Julian Garfield: A rookie at the SCCA Runoffs

A racer may set simple goals for his or her rookie season of national SCCA road racing. Maybe it's to finish every race or perhaps earn a podium finish – seldom is it, "Finish in the top 20 in the biggest Spec Miata field to compete at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs." But that's exactly the goal Julian Garfield set.

"I had come off a couple of really great finishes at the Grattan Last Chance Majors with a third and a second," says Garfield, the recipient of the Mazda Solo Advancement Scholarship. "So going in [to the Runoffs], I felt I was really confident in the car, and feeling good about being able to put together a respectable finish.

"I felt really good after the first couple of [Runoffs] sessions. I did enjoy the track, and running a track the scale of Indianapolis was really neat. It made the cars feel slow when you look at how big and grand the main straightaway was."