Meet the Contender: Mason Filippi

Mason Filippi is one of nine MRT24 finalists who will vie for the $100,000 scholarship to compete in the 2016 Battery Tender MX-5 Cup.

Mason Filippi, one of the finalists for the Mazda Road to 24 Shootout, got his first Mazda Miata – a 1991 model – at age 14. Now 17, Fillipi is a Spec Miata racer who got his first dirt bike at the age of four. When he was 11, he got his first kart. At 14, he got his first Mazda Miata, a '91. At 15 years old, he went to the Sports Car Club of America driver's school, earning his provisional license. After his first race, SCCA awarded him his full competition license. After earning a full competition license from the SCCA, he was awarded the SCCA SFR Rookie of the Year in 2014.

"Racing has its peaks and valleys and often the valleys come first," Filippi says, about the start of his 2015 racing campaign. "I started with a major crash at Auto Club Speedway, but came back four months later and swept the field at the same track. The wins started to come with the pinnacle being starting on pole at the NASA Western States Championships."