August 16th gave us a bit of a prelude for August 29th’s Miata South track triple header. Beforehand, drivers had race practice on a noticeably wet South track, with a drivers meeting shortly after, ensuring that race starts for both Spec Miata, and SM2 were not sloppy, especially with potential wet weather ahead for both races.
In qualifying, some drivers used dry tires, while others used rain tires, as the track was drying, but not enough in certain areas. As such, there were noticeable gaps in lap times from our 18 car field, with Mike Ryan scoring pole position putting down a 1:43.511, which was 0.764 quicker than second place Alex Bertagnoli’s 1:44.275, with the rest of the top five consisting of Samuel Bowman, Matt Keck, and the fan favorite #808 of Bob Reisinger, . Because of the weather and varying tire choices, some of our usual frontrunners started around the midfield. Notable drivers included May 9th race winner Matt Alexander in eighth, first place in Spec Miata points Ethan Tyler in ninth, April 26th season opening Spec Miata winner Taro Kushida in 15th, and 2025’s SM2 champion Eli Dysart in 17th sharing our last row with Scott Bowman.
As the green flag flew for our 20 lap race, our 18 Spec Miata drivers kept things clean for the opening corners with both Ethan Tyler, and Eli Dysart gaining six and seven spots respectively after the first lap. On the other end of the first lap, both Matt Keck, and Samuel Bowman unfortunately lost positions at the start, with our row two starters falling outside of the top 10 after lap one. After gaining seven spots on the opening lap, Eli Dysart spun off at turn two on lap two, sending him back to the back of the field. Eli Dysart would not stay in last for long, as a turn one spin onto the grass from Jim Dvorak moved Eli Dysart back up to his starting position of 17th place. As things settled down, shortly before reaching our midway point, Taro Kushida went off track with a left rear hub failure, taking him out of the race, ending his day in 18th position. After our Spec Miata field went back green, Matt Alexander moved himself up to fourth place, with Ethan Tyler making up more spots as well, gaining four spots from the race restart. Eli Dysart during his recovery drive hit a puddle at turn one, causing him to get loose, and collide with Scott Bowman, who went off at turn one, nearly getting stuck in the grass in the process. Because of that incident, both drivers would pull into the pits to retire with two laps remaining. Ethan Tyler completed his hard charger award winning drive, from his ninth to first challenge, snatching Spec Miata’s race lead from Mike Ryan, who also fell behind Alex Bertagnoli for second. Mike Ryan would get second back from Alex Bertagnoli, who also was passed by Samuel Bowman for third. Ethan Tyler would never look back once he took over the first position, winning by just over half a second ahead of Mike Ryan, with Samuel Bowman holding off Alex Bertagnoli for the final podium spot, with Matt Alexander rounding out Spec Miata’s top five, holding off Josh Dale in the process.
SM2
Because of inclement weather our SM2 class ended up with an unusually small field of 13 drivers for our 20 lap race, which also gave us large gaps between driver lap times in qualifying as well. Jeff Neumann scored pole with a 1:49.458, which was 0.815 quicker than second place Dean Schilling’s 1:50.273, but also just under seven and a half seconds quicker than third place Mark Stadalsky, barely over nine seconds quicker than fourth place starter Pete Dale, and just under 10 seconds quicker than fifth place starter Sean Benet. As our 13 SM2 drivers took the green flag, everything went smoothly for the first lap of our 20 lap SM2 race.
Unfortunately, Noel Sacks pulled in after the first lap, causing his day to go from bad to worse, having started ninth from a five place grid spot penalty from an incident from SM2’s previous race, retiring from the race, leaving us with one less driver with 95% of the race left to run. At the front Dean Schilling took the race lead from Jeff Neumann on lap three at turn one. Sean Benet was also making moves, passing Mark Stadalsky for position number four. This would turn into third place after Pete Dale spun off at turn nine. Pete Dale was not the sole driver losing positions during this time, as eighth place starter Tim Milne had somehow fallen down to 10th, barely staying ahead of SM2 rookie Jesal Patel. Shortly after reaching halfway, we had our second and final retirement from our SM2 race, as Dave Yong pulled into the pits to retire to a 12th place finish. On the more positive side of things, Craig Woodmansee, making his first Autobahn SM2 start made a hard charge throughout the race, moving up to seventh from his 12th place starting spot. Near the end of the race, Sean Benet started dealing with an alternator issue, potentially caused by a failing Interstate Batteries car battery. To make up for this, Sean Benet drove harder, scoring the fastest lap of the race of a 1:41.204 in the process to try and stay ahead of Pete Dale, but while pushing hard, Sean Benet went off at turn nine, exactly where Pete Dale spun off earlier, giving Pete Dale third place back from Benet. During SM2’s final lap, Jeff Neumann caught back up to Dean Schilling, as lapped traffic became a factor. While trying to find a path around Schilling, Jeff Neumann slid on a puddle, causing him to get loose and drive off track, giving Dean Schilling a big gap to pull away with SM2 victory. Jeff Neumann fell back 12 seconds, but maintained second place, just under 10 seconds ahead of third place finisher Pete Dale, with Sean Benet somehow coming home fourth despite a failing alternator, and car battery, with Mark Stadalsky rounding out SM2’s top five.
Despite mixed conditions during both miata races, this race was helpful to our Spec Miata, and SM2 drivers to learn for our triple header on our livestreamed August 29th race on Autobahn’s YouTube channel @AutobahnCC. One week before that is our August 22nd’s GT South double. Rain or shine, we hope to see you for our upcoming Saturday 22nd/29th races!
