The second and final day of 2025 Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA® Super Tour (HST) competition at Buttonwillow Raceway Park (BRP) has come to an end on the West Coast. The two-day experience that took place Feb. 22-23 as part of the Summit Racing Equipment SCCA® Road Racing program saw action on The Circuit. That is a brand-new layout consisting of 10 turns and stretching 2.56 miles at the northwest portion of BRP’s sprawling property.
Sunday’s conditions were fantastic as drivers across seven groups took to The Circuit in the morning for 15-minute qualifying sessions. After that, the rest of the day was dedicated to 19-lap or 35-minute contests for each run group. The top three finishers in each class then walked away with a trophy and commemorative bottle of Mazza Vineyards sparkling wine.
Celebrating 75 Years
California Sports Car Club, better known as Cal Club, again hosted this year’s HST visit to Buttonwillow Raceway Park. In 2025, Cal Club celebrates its 75th anniversary, which means this SCCA Region has amassed quite a history.
One of the oldest racing clubs in California, Cal Club’s first organized event was a 1947 HillClimb in Palos Verdes. According to Allan Coy, the Region’s former ombudsman, California Sports Car Club’s Articles of Incorporation were filed with California’s Secretary of State on March 23, 1950. Then in 1961, a merger was negotiated between Sports Car Club of America® and California Sports Car Club to make it a chartered SCCA Region. And incidentally, SCCA itself will note its 81st anniversary in a few days after being established on Feb. 26, 1944, on the East Coast in Boston.
Over the years, Cal Club has hosted events contested by SCCA Hall of Famers Phil Hill, Bob Bondurant, Dan Gurney, Ken Miles and Carrol Shelby at venues such as Paramount Ranch, Auto Club Speedway and Dodger Stadium. This weekend on The Circuit at Buttonwillow there were eight Cal Club drivers who won their respective HST contests to help celebrate the 75th anniversary, and many of those racers swept class wins Saturday and Sunday.
By the 1980s, only two road courses in Southern California remained viable – those being Riverside International Raceway and Willow Springs International Raceway. When Riverside shuttered, Cal Club struggled to find places to race. But in the mid-‘90s, several members started thinking the Region should build its own track as a way to guarantee a place where future members could race. With the help of a few real “believers” who financed the effort, plans for Buttonwillow Raceway Park were undertaken. Thanks to that forethought, HST racers were able to play this weekend on The Circuit, which is the second track to be constructed at BRP.
In Southern California, Cal Club remains a force in motorsports as the SCCA Region still offers a wealth of opportunities through Road Racing, Solo®, Track Events and RoadRally. Cal Club also has a rich history of producing top-notch race volunteers. To learn more about getting involved with Cal Club, check out its website.
Won and Done?
Coming from SCCA’s San Francisco Region, reigning Spec MX-5 (SMX) National Champion Ethan Lampe, 18, conducted a lot of ‘firsts’ this weekend at BRP. For starters, it was his first competition weekend of the 2025 season. It was also his first-ever HST event and first time racing wheel-to-wheel since winning at the Runoffs® last fall.
In January, Lampe was named the Jim Fitzgerald Rookie of the Year, an honor bestowed by the Club Racing Board based on nominations submitted by Executive Stewards. The accolade is presented to the Summit Racing Equipment SCCA Road Racing driver who showed the greatest promise as evidenced by performance during their first season of National competition. The extensive list of previous recipients includes names such as Connor Zilisch, Trent Hindman, Morgan Burkhard and Neil Verhagen.
“That was a huge surprise, and it means a lot,” Lampe said of the award. “If you look back at previous years’ winners … it shows promise for me and my racing career going forward because there seems to be a trend with Rookie of the Year winners going far. So, I hope I can keep that going.“
The going went pretty well for Lampe this weekend during SMX competition at BRP. He finished first in the No. 95 Mazda MX-5 on Saturday and Sunday.
Unfortunately, things are up in the air for the rest of Lampe’s 2025 calendar. With limited finances, his appearance on The Circuit at BRP may have been the last races of his season.
“Hopefully, I can go back to the Runoffs. It would be great to see if I could defend my title,” he said. “I’d love to keep racing SMX … and I wish I had an answer for what I’ll be doing the rest of this season after Buttonwillow. Any opportunities that could potentially come my way to get behind the wheel again would mean the world to me.”
Another National Champ Makes First HST Start
When discussing National Champions who took part in this weekend’s HST meetup, Michael Lewis jumps to mind with 11 Runoffs gold medals. But another multi-time Champ on The Circuit at Buttonwillow over the past two days was likely less familiar to SCCA’s Road Racing community.
Cal Club driver Jonathan Lugod, 37, was a Super Touring® Lite contestant in the No. 61 Shaftworks USA Honda Civic Si. A six-time Tire Rack Solo® Nationals Championship winner, it was the very first HST appearance for this talented competitor who was the 2011 Solo Nationals Rookie of the Year and 2018 Solo Nationals Driver of the Year. On top of that, he is a two-time Solo Triad Award winner, which is similar to Road Racing’s Super Sweep.
“I’m really excited to be part of a well-subscribed class at Buttonwillow to see how I do,” Lugod said prior to the weekend. “I’m hoping we can get some really good, clean racing. For the most part, I just want to see what I’ve been missing.”
Having first joined SCCA in 2008, Lugod spent a lot of time autocrossing the car he used every day to get around town. That mode continued in 2013 as he started doing Time Attack events before exploring wheel-to-wheel competition a decade later through SCCA’s Improved Touring E class.
“I found that learning certain disciplines on high-speed tracks does trickle down a little bit to autocross,” Lugod said. “Of course, the autocross stuff really trickles into car control for high-speed stuff.”
A self-proclaimed suspension nerd, Lugod built a business that services high-end suspensions for street cars and competition vehicles. In fact, the car he borrowed this weekend is one he helped develop over several years from Solo usage to Road Racing.
Familiarity with the car seemed to benefit Lugod as he managed a pair of runner-up finishes in STL, which isn’t shabby for an HST newcomer facing stiff competition. Saturday’s STL event was won by Nick Leverone in the No. 37 Flatout Motorsports Mazda Miata, and Sunday’s STL victor was Ryan Gutile in the No. 116 FlyinRyan Motorsports Mazda MX-5.
Sunday Race Winners
Below are provisional race winners from Sunday’s Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour conducted on The Circuit at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Each entry includes Car Class: Driver Name, SCCA Region, and Car. An asterisk (*) denotes drivers with a weekend sweep in the class.
*American Sedan®: Roger Eagleton, San Francisco Region, Ford Mustang
B-Spec: Joseph Gersch, Houston Region, Toyota Yaris
*E Production: Glen McCready, Cal Club Region, Mazda MX-5
*F Production: Brian Linn, Cal Club Region, Nissan Sentra SE-R
*H Production: Bill Okell, Oregon Region, MG Midget
*Formula Continental®: Paul MacFarlane, Cal Club Region, Van Diemen RF01
*Formula Enterprises® 2: Tom Hope, Cal Club Region, SCCA Enterprises FE2 Mazda
*Formula F: Eric Poulsen, Cal Club Region, Piper DL7-Honda
*Formula Vee®: Gavin Sweeney, San Francisco Region, Protoform P4
*GT-1: Michael Lewis, San Diego Region, Mazda RX-7
*GT-2: Brad McAllister, Oregon Region, Ford Mustang
*GT3U: Michael Lewis, San Diego Region, Mazda RX-7
*GT-X: Rob Scholl, Northwest Region, Ford Mustang GT4
Spec Miata: Nathan Del Carmen, Cal Club Region, Mazda Miata
*Spec MX-5: Ethan Lampe, San Francisco Region, Mazda MX-5
*Spec Racer® Ford Gen3: Caleb Shrader, Oregon Region, SCCA Enterprises SRF3
*Prototype: Jim Devenport, San Francisco Region, Elan DP02
Super Touring® Lite: Ryan Gutile, San Francisco Region, Mazda MX-5
*Super Touring® Under: Rylan Hazelton, San Francisco Region, Honda S2000
*Touring 1: Ian Barberi, San Francisco Region, BMW M3
Touring 2: Scotty B White, Northwest Region, Ford Mustang
*Touring 3: Roger Eagleton, San Francisco Region, Ford Mustang
Touring 4: Tony Kiratsous, San Francisco Region, Scion FR-S
Now Off to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
The HST team has packed up everything into its Bravo Trailer and now heads to Braselton, GA, for a March 7-9, 2025, engagement at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Driver and volunteer registration is already open for that three-day meetup.
SCCA’s Atlanta Region will host the event taking place on the venerable 2.54-mile, 12-turn, natural-terrain circuit first raced on in 1970. Site of IMSA’s season-ending Petit Le Mans, SCCA has quite a history at the track, too, as it was where the Club’s National Championship Runoffs took place for two dozen years straight.
Once again, action from the Road Atlanta gathering will be presented live, online and for free thanks to the popular HST video broadcast. Before then, the BRP weekend can be revisited with on-demand video playback at the SCCA YouTube channel. Also find Sunday victory podium celebration videos at the SCCA Road Racing Facebook page.
Photo: Ethan Lampe claimed both Spec MX-5 wins during HST’s weekend on The Circuit at Buttonwillow in California.
Photo by Wedrick Campbell/First Place Visuals
