Professional races in America rarely take place without the expert hand of SCCA® workers. From F1 to IMSA and beyond, its members of the Sports Car Club of America™ that help these events come to fruition. This fact was very much on display in our nation’s capital on Aug. 23, 2026, as SCCA members helped organize and work the Freedom 250 Grand Prix IndyCar race.
Racing around Washington DC as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, the Freedom 250 saw IndyCar drivers complete 147 laps around a 1.7-mile street circuit that sped down Pennsylvania Avenue between the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall.
While Club members came from many of SCCA’s 115 Regions to help host the race, about half of the 100+ SCCA members were from Washington DC Region (WDCR). As you can imagine, this wasn’t something the Region tossed together overnight.
“For WDCR, the work started long before the race weekend,” an article on WDCR’s website explains. “A new IndyCar event would typically have more than two years of planning behind it, but the Freedom 250 came together on a dramatically compressed timeline of just six months. WDCR accepted the challenge of overseeing flagging and worker operations for the event, which meant months of preparation, coordination, and planning to build the worker organization needed for a brand-new street race in the heart of Washington, D.C. The flag marshal support team was 80% staffed by our own WDCR Region workers, putting the experience our members have built through years of SCCA events to work on an entirely new stage. After all that preparation, seeing the first-ever event come together successfully in downtown D.C. was something everyone involved could be incredibly proud of.”
(Marshal Support Staff (from left to right) Valerie and Vanessa Farret, Tom Broring, Carolyn Bayer-Broring, Shirley Thompson, Adam Miller, Bob Crawford, Dennis Hand, and Steve Martin.)
WDCR notes that the Region’s involvement wasn’t something put into motion by Region leaders, it was the members who wanted to be a part of the historic event.
“WDCR took this on because our members wanted to,” the article explains. “This wasn’t simply Region leadership supporting the Freedom 250 or putting together a worker roster. It was our members raising their hands and stepping up and making it happen. From those who spent months working behind the scenes to the workers who showed up ready to take their positions around the circuit, the opportunity existed because SCCA members were willing to seize it.”
Read the entire WDCR article here.
(SCCA workers were shuttled in early on the morning of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. Photo courtesy Vanessa Farret.)
Leading up to the race weekend, reporters from affiliate news stations flooded the grounds, with several SCCA members finding themselves in front of the camera.
WDCR member, chair of the SCCA Board of Directors, and a member of the Freedom 250 flagging team Bob Crawford had significant airtime with Fox 5, with SCCA President & CEO Mike Cobb also being interviewed by that news station.
SCCA’s Central Kentucky Region member Nicole Gilbride also found herself in front of the camera, offering a behind-the-scenes look at flagging on a street course with NBC 4 Washington. And from a driver’s perspective, WDCR Spec Miata racer Parker Moden received airtime on Fox 5 as well as CBS affiliate WUSA9.
Another SCCA racer, Kyle Kirkwood, also found himself on camera during the Freedom 250 race, largely thanks to his dominating performance and race win. The past Florida Region member began his rise to fame in the SCCA Pro Racing-sanctioned Formula 4 United States Championship, where he turned a third-overall finish in 2016 into the championship title in 2017. The following year, he moved up to the SCCA Pro Racing-sanctioned Formula 3 Americas Championship (now Formula Regional) where he claimed another overall championship. That led to IMSA, Indy Lights, and in 2022, he was racing for A.J. Foyt in IndyCar. That saw Kirkwood move to Andretti Global, where he currently races (and wins) in IndyCar.
From organizers to boots on the ground and those behind the wheel, SCCA’s presence at the Freedom 250 was strong.
Lead photo by Bob Crawford
