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Steve Nickless

More articles by Steve Nickless

Trackside

For John Bodnar, SCCA’s Worker of the Year, Timing Can Be Everything

John Bodnar, SCCA’s 2025 Worker of the Year Presented by Mazda for Timing & Scoring, was focused on building a 1986 Honda Civic Si for HillClimbs when, in December 2009, he was seriously injured in a major car wreck on the street. “A lady pulled out in front of me, messed me up pretty good,” […]

Trackside

2025 SCCA Worker of the Year Donna Thielke Knows What It Takes to Make a Race Weekend Great

“Well, Data is not the only specialty I do,” says Milwaukee Region’s Donna Thielke, 2025 SCCA® Worker of the Year Presented by Mazda award recipient for Data Acquisition. “When Glen [started] racing, because I’m his crew, I got interested in F&C. And I still do F&C periodically – on a three-day weekend, I try and […]

Road Racing

How Jason Stine Helped Bring New Life to H Production and Earned the 2025 John McGill Award

Meet Jason Stine, 2025 recipient of the SCCA’s prestigious John McGill Award – racer, woodworker, and, since 2021, one of the major domos of one of the Club’s more interesting “tribes.” Stine and a trio of paddock pals (Mike Kelley, Jason LaManna, and Jay Creel) hit upon an idea in the wake of peak COVID […]

Trackside

Tony Jorgensen, 2025 Pit & Grid Worker of the Year, Can Tell You a Story

Had we known Anthony “Tony” Jorgensen in the mid-1960s when his very concerned dad first “encouraged” him to join the Club (hopefully saving his life), no way could we have pictured the tireless and popular SCCA® tech and pit volunteer he would become. Indeed, the then-17-year-old New Jersey hot rodder who lost his license for […]

Autocross

2025 Solo Driver of the Year Josh Peek Tasted Success in CAM-S, Now He Wants More

Josh Peek made his Tire Rack SCCA® Solo® National Championships debut in 2025 one for the record books. Smooth, confident, and aggressive, the Tennessee Valley Region member and Alabama resident bested 42 other Classic American Muscle-Sport (CAM-S) runners – including the 2023 class winner – claiming fastest time in the class on both East and […]

Runoffs

How Alex Scaler’s Decade-long Hunt for Runoffs Gold Locked in the 2025 SCCA President’s Cup

“The President’s Cup? I knew about [winning it] only a few days before the 2026 SCCA® National Convention. I never contemplated winning the award, never thought it was anything that would ever happen to us …” It was maybe not on freshly crowned Formula Vee® National Champion Alex Scaler’s mind, but very few other people […]

Runoffs

Who Will Win the Runoffs? Prototype, FA, FC, FF, & FV

With the Sept 29-Oct. 5, 2025, SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® Presented by Sunoco days away, it’s time for the final day of our “Who Will Win?” series — and we’ve saved the sexiest classes for last. Between Prototype, Formula Atlantic®, Formula Continental®, Formula F, and Formula Vee®, these race classes are the head turners, attracting […]

Runoffs

How This (Relatively) Unknown Racer Clinched Runoffs Gold and SCCA’s Prestigious Rookie Award

It was an aggressive and strategic drive to a first-ever SCCA® National Championship title, startling in the fact that such wisdom and confidence behind the wheel came from a 17-year-old making only his fifth-ever race start in the home-garage-built 2006 Mazda MX-5. That 2024 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® drive was also his first race at […]

Runoffs

How Ethan Goulart’s 2024 Runoffs Performance Set Records and Earned him SCCA’s Coveted President’s Cup

Nose-to-tail throughout most of the slightly shortened 13-lap Spec Miata race at the 2024 SCCA® National Championship Runoffs®, teenagers Ethan Goulart and Noah Harmon crested the hill on the final lap at Road America and swept under the waving checkered flag. With a 1.133sec advantage, New England Region’s Ethan took the win in one of […]

Mitchell Welker’s Solo Rookie of the Year Title Was Four Years in the Making

The 2024 SCCA® Solo® Rookie of the Year Mitchell Welker is yet another SCCA “Overnight-Sensation-Years-In-The-Making” story for the history books, the young driver showing up seemingly out of nowhere to claim the E Street title at the 2024 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships last September — his success, however, came as little surprise to […]