Saturday brought us a widely anticipated Spec Miata and SM2 South Track double header. In the mornings drivers meeting, it was mentioned to not be “in over your head” for the races, especially with it being a double header. Our Miata racers also got an additional “Race Practice” during an A/B session.
For race one, Matt Alexander with a qualifying time of 1:37.702 claimed pole position, just under ¼ of a second quicker than second place starter Samuel Bowman. Ethan Tyler, just under ½ a second off pole, would start third, with Eli Dysart alongside in fourth. As for SM2, making his first race weekend appearance of 2026, going around Autobahn’s South track with a 1:39.541, Sean Benet started from SM2 pole, 0.145 clear of second place starter and highest placed rookie, Dean Schilling. The last two drivers who set a time under a second off Benet’s pole time were our second row starters Thomas Greenwood, and Emmet Ryan.
Our first of our two 20 lap Miata races started with near chaos, with our fifth place Spec Miata starter of Josh Dale spinning at the start, but thankfully all other drivers in his class were able to avoid him, with Josh Dale getting back going before SM2 took their green flag. A few laps later, SM2’s Brian Lahmann had an off at turn 11, thankfully able to keep his car from spinning out. One lap later, turn 11 would see an incident involving Friday’s Chase Race Pro finisher, Jim Dvorak spinning Art Ziesmer. The battles for the race leads were fierce but respectful, Matt Alexander would lose overall lead against Ethan Tyler, while Thomas Greenwood briefly took the lead of SM2 from Sean Benet, with Benet quickly getting back around Greenwood, taking back SM2 P1. The midfield had some intense battles, with turn 11 claiming another victim, this time Jeff Neumann quickly going off on lap 15. Almost a full lap later, Scott Ballard pulled off at the inside corner station of turn 8, and shortly after on the start of lap 17, third place overall Matt Alexander would pull off into the outside grass at the first turn. Both these incidents caused pace car deployment, right after our Spec Miata top three of Ethan Tyler, Samuel Bowman, and Alex Bertagnoli started the race’s 18th lap. The race would finish behind the pace car, with the aforementioned trio of Tyler, Bowman, and Bertagnoli finishing on the Spec Miata podium for the first race, while 16th place overall Sean Benet won SM2, with Thomas Greenwood, and Pete Dale rounding out SM2’s podium for our first of two races.
Race two had both classes starting grids decided by fastest laps from the first race. Eli Dysart, and Ethan Tyler led our field to green for Spec Miata, with Sean Benet, and Jeff Neumann leading our SM2 field to green. As the race went green, our first couple of laps were full of insanity, as polesitter Eli Dysart was forced off at turn eight on the first lap, dropping him from first to 14th. The next lap, Jim Dvorak’s Saturday went from bad to worse, as he was involved in a collision with Tom Bagley entering turn eight, causing Dvorak to pull in and retire after the second lap. The race calmed down, and as we got to our halfway point, Ethan Tyler maintained Spec Miata’s lead over Matt Alexander, and Samuel Bowman, while in SM2, Sean Benet seemed prime for a Saturday sweep, with a five second lead over SM2’s battle for second between Jeff Neumann, Thomas Greenwood, Dean Schilling, and Pete Dale, with Neumann eventually losing second to Greenwood, Schilling, and Dale. Shortly after halfway, our race leaders for both classes would encounter trouble, with SM2 leader Sean Benet running out of fuel, preventing him from sweeping both SM2 races, and Ethan Tyler getting overtaken by Samuel Bowman, with Tyler pulling into the paddock shortly after bringing an end to his race, and his chances of sweeping both Spec Miata races. This gave Samuel Bowman Spec Miata’s lead, as other drivers continued pulling into the pits to retire from the race, such as Dave Yong, who pulled in with rear end damage, and Conor Ryan who would also pull in, retiring from the race. Turn 11 continued serving as our “calamity corner” where multiple drivers going off track, with the most notable drivers going off being SM2’s David Batinovic, colliding with overall race leader Samuel Bowman, causing race leader Bowman to stall, two corners before taking the white flag. This gave us a four way battle for Spec Miata class, and overall victory with Alex Bertagnoli, Taro Kushida, Matt Alexander, and Mike Ryan within a second of each other to battle for victory. As the drivers crossed the line to take the checkered flag, the order would remain as such, with aforementioned Bertagnoli winning Spec Miata, ahead of Kushida, and Alexander rounding out the podium, with Mike Ryan, and Matt Keck rounding out Spec Miata’s race two top five. SM2 had a three driver fight for class victory, with Thomas Greenwood doing one better than he did for race one, finishing first, holding off Dean Schilling, and Pete Dale, who would round out SM2’s race two podium.
