Sports Car Club of America® championship season is upon us with the Tire Rack Solo® Nationals, DirtFish SCCA® RallyCross Nationals, Tire Rack SCCA Time Trials Nationals Powered by Hagerty, and National Championship Runoffs® all coming up within in the next couple months. And at all these events there will be plenty of paddock parties, cookouts, camaraderie and fun at the end of each day.

SportsCar magazine recently took a look at paddock “dining” options and chatted with Mario Mazza, General Manager and Enologist at Mazza Vineyards -- the Official Sparkling Wine supplier of Tire Rack ProSolo, the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour, and National Championship Runoffs. Mario was nice enough to offer some insight on wine pairings with some common foods found at paddock evening shindigs.

“Parings are subject to taste,” Mario said in the article. “There is a right pairing mentality with some people, and they believe that you only pair this wine with this food. I want to say that there is a little bit of a caveat; if you like it, and you like how it works, that’s great. I’m not one to say there are super strict, hard-and-fast rules.

“There are some good guidelines,” Mario continued. “There are general rules for pairing wine, beer, or spirits, even just different flavors in general. You want to think about various things, like do you want something that complements and reinforces the flavor, or do you want something that contrasts?”

Want to learn more about perfect paddock pairings and Mazza Vineyards? Then check out the full “Tailgating Trackside” article at www.Racer.com. And never forget to drink responsibly and never, ever drink and drive.