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Skip Barber’s Fendered Adventures
Written by: Rick Roso
RACER Magazine   http://www.racer.com/speedtv
10/08/2008 - 01:44 PM
Irvine, Calif.
 
The Skip Barber MX-5 Miatas offer Rx for the racer's soul, irrespective of driver age or level of motorsports experience. (Skip Barber Racing photo) ยป More Photos

An all-new Skip Barber Series, the Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Challenge, made its debut this year. Eight of its 12 races have now gotten the checker and the top three in the point standings reflect the diverse demographic that amateur racing is all about: an up-and-coming teen, a 33-year-old “veteran” from the SCCA/NASA wars, and a real estate developer in his 50s.

The championship leader is the teenager, Justin Piscitell, 19, from Patterson, N.Y. Piscitell is a sophomore at Alfred College in upstate New York and credits a speeding ticket as “the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” Turns out Pisctitell got nabbed by the highway patrol last year, to his folks’ displeasure. So his dad, Joe, signed him up for a Skip Barber High Performance Driving School (“Speed on the track, not the road!”). Hooked, the teen then signed up for a Skip Barber three-day school. His enthusiasm turned out to be so contagious that he and Joe both signed up for the MX-5 Miata version of the three-day. Both ran some preseason MAZDASPEED races and Justin, really quick despite having no previous racing experience, then decided to enter the championship.

Piscitell has won two races, admittedly both last-lap inheritances. Regardless, he’s shown the speed needed to run up front and non-gifted wins are surely on the table.

With 300 points, Piscitell’s a scant three ahead of former NASA and SCCA autocross and regional star Lyonel Kent, who has four wins, all at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Kent’s racing résumé is impressive. Starting with SCCA Solo II in the late 1990s, through NASA Honda Challenge and SCCA ITA – all in his 1995 Honda
Civic EX – he’s been a winner and champion. His goal is to win the title and be invited to the next MAZDASPEED MX-5 Shoot-out, the prize for which is a funded ride in the 2009 Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup.

Third overall, and first in the Masters Division is Canadian Ken Greenberg, 56. Greenberg raced Formula Ford in England and Canada in 1973 and 1974, but a near-fatal crash at Sanair ended his racing career. Well, until 2006, when he got back in the cockpit in the Panoz Race Series (since absorbed by Skip Barber Racing).

“I’m having an absolute blast racing these Miatas,” Greenberg says. “These kids I’m racing against, I’m probably not going to beat them, I know that. They know a lot of four-letter words, but the one they don’t know is ‘fear.’”

Other race winners include Chris Topping, Dion von Moltke, journalist Mike Monticello, Dan Graeff, Carlos Llano and SPEEDtv.com’s Michael Skeen. None are doing the full season, but that’s one of the attractions of the series; a driver can jump in and do as few or as many races as he or she wants.

So, will it be the still-wet-behind-the-ears Piscitell or savvy sports car racing champion Kent winning the first Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Challenge title? Time will tell.

The season openers for both Skip Barber Racing’s 2008-2009 Southern championships – the Skip Barber MAZDASPEED MX-5 Challenge and the Skip Barber F2000 Regional Race Series – are October 24-26 at Carolina Motorsports Park.

This story is adapted from an article originally appearing in the November issue of RACER magazine, on sale now
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