini in his 2017 Mazda Miata. Rounding out the trophy positions were Dennis Barrett in 2nd (ND Miata), Win-Hou Chow in 3rd (NC Miata), and Devin McCuen in 4th (ND Miata).
In Street Touring Roadster, we watched a shakeup of results across the two-day competition that kept everyone on the edge of their seat. On day 1, Mark Shrivastava set a blistering pace and was one of only two drivers to dip into the 59 second range in his ND Miata, getting a 59.151. This put him at a 4 tenths lead over Mark Dudek, also driving an ND Miata, with another 4 tenths back to the final podium position, Will Koscielny. On Day 2 of the tour, Shrivastava struggled with cones. Despite having the raw time with cones, when he cleaned it up on his 3rd run it wasn’t fast enough, and Mark Dudek jumped to the win with the fastest time of the day in STR.
Another fun class to watch was Street Touring Sport, which ended up with three Mazda drivers in the trophies, including Rich DiMarco, who took the overall win in his 1990 Mazda Miata. Congratulations also to Michael Shea on his 3rd place finish (1990 Miata), and Shaun Hallam for 5th and final trophy position (1990 Miata).
In B-Street Prepared, Mazdaspeed Miatas dominated the top of the results. Congrats to champion Ken Houseal for taking the win in this class, followed closely by Buckie Maxey in 2nd, with codriver Justin Mitchell rounding out the podium.
D-Street Prepared was one of the closest fought battles of the weekend. Day 1 Sam Strano in a BMW 330Ci took the lead by just .007 over his codriver, but Mazda RX8 driver Tamra Hunt was only 2 tenths of a second back to round out the podium. Day 2, Tamra set the fastest time of the day, including for the event overall (on index), but ended up just short of taking the combined win, and would have to settle for 2nd place. These two drivers would end up 1st and 2nd on overall index with one of the closest margins of the weekend, showing just what a great battle it was.
In E-Street Prepared we saw a new face at the top. Big congrats to Clint Griest in a 2006 Mazda Speed 6 on what we hear was his first Championship Tour win (of many more to come we are sure). Despite having to rebuild the engine in the past two weeks, he and codriver Johanna Foege (4th in class) persevered to make it to the Finger Lakes Tour, and it obviously paid off.
In Super Street Modified we see a common name on top, but this time he was not piloting a Mazda Miata. Congrats to Randal Wilcox on the win, followed closely by Jake Namer in his 1993 Mazda RX7 flame shooter in 2nd place. Also a special shout out to Ryan Field who placed in the 4th and final trophy position with his brand new SSM built 1996 Mazda Miata. He will be one to watch, and his fellow competitors would agree after setting the fastest raw time of the class on day 1.
Mazda congratulates all drivers and especially those in Mazdas at the Finger Lakes Tour. Mazda Motorsports continues to support it racers through the Mazda Team Support Program offerings, including: contingency awards, technical support, parts support, and more.