Consistent top finishes, including two victories, allowed Maxson to take the title in his first season of professional car racing
With a third-place finish in the final TC America round of 2019 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Tyler Maxson claimed the TCA title in his first season of professional racing. Only a week after his 15th birthday, Maxson drove his Copeland Motorsports Mazda MX-5 Cup car to two solid race finishes to come back from a points deficit to take the title.
“We knew it was going to be a challenge,” Maxson said after sealing the championship. “We were 22 points back, and we knew it was going to be a really, really hard and tough challenge to get there. But we knew we had a chance, and we just raced the best we could and all the cards fell in our favor and we were able to walk away with the championship.”
This year was Maxson’s first full season racing cars after a successful career in karting. He scored a podium finish in his debut TCA weekend at Circuit of the Americas, and at Sonoma Raceway in June he took his first professional victory, backing that up with another win the following day. Maxson also competed in select Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich® Tires races, including a top-five finish at Barber Motorsports Park.
Racing against competitors in Mini Coopers, Honda Civics and Subaru BRZs, as well as others in Mazdas, Maxson scored four second-place finishes and five third-place finishes – 11 podiums from 14 races – on his way to the title. The TCA field has consistently been the largest field in TC America this season.
“Oh man, it means the world to me and the team,” Maxson says about the championship. “This just couldn’t be a better year for us here in SRO. We were struggling for a bit during the middle part of the race, but got through it. This is unbelievable – what a race, what a season!”
Maxson collected his championship hardware on Sunday night following the race at SRO’s worldwide prize-giving gala along with the championship drivers from GT series in America, Europe and Asia.