Joseph Burton-Harris, of Australia, by way of Birmingham, Alabama, was crowned the Northern Conference Champion in Formula Mazda after beating seven rival drivers in the 2015 WeatherTech June Sprints. Burton-Harris started the race in first and finished in the same position, in a single race that counted twice toward the season-end point total.

“It’s an amazing feeling and means a lot not only winning a Majors championship, but to do it in my first year of car racing in the United States,” Burton-Harris said. “It is definitely up there with some of my previous career highlights. For me, one of my biggest achievements was winning a race at the World Karting Championships in 2013, however winning the SCCA National Championship in Formula Mazda and gaining entry into the Mazda Road to 24 Shootout is now the greatest moment of my career.”

While he only needed one race to win the Northern Conference title, Burton-Harris was involved in on-track racing action in other SCCA Majors conferences. One of the majors hurdles was just getting to the track.

“The best part of the 2015 season was the fact we went to 14 races with no crashes or damage,” Burton-Harris said. “It was amazing how fortunate we were this year with reliability and being able to avoid all the crashes. The biggest difficulty, coming from Australia, was the travelling costs and the amount of effort that went with it. Sixteen hours on a plane is rather exhausting every month.”

For Burton-Harris, a turning point on the season was dueling with a former SCCA National Champion and coming out on top.

“We led from start to finish most races,” Burton-Harris said. “But, at the start of the season, I had some awesome races with multiple-time SCCA National Champion Darryl Wills.”

For his success this season, Burton-Harris wanted to make sure to thank some very important people.

“First of all I have to thank Texas Autosport and Formula Mazda for all their support throughout the year,” Burton-Harris said. “I also have to thank my family for helping me get to where I am, my sponsors - GMG, Si Partners and Sydney Sports Medicine. I would further like to thank Mazda for their continuing support of grassroots racing, and, finally, the SCCA and all of its competitors for making it such a fun year.”