Mällinen Aims for Runoffs Success and More
Liberty Lake, WA – Max Mällinen will switch his remaining 2014 Formula F/F1600 racing focus to winning the 2014 SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Laguna Seca in the No. 10 Swan Motorsports Spectrum/Honda. The 16-year-old has had a solid start to the F1600 Championship Series season, running five races and now aiming to qualify for the October Championship.
“The Runoffs is an opportunity to win the National Championship. I have wanted to be on the podium of the Runoffs since I was a young boy. To win at Laguna Seca would make it even more special.” said Mällinen.
While he carved up the field at Watkins Glen International in a May during two F1600 Formula F Championship Series races, Mällinen will now shift his summer momentum towards the SCCA Runoffs.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, one of the country’s most famous tracks, is an 11-turn, 2.2-mile natural terrain road course which opened in 1957. It’s perhaps most famous for its “corkscrew” turn – a sharp left hander followed by a quick fast right while a steep hill falls away, along with the corkscrew’s uphill approach with a blind crest and apex.
By accumulating points in National-level races (SCCA Majors), Mällinen will find himself on the invite-only list for the Championship. Those Majors races start in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, with Road America and the Cat National, July 25-26. Road America is a free-flowing 14-turn road course about an hour’s drive north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
From there, Mällinen will head for bragging rights at the 45th Formula Ford Festival being held at the picturesque Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, August 8 and 9.
It’ll be one weekend off before a week on the road, with a Majors event at Grattan in Belding, Michigan, August 23 and 24, with the Swan Motorsports hauler heading straight for an end-of-month race at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas.
On his side is Swan Motorsports, a team no stranger to success and the top step of the podium, especially when it comes to SCCA National-level and Runoffs competition under the guidance of Mirl Swan.
If he qualifies, Mällinen may be the youngest, or among the youngest drivers in the Formula F field at Laguna Seca, and may be the youngest driver at the entire event.
In addition, when not in a car, Mällinen has been busy in his kart – with three wins on the year, and a top ten finish on July 20 at the 2014 Rotax Grand Nationals in Utah at Miller Motorsports Park.