Spec Miata
The fifth race weekend of this year’s 2025 took place on the south track, three weeks before the Festival of Speed. Spec Miata drivers looked to get a positive result this race, as points leader Brandon Collins would not be here this weekend. The top four drivers in qualifying were just under two tenths off of each other, with Taro Kushida securing pole position, setting a time of 1:38:235. Just over a tenth off polesitter, Kushida would be second place starter, Matt Alexander. Not far behind in row two were the “young guns” of Autobahn’s Spec Miata class of third place in both points and qualifying entering this race, Gavin Glietsman and the #33 of Samuel Bowman starting fourth.
16 drivers would eagerly take the green flag for this 22 lap race, as the “two Scotts” as said by Jordan Missig during our YouTube livestream, of Scott Ballard and Scott Bowman took it four wide entering turn 1. Kushida held the lead completing lap one, with Gleitsman, Alexander, and Samuel Bowman following close behind. Entering lap 4, Scott Bowman made the pass for ninth on Dave Hicks, this would lead to Greg Sorg attempting a pass on Hicks, at turn 8, which lead to contact between both of them, causing Sorg to drive into the grass with Scott Ballard doing the same to avoid the spinning Hicks. Jackson Wolny got slight damage on his left rear, but was able to keep from spinning. Kevin Laughridge was not so lucky, being unable to avoid the aforementioned Hicks, thus putting out a full course yellow before the start of the fifth lap. After the pace car pulled in, so too did second place Gavin Gleitsman, owing to having run over debris and getting a left front puncture. Also entering the pits at the race’s restart was the other driver involved in the lap 4 wreck, of Jackson Wolny. Both of their races would come to an end, leaving us with a quarter of the grid out after 6 laps. Samuel Bowman whilst trying to regain third place back from Jake Malter got loose trying to out brake Malter at turn 11,
causing him to go off track, taking Ethan Tyler along with him. Because of this, both Tyler, and Samuel Bowman would have to drive their way back up the field for any hope of a good result. Top three drivers of Kushida, Alexander, and Malter pulled away from the field come the races halfway point. In the midfield, Greg Sorg went too deep into turn 11, shortly after getting overtaken by Samuel Bowman for eighth, which caused him to get overtaken by Ethan Tyler as well for ninth and later on lap 13, both Bowman and Tyler would overtake Scott Ballard for seventh. Later on lap 17, Ethan Tyler would make his way past Samuel Bowman, 11 laps after their incident. This led to both of them working together to try and catch up to sixth place Mike Ryan before the end of the race.
The top three drivers, while “under a blanket” would not change positions and Taro Kushida held on to win Race 5 with Matt Alexander and Jake Malter rounding out the podium as our podium finishers finished just over a second (1.001) within each other. Biggest mover of the race, Scott Bowman held off Josh Dale to finish fourth, eight positions higher than where he started. Mike Ryan got his elbows out, holding off the charging duo of Ethan Tyler and Samuel Bowman, who we could only imagine was disappointed to miss out on a chance to fight for a potential podium and maybe a win. Scott Ballard cruised home to ninth, as Greg Sorg rounded out the top 10 finishers. Art Zeismer held off Tom Bagley to finish 11th as they rounded out the finishing drivers. Jackson Wolney and Gavin Gleitsman both pulled in after the sixth lap, with Gleitsman having lost the most positions from where he started because of that race-ending puncture that took him out. Kevin Laughridge and Dave Hicks would round out the field in 15th and 16th respectively owing to their lap 4 incident.
SM2 had more drivers at 25 than they had laps at 22 for 2025’s fifth SM2 race of this year. Just four drivers set a lap time below the 1:40 mark, with Conor Ryan setting a blistering 1:39:257. Despite going quickest in qualifying, Conor Ryan would start the race in the back of the field, thanks to contact from the last race. Just over half a second (0.501) behind in qualifying is polesitter Sean Benet, who would start alongside triple crown winner, Bob Reisinger. Eamon Ryan would start alongside Lee Werner in row two, with Eli Dysart in fifth after not only a clutch issue, that was fixed thanks to Advanced Autosport, but also a two place grid drop and being a miniscule .001 slower than second place starter, Bob Reisinger in qualifying.
The green flag went out and right away there was action up and down the field. 16th place starter Joe Miklos had to drive onto the grass with his left side tires to avoid getting doored entering turn 1. Three wide action ensued in the midfield while Bob Reisinger pulled off an amazing late braking to take the lead around the outside of polesitter Sean Benet, as polesitter Benet would also get moved down to fourth as Eli Dysart and Lee Werner moved up to second and third respectively by the end of lap 1. Jeff Neumann spun out at turn 7 while running inside the top 10, going off into the dandelions before rejoining. Up ahead, Sean Benet got past Lee Werner for third before the end of the second lap. Bill Hamel had a car issue that would take him out of the race, with an incident on lap 2, with his left rear tire coming off in the process. The yellow flag was called because of this, before leaders reached the line to complete this race’s fourth lap. The pace car came back into the pits for the field to take the green on lap eight, while Jason Greenwood served a stop go penalty for passing under yellow flag conditions. Eamon Ryan, gained two spots on lap eight with his brother Conor Ryan already up into the top 10 before halfway, went from tenth to eight, one lap later getting ahead of both Noel Sacks and Mark Stadalsky. Louis Schreiber, making his first start in SM2, would get loose from fifth and fall down to ninth after going off at turn 6. A few seconds later, Sean Benet locked up trying to make a move on Bob Reisinger on the backstretch, causing him to fall to fourth. Eli Dysart held onto the race lead driving into the second half of the race, with Bob Reisinger in second, Lee Werner in third and Sean Bene’t in fourth close behind. 5th, 6th, and 7th was an all Ryan affair, with Eamon, Conor, and Emmet not far behind the top 4, with Conor already up 19 positions from where he started. In the middle of the pack, Norm Malter went off at turn 6 and into the wall, which thankfully, gave Norm little to no damage. Not even a lap later, Mark Stadalsky spun out of a top 10 at turn 4, which may or may not have been caused by a potential self admitted “commentators curse” as Jordan Missig had brought up Stadalsky a few seconds before the spin. With nine laps to go, the top five was separated by 1.2 seconds, with last place starter, Conor Ryan turning it into a six car battle before the end of lap 14. Sean Bene’t seemingly gave up fourth and fifth place to Eamon and Conor Ryan, as the heat may have started getting to the polesitter. Eamon Ryan whilst trying to pass Lee Werner on lap 16 at turn 12 got loose and just held onto it, thus causing both him and Conor Ryan to lose valuable time to third place Werner. This opened up the door to Sean Benet, who almost got around the Ryan brothers. This came to no avail, with Benet continuing to push hard. This would turn out to be too hard of a push from Benet, as one lap later at turn 6, the polesitter let the heat get to him, getting loose and dropping down to eighth when he got back onto the track. With Benet out of the picture, the Ryan brothers set sail in pursuing Lee Werner, while second place Reisinger, attempted to chase down Eli Dysart.
Being the “smoothest through the corners” as noted by commentator, Dennis Michaelsson helped Eli Dysart hold on to win race 5 for this year’s SM2 championship over second place Bob Reisinger. Lee Werner, despite nearly going off at turn 4 on the last lap, causing Conor Ryan to get ahead of him until Werner took inspiration from Reisinger’s lap 1 overtake for the lead and pulled off some late braking on the hard charger of the race, Conor Ryan giving him the final spot on the podium, holding off both Ryan brothers of Conor and Eamon Ryan. Special shoutout to Conor Ryan for gaining 21 places throughout this 22 lap event, being our biggest mover of the race. Emmet Ryan would finish in sixth, holding off impressive debutant, Louis Schreiber. It was a day to forget for polesitter Sean Benet, coming home in a disappointing eighth. Bruce Malter just about held off Noel Saks, as both of them rounded out the top 10 finishers. Joe Miklos held on to 11th, whilst holding off a charging 12th place Thomas Greenwood and lap 2 spinner, 13th place Jeff Neumann. David Martinelli cruised it home in 14th, with Mark Stadalsky rounding out the top 15 finishers. The Lahmanns of Donovan and Nolan finished 16th and 17th respectively, with Gary Traverso holding onto 18th from a menacing 19th place Tim Milne. 20th place Brad Jones and 21st place Randy Cochran rounded out the finishing drivers. Andre Van Vuren pulled in with 5 laps to go to a 22nd place finish, with Norm Malter having pulled in with 8 laps to go, two laps after his lap 12 incident. Jason Greenwood pulled in before halfway, 12 laps down in 24th and Bill Hamel could only go 2 laps before his left rear separated from his car, giving him a 25th and last place finish.
Next time we’ll see spec miata racing will be our annual Festival of Speed, which will take place July 19th on the full track. This will start a stretch of three rounds in four weekends, with the North double on July 27th followed by a North race on August 10th!
GT Challenge
The fourth race of this season’s GT series took place on the south circuit. With temperatures higher than both Miata races the day before, it was decided to scale the race down from 22 laps to 18 laps. Tom Herb would start from pole, not only overall but in GT1, with GT2’s fastest qualifier, David Calzada starting alongside in second. In third overall and second in GT1 would be Dan Gove, with fourth overall and second in GT2 Ernestas Puzelis starting alongside in row two. GT3’s fastest qualifier Valdas Guarylius started in fifth and John Rante in his new Ferrari 458 challenge starting sixth overall and third in GT1. Bob Noorian started a row behind GT3 polesitter Guarylius, with GT4’s fastest qualifier Sean Venckevicius alongside in eighth. Scott Benning Sr. rolled off ninth overall and second in GT4 with third in GT3, Thomas Prokop alongside in 10th. Row six would serve as GT5’s two fastest drivers, Mike Keck and 12th place Andrew Talandzevicius. Late entries of GT2 driver Mark Boden and Brian Helmintoler in GT5 rounded out a 16 car field, which turned into a 15 car field because of 7th place overall and 2nd place GT3 qualifier Bob Noorian was unable to leave pit road with mechanical issues, thus leaving GT3’s battle between Guarylius and Prokop.
As the field went green, drivers made moves at the start before going single file. This single file action would not last long, as drivers such as Sean Venckevicius went up against his fellow BMW driver and GT4 rival, Scott Bening Sr., giving us action similar to what is seen over in Deutschland Touring Masters. Three laps in, GT2 leader David Calzada started having mechanical issues, eventually letting everyone through after a couple of laps, retiring just a third into the race after six laps, leaving hard-charging Mark Boden and Ernestas Puzelis to battle it out for GT2 victory. Mike Keck was holding off Andrew Talandzevicius, who not only had a straight line advantage but also had more grip around the corners as both of them battled it out for GT5 glory. As Tom Herb reached halfway, other drivers had already been feeling the heat, either having to back down or start pushing if they had not already done so. Going back to the GT5 battle, it became no more after Andrew Talandzevicius went off at turn 12 while letting overall leader Tom Herb through. As drivers rounded out the laps and took the checkered flag, Tom Herb took both GT1 and overall victory, 37.512 seconds ahead of third overall and GT1 second place, Dan Gove with John Rante, sixth overall rounding out the GT1 podium with Tony Diar-Bakerli rounding out Gt1’s finishers with 12th overall, two laps down. Mark Boden finished second overall, 28.314 behind overall winner Tom Herb, but more importantly, Boden took home GT2 victory, 21.436 seconds clear of GT2’s second place Ernestas Puzelis and the races only DNF of David Calzada in third. Valdas Gaurylius came home fifth overall, 51.706 behind overall winner Herb but similar to both Herb and Boden, Gaurylius won in class, taking home a GT3 win, finishing a lap ahead of second place GT3 and 11th overall, Thomas Prokop. GT4’s winner Sean Venkevicius took home seventh overall, first car one lap down and 14.178 seconds ahead of second in GT4 Scott Bening Sr. who held off GT5 winner Mike Keck for 8th overall. Keck would finish 31.386 seconds ahead of 10th overall and second in GT5, Andrew Talandzevicius. Rounding out the podium in both GT4 and GT5 respectively were Julie RIggen who placed 13th overall and Brian Helmintoler who placed 14th overall.
Next time we will see our GT drivers compete will take place on July 19th for the Festival of Speed, alongside both Spec Miata, Radical, and Wings n’ Things. A day before that will be race four of the Chase Race series. We look forward to seeing you guys for the Festival of Speed, if you are unable to make it, all races on the 19th will be getting livestreamed on Autobahn Country Club’s YouTube channel, @AutobahnCC
