It’s easy to get caught up in nostalgia, the what-ifs, and glorifying what’s already happened rather than living in the moment and appreciating what’s here. That’s true in life, and its especially true in motorsports.

And while it would have been amazing to see Dan Gurney at an SCCA race or line up on the grid next to Mark Donohue, it’s important that we don’t overlook the “good old days” while they’re happening – and in this modern era they are, in fact, happening.

While it’s unfair to call anyone “the next Gurney,” there are plenty of legends in the making on the grid at the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour. Who are they? That’s harder to tell. But recent history tells us they’re out there.

Just look at the current American professional sports car racing stars under 30 years of age.

Ernie Francis, Jr. has been everywhere – Trans Am, IMSA, the open-wheel ladder and even a season of SRX. He’s the 2019 GT-1 National Champion and was a regular at Super Tours for a couple of seasons.

Trent Hindman was the Super Tour point champion in 2013 in GT-2, and the Runoffs champion on 2016. What has he done since then? Oh, you know, the usual – 2019 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship GTD-class champ, a 2020 GT World Challenge America championship, IMSA’s 2021 Endurance Cup title, and the IMSA Pilot Challenge GS-class win in 2022. Basically, he’s among the most successful GT racers in the world, and he’s only 28 years old.

Neil Verhagen wasn’t even 16-years-old when he won his Runoffs title in 2016, the youngest ever to do so. Now a veteran at 23 years old, the record-setter travels the world as a BMW Motorsports factory driver. He hasn’t made his way to the new GTP prototype as of yet, but it seems a likely future stop.

We know about Preston Pardus, who is still only 27 years old despite an SCCA resume that includes more Spec Miata National Champions (three) than anyone else. He’ll drive anything and everything and basically has, but his most recent efforts have been in stock cars.

Or how about a pro driver who should be on your radar, if he’s not already? Ryan Norman was the 2016 Super Tour point champion and Runoffs title holder in Formula Atlantic. He’s now chasing an IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo title with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, and has parlayed that into a few seasons of Indy Lights and an IndyCar start. His age? You guessed it – still four more seasons of racing before he turns 30.

Really though, if we’re fighting the argument that the Sports Car Club of America and the Hoosier Super Tour is not the place for developing driver talent, we should play the trump card now.

Unless you’ve been living under a motorsports rock, you’re well aware that there’s a 17-year-old driver out there who, just in the past three months, has won the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and sat on pole in his first ever NASCAR Truck Series race. And yet, in a fact that is not disparaging of Connor Zilisch’ obvious talent but is a testament to the field at SCCA races, the Trackhouse Racing development driver has a lone third-place finish in his two tries at the Runoffs.

We could even carry our case further away from SCCA road racing. Who remembers a tiny little 12-year-old running Formula Junior A at the 2008 Tire Rack Solo Nationals, finishing third (shout out to brothers Joey and Anthony Montelo, who finished one-two that year!) as a second-generation autocrosser? Robey Foley is now a gold-rated driver by the FiA, competing with famed Turner Motorsports in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship’s GTD class. All he’s done in his career is finish second in 2019 in GTD, third in 2021 in GT World Challenge America, and won IMSA Pilot Challenge last year. Oh, his co-driver this season? That would be two-time SCCA Champion and fellow second-generation SCCA member Patrick Gallagher, who has added a partial season of NASCAR Xfinity Series races to his calendar. Gallagher technically doesn’t make our list of under-30 superstars because he’s now reached the ripe old age of 31.

No, we’re not going to predict which drivers at this weekend’s Hoosier Super Tour are the next professional racing hot shots. But we will stand by the belief that the SCCA is still the best place to see racing’s future stars in action.

Lucky for you, you can do just that in person or from the comfort of your own home this weekend, when the Hoosier Super Tour visits VIR. Catch the live stream of the weekend right here on SCCA.com, or on SCCA’s official YouTube and Facebook pages.