Racer - May 2016 SKIP BARBER

ive years ago, in the midst of transitioning into his teenage years, Julian Garfield had already laid claim to SCCA fame.

By that time, he’d acquired six National Solo and ProSolo wins in Junior B and Junior A, and was on his way to winning four more major wins over the next two seasons. He was also on the cusp of an SCCA Club Racing foray in Showroom Spec Miata that eventually saw him gain the runner-up title in SCCA’s Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series, helping earn him SCCA’s Washington DC Region 2013 David Roethl Member Achievement Award.

Then, last year at the Tire Rack SCCA
Solo National Championships, Garfield
snagged the runner-up spot in C Street
Prepared, as well as a third-place finish in
ProSolo competition. Impressive stuff for
someone who, for most of the time
between then and now, didn’t actually
have a driver’s license.

But competing is second nature to Garfield. “My grandparents began autocrossing in a 1968 Mini Cooper S in the late 1960s and stopped when my dad was born in 1972,” he explains.

“My father came across SCCA Solo in

1999, and then got my grandparents
back into it. My mother and I began
autocrossing in 2003. My brother began
in ’05, and in 2008, three generations
of the Garfield family competed at the
Solo National Championships.”
These days, the 18-year-old high
school senior and National Honor Society
member is contemplating which college
to attend, with the goal of receiving a
degree in mechanical engineering.
But it’s not just school and time behind
the wheel for Garfield; he manages his
own website ( www.juliangarfield.com) and
serves as a Solo Committee member,
driving instructor, and novice coordinator
for his SCCA region.

His SCCA region job includes leading novice walks and, from time to time, ride-alongs. “More than anything else, the one thing I hate is somebody brand new coming out [to an autocross], really excited and, at the end of the day, none of their times count because they were off course every time,” Garfield explains. “We want to get them started in the right direction. And then, when they’re looking to improve their skills, we’ll try to get them out to a school.