Fresh off an appearance at the 2026 Mission Foods SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® at Road America, Northwest Region’s Asad Nikadambaev is making the news. In his Runoffs rookie debut, the 15-year-old Spec Racer® Ford Gen3 racer qualified his No. 144 car on the outside pole at the Runoffs, ahead of drivers like Bobby Sak, Caleb Shrader, Robeson Clay Russell, and more. Unfortunately, his race came to an early end, but the media attention around him didn’t.

Shortly after the Oct. 28-Oct. 4, 2026, Runoffs took place, Newsweek published an article on the young racer entitled “For a Teenage Racing Driver, Success on the Track Means Building a Business.” There, the author spoke to Asad and his father Odil about the realities of attempting to become a professional racer. Odil said he was quoted a number into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for Asad to get a seat in a pro series.

"Most families can’t afford that. Neither can we. At that point we need to look for partners,” Odil told Newsweek.

The solution? Asad launched a social media presence and started racing SRF3 with SCCA.

“Asad's breakthrough came earlier this year in the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California,” the article states. “Driving in a Spec Racer Ford Gen3 –a fast closed-wheel vehicle with a top speed of 150 miles per hour – Asad stunned the crowd by beating a slew of national champions to secure first place.”

"This honestly means so much,” Asad told Newsweek. “Me, my dad, my entire family, we’ve been sacrificing so much to get to this point already, and we’re already planning to sacrifice so much more just to get to the top of motor sport.”

Read the entire Newsweek article by clicking here.

Photo by Jay Bonvouloir