Hart Marx Advisors has always been more than just the automotive sector experts, we are active participants. For 2020, a key member of HMA’s staff will be competing both on and off track, participating in the Sport Car Club of America (SCCA) Majors series. The Majors series concludes annually with the National Championship Runoffs, the recognized championship for sports car road racing since 1964.
HMA has a long history of on track competition with partner Tom Marx competing in the IMSA series in the 1980s and 1990s in both the IMSA Camel GT and Firehawk series. The long time Porsche driver also campaigned Chevrolet and Volkswagen race cars with support from top automotive brands.
SCCA is the largest road racing organization, hosting events across the United States and Canada. SCCA’s National Championship Runoffs is an invitation only, single race by car class that establishes the season champion. To qualify for the Runoffs, drivers must have success in the regular season races. Past SCCA drivers and National Champions include Roger Penske, Bobby and Graham Rahal, Carrol Shelby, Ken Miles, Dan Gurney, Michael Andretti, Skip Barber, Boris Said, Jimmy Vasser, and Paul Newman.
For 2020, Hart Marx Advisors will be competing in the “GT-L” Category. This is a class designed for purpose-built race cars with engines less than 2.0L in displacement. GT-L race cars only share very few, if any components from production cars. GT-L cars are designed and fabricated specifically to the class rules. They are light, often less than 2,000 pounds with the driver and have highly modified engines with redlines often over 9,000rpm.
While one of the least important impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the race season is both compressed and tentative. Each race weekend features two races that count towards Runoffs qualifications. The race dates, as they stand today are below.
- June 11-14: 65th SCCA Chicago Region June Sprints at Road America
- June 26-28: SCCA Race for the Roses Majors at Blackhawk Farms Raceway
- August 14-16: SCCA Majors at Road America
- October 3-11: SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America
The car was designed and built as a collaboration between Jim Dentici and Mugen Co Ltd’s Hirotoshi Honda and Takeshi Uno and is wrapped in HMA’s color scheme and logo for the upcoming race season. The fully fabricated tube-frame car is the last and most developed of 8 cars built. The series of cars were designed to support the launch of the second-generation Honda CRX, nut its wide, carbon fiber body shares only a silhouette with the production car. It weighs less than 2000 pounds with driver, fuel, and fluids. Horsepower is limited using an air restrictor similar to NASCAR’s restrictor plate concept. Of the 8 cars built, 6 survive and three have won 9 National Championships at race tracks including Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Daytona International Speedway, Road Atlanta, and Road America.
The car will be driven by Hart Marx Advisor partner and co-owner Chris Bovis, a second generation racer who has competed since 1992. Beginning in SCCA Regional races, he graduated to National (now Majors) races in 1999 and has competed in E-Production, F-Production, and GT-L classes. Chris has race wins and lap records at more than 10 race tracks, three GT-L National Championships from 8 starts with 3 additional podium finishes and 4 pole positions.
We will be posting updates about the season’s races, successes, and challenges at hartmarxadvisors.com and our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. The Runoffs will be broadcast live.