Competition has now come to a close at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the March 7-9, 2025, Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA® Super Tour (HST) that is part of the Summit Racing Equipment SCCA Road Racing program.
Hosted by SCCA’s Atlanta Region in Braselton, GA, Sunday saw chilly conditions and cloudy skies most of the day. Undaunted, competitors across all seven run groups took to the 12-turn, 2.54-mile circuit for races that were either 35 minutes or 19 laps in duration. The top three finishers in each car class then received trophies and commemorative bottles of Mazza Vineyards sparkling wine to mark their achievements.
Student Becomes Teacher
An incident in qualifying at last year’s Runoffs® sent three top-notch Spec Miata (SM) racers to Wisconsin medical facilities. Two of those drivers, Jim Drago and Danny Steyn, are on the mend. The third, Charles Mactutus of SCCA’s South Carolina Region, was back in the saddle competing this weekend at Road Atlanta.
This season is a bit of a switcheroo for Mactutus. The team he ran with previously, OPM Autosports, ceased operations late last year. So this year he’s running with a new team, Salty Dog Racing, in the backup car of Bobby Gossett. In fact, Bobby and Mactutus were actually teammates last year, too, under the OPM Autosports umbrella.
“It feels really good to be back in a car,” Mactutus said. “But I’m missing my former teammate, Danny Steyn, obviously.”
Part of Mactutus’ involvement with Salty Dog Café Racing includes driver coaching for Bobby and his sister, Ellie Gossett. It’s a new role for Mactutus, who had been mentored the last couple years by veteran driver Steyn.
“I’m kind of the Danny Steyn now,” Mactutus chuckled with a grin. “That’s a high bar to meet, of course, but I’m trying to help.”
That’s not to say that Steyn didn’t play a role this weekend, he just did it from afar. A live stream of in-car video was piped back to Steyn for review, then Mactutus and the Gossetts jumped on the phone with Steyn throughout the weekend for some tutelage.
Bobby feels he’s already learning from Mactutus, who he has known for a year now. The real challenge this past weekend was just trying to keep up with his new mentor on track.
“It’s kind of hard to keep up with someone so good, but I’m trying,” Bobby admitted.
Ellie agreed with her brother that Mactutus’ input has been great, saying, “Charles has been really helpful, especially being able to watch his in-car video for review after we’ve gone out.”
While reigning SM National Champion Ethan Goulart, in the No. 72 X-Factor Racing/Hoosier/G-Loc Mazda Miata, got a pair of victories this weekend at Road Atlanta, things hummed along nicely for Salty Dog Cafe Racing, too. Mactutus, in the No. 66 MTP Autosport/Rossini Racing/G-Loc Mazda Miata, claimed two runner-up finishes on the weekend. Bobby, in the No. 44 Mazda Miata, earned a pair of 13th place finishes. Meanwhile, Ellie locked in top 25 finishes both days in the No. 177 Mazda Miata.
A Unicorn in Disguise
There’s plenty of wildlife in the woods that surround Road Atlanta. And that included a sort of unicorn in disguise this weekend. Specifically, we’re talking about the No. 84 Honda Civic Si driven by Peter St. Pierre in Super Touring Under (STU).
St. Pierre, 63, of SCCA’s Atlanta Region, joined the Club in 2008 and got involved in Solo®. The group of friends he made through that activity then decided to join together and do some low-buck endurance racing. Along the way he met SCCA Road Racer Michael Taylor, who asked St. Pierre to be Crew Chief on his 2023 and 2024 Runoffs® efforts.
The most recent National Championship at Road America was such a fantastic experience for St. Pierre that he decided to give SCCA Road Racing a go and started looking for a car. By chance, he came across a ready-to-race vehicle of interest on the Bring a Trailer website and secured it for a nice price. There was a catch, however, as the car was on the other side of the continent in California with former owner Tazio Ottis.
“I hitched up a new-to-me 20-foot enclosed trailer; loaded up my 11-month old, 70-pound Bernedoodle pup, and hit the road,” St. Pierre stated. “Six days and 5000 miles later, I had my new race car tucked in my garage. I spent some quality time with my pup, experienced some beautiful parts of several states I've never been to, and now I'm jazzed about trying to qualify for the Road America Runoffs in 2025.”
This particular racecar is a bit of a unicorn according to St. Pierre. It’s a 2019 Civic Si coupe built as a TC America car by what was formerly known as Honda Performance Development. It was then used as a test mule by Honda Racing Corporation for its Type R crate-engine program.
“In essence, it's the first K20C1 swapped Civic Si coupe,” St. Pierre stated. “It never got any race miles on it at that time except for what it did as a test mule with the Type R engine in this coupe.”
While Ottis ran the car in 2024, the vehicle really hadn’t seen much action before then. So, St. Pierre has been getting things sorted and becoming comfortable with the car.
“This is about as excited as I’ve been to go racing in a long, long time,” St. Pierre said of his 2025 season. “If I’m not dead last this weekend, then I’ll feel pretty darn good. But I hope that I’m safely mid-pack, you know.”
St. Pierre had some tough luck Saturday when he spun on cold tires during the opening lap and removed himself from the contest. Sunday, however, was a lot better as he finished second to Richard Astacio who swept victories over the weekend in the No. 72 Krugspeed Lotus Exige.
Monette Crew at Home Track
No HST visit to Road Atlanta is complete without a visit from the Monettes. And when they roll into the paddock, give ‘em some space – because they bring a fair number of folks with them.
Robert Monette and his wife, Addie, have 30 children ranging in age from 7 to 51 years old, and 27 of those were adopted into the family. A handful of those ‘kids’ are or have been SCCA members over two decades, and the family recently added another to SCCA’s Road Racing community as Banks Monette, 15, just completed his SCCA Driving School.
“This sport and SCCA have allowed me and other ‘regular guys’ to see and race with some really talented and famous drivers,” stated 75-year-old Robert, who left oval racing in 2002 to run the IMSA Panoz Series. “It's been a great ride, and I am very thankful to SCCA and all of the workers who allow us to participate.”
The Monettes brought 15 family members to the circuit this weekend. You might think that’s one large, helpful pit crew. However, Robert jokingly noted that a lot of those family members are more interested in track food and just soaking up the scene.
The Atlanta Region family had cause for celebration Saturday and Sunday as Zachary Monette grabbed a pair of runner-up trophies in Touring 1 (T1) with his No. 99 Optech Monette Chevrolet Camaro. James Candelaria was the T1 winner both days driving the No. 134 Candelaria Racing Products/Hawk/Hoosier/Summit Racing Chevrolet Corvette.
Robert, who drove the No. 35 Optech Monette Ford Mustang in GT-1 competition, grabbed fourth- and fifth-place trophies on the weekend in races that were won by David Pintaric, in the No. 7 Kryderacing/Ave Motorsports/Goodyear Ford Mustang, and Michael McAleenan driving the No. 31 Smith Alling PS/Lowe Group Racing/Kidder Mathews Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.
Sunday Race Winners
Below are provisional race winners from Sunday’s Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Each entry includes Car Class: Driver Name, SCCA Region, and Car. An asterisk (*) denotes drivers with a weekend sweep in the class.
*American Sedan®: Gregory Eaton, Washington DC Region, Ford Mustang
*B-Spec: Josh Schmidt, Central Carolinas Region, Chevrolet Sonic
E Production: Tyler Ladd, Wichita Region, BMW Z3
*F Production: Ken Kannard, Atlanta Region, Acura Integra
H Production: Jesse Prather, Kansas Region, Mazda 2
*Formula Atlantic®: John McAleer, Atlanta Region, Swift 016
*Formula Continental®: Carter Sheets, Mahoning Valley Region, Van Diemen F2000
*Formula Enterprises® 2: Franklin Futrelle, Atlanta Region, SCCA Enterprises FE2 Mazda
GT-1: Michael McAleenan, Northwest Region, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo
*GT-2: Jared Odrick, Susquehanna Region, Chevrolet TA2 Camaro
GT3U: Jeff Dernehl, Atlanta Region, Mazda RX-7
*Spec Miata: Ethan Goulart, New England Region, Mazda Miata
Spec MX-5: Matthew Novak, Chicago Region, Mazda MX-5
Spec Racer® Ford Gen3: Robeson Clay Russell, Central Carolinas Region, SCCA Enterprises SRF3
*Prototype: Wade Richardson, Alabama Region, Stohr WF1
Super Touring® Lite: Jon Sewell, Florida Region, Acura Integra Type R
*Super Touring® Under: Richard Astacio, New England Region, Lotus Exige
*Touring 1: James Candelaria, Central Florida Region, Chevrolet Corvette
*Touring 2: Raphael Assuncao, Atlanta Region, Porsche Cayman
*Touring 3: Nic Hammann, Kansas City Region, Nissan 370Z NISMO
*Touring 4: Marc Cefalo, Northeastern Pennsylvania Region, Mazda RX-8
NOLA Next for Hoosier Super Tour
The Bravo Trailer that shuttles HST equipment from one event to the next is already packed up with its sights set on Avondale, LA, and NOLA Motorsports Park for a March 22-23, 2025, soirée hosted jointly by SCCA’s Lone Star Region and Southwest Division.
Driver registration and volunteer registration are already open for this two-day event taking place not far from Jackson Square in New Orleans. Come play with SCCA in a city built for good times, and a 2.75-mile circuit with 16 turns that adds to the fun.
If you can’t make it to The Big Easy, action from NOLA will be presented live, online and for free thanks to the popular HST video broadcast. Before then, the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta weekend can be revisited with on-demand video playback at the SCCA YouTube channel. Also find Sunday victory podium celebration videos at the SCCA Road Racing Facebook page.
Photo: Ethan Goulart leading and on his way Sunday to another Spec Miata victory at the Hoosier Super Tour in Georgia.
Photo by Jeff Loewe
