Mällinen is SCCA U.S. Majors Champion

Liberty Lake, WA – Sixteen-year-old Max Mällinen is officially a formula car champion, clinching the 2014 Sports Car Club of America’s U.S. Majors Tour National Championship in Formula F competition. At just 16 years and 90 days old, he becomes the youngest American Formula F Champion to date after a successful debut season in the No. 10 Spectrum 014/Honda from Swan Motorsports.

“I am thrilled to win the 2014 US Majors Tour title. It is great to have won a National Championship at 16 in such a competitive and historic class as Formula F,” said Mällinen.

Entering seven races, Mällinen beat out reigning 2013 National Champion Tim Kautz on a points tie breaker, as his four wins took the title, compared to Kautz’s three. Kautz wasn’t the only national champion Mällinen had to contend with, as he fought five-time national title holder Steve Forrer at Elkhart Lake’s 14-Road America, coming out on top at the Cat National event.

In addition to that sweep, Mällinen competed with IndyCar star Josef Newgarden at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, finishing second during the 45th anniversary of Formula F festival event.

A few weeks later he shattered a track record at Grattan and scored a pair of top-five finishes despite tire problems.

The championship-clinching races would come at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, where Mällinen took a pair of poles and then two victories, beating six-time national champion Michael Lewis. There were more track records for Mällinen in Topeka as well.

The high school junior added: “I have had a very successful season. I want to thank everyone at Swan Motorsports, and specifically Mirl Swan, for all their hard work towards winning this championship.”

Mällinen collected four wins, six podiums, and six front row starts along with lowering two track records in his seven Majors races. Making the feat even better was the fact that all the tracks Mällinen saw over the course of the season were brand new to him.

Mixed in with the SCCA Majors events were a number of pro series events in the F1600 Formula F Championship Series, with visits to Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio.

With the national title for the Majors Tour in hand, the focus now shifts to the SCCA’s season-ending national championship race, the Runoffs, taking place in October at the famed Laguna Seca circuit. Mällinen has earned himself an invite among the contenders.

“I plan to celebrate winning the title for a few days and then immediately turn my focus towards preparing for the Runoffs and winning another national championship title,” he noted.

The 2014 national championship Runoffs race takes place Friday, October 10 at 10:30 am local, Pacific time in Monterey, California.

It is the first Runoffs Championship event in California since the SCCA last visited Riverside in 1968, and some 50 years after the first Runoffs, held at the same track in 1964.