Nose-to-tail throughout most of the slightly shortened 13-lap Spec Miata race at the 2024 SCCA® National Championship Runoffs®, teenagers Ethan Goulart and Noah Harmon crested the hill on the final lap at Road America and swept under the waving checkered flag.
With a 1.133sec advantage, New England Region’s Ethan took the win in one of the SCCA’s toughest and most-populous classes in just his second Runoffs appearance, as a six-car Mazda mob containing Ethan’s proud papa, Elivan – himself a four-time SCCA National Champion – scrabbled through just four seconds adrift of the lead duo.
From a start on the Tire Rack Pole (with a qualifying time identical to his dad’s!) to victory, Ethan’s well-paced drive went straight into the record books, the 15-1/2-year-old becoming the youngest National Champion in Runoffs history.
The Runoffs win marked Ethan an obvious candidate for the prestigious SCCA President’s Cup, and at the mid-January SCCA National Convention, the Connecticut high school sophomore became the fourth Spec Miata-class champion and youngest ever to be “recognized as a driver demonstrating ability, competitiveness, and success at the National Championship Runoffs.”
The first Spec Miata winner of the President’s Cup? Ethan’s dad, Elivan, in 2011. The younger Goulart was thus well acquainted with the award, he said, though not completely familiar with its significance.
(Ethan (right) has joined his father Elivan (left) as an SCCA President's Cup recipient. Photo by Stefan Jackowniak)
“I looked at trophy almost every day growing up,” Ethan acknowledged, “but I never really understood the [significance] until after the Runoffs, when I was signing up to attend the National Convention. That’s when I read the award criteria and I was like, 'I think I got a shot at this!’
“I thought about it every day. When [SCCA Vice President of Road Racing] Eric Prill came up to me in the paddock after qualifying at Sebring and announced it to me – what a sense of relief and happiness! It was pretty amazing.”
On to the Pros
Being presented with the President’s Cup was far from the only amazing thing that happened to the teenage former karter in January. He notched two Spec Miata wins in the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour season opener at Sebring International Raceway, and then, two days after accepting the 2024 President’s Cup, announced his full ride in the 2025 Whelan Mazda MX-5 Cup series.
Ethan signed to drive for the front-running Saito Motorsports Group, partnering its young team leader Nate Cicero, the 2023 MX-5 Cup Rookie of the Year and two-time race winner.
“MX-5 Cup this year was definitely something I had in mind, but we didn't really fully discuss with [team owner] Jay Saito until after the Runoffs,” Ethan explained.
It would seem to be a terrific opportunity: "Jay's a great guy and he's been a huge supporter,” Ethan said.
Meanwhile, Ethan has known New Yorker Cicero "since we were little kids in go-karting. He grew up at a karting track. My dad was his first ever coach and we've raced each other many times. So, we have a really good connection. He's a great driver and an awesome guy.”
The connection paid immediate dividends at the 2025 MX-5 Cup season opener, Jan. 24-25, at Daytona International Speedway. Cicero qualified on pole but ran into problems in the race. Ethan saved the day: He’d qualified fourth but was penalized for too slow a lap in the session; undaunted he worked his way up from 19th to finish a delighted second in his first pro start.
“Going into the race, I was rolling off 19th but I said to myself that this is probably the one track where you can start really far back and do really well. I just stayed focused the whole day, put my head down, and just didn't wait,” he said with a laugh. "I passed at every opportunity. Just needed one more. That’s really how it came down."
Sadly, in Race 2, his car was damaged in a wild, multi-car melee that took out several of the front runners. He was able to nurse it home, though, finishing 12th.
Friends and Frenemies
Confident now in his race craft, Ethan is quick to admit to a weakness in qualifying – a weakness, he believes, that has cost him in the two, lucrative, Mazda Shootouts for which he’s been nominated the last two years.
“The Mazda Shootouts always come down to lap times,” he said, "and unfortunately I didn't win [in 2023 or 2024] because I never had that one-lap pace. But, like I always tell my dad, I race smart. I know how to get it done in the race, and that’s what counts."
Ethan seems quite happy that Noah Harmon, the Orlando teenager with whom he scrapped throughout the 2024 Runoffs race, wound up with the $150,000 2024 Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout top prize and will compete against him in the pro series this year.
"Me and Noah get along really well. We're good buddies,” Ethan said. “Congratulations to him. He deserved [the Shootout win] for sure. He drove well, and he deserved it.
“I wasn't far off, but at the same time … well, the Shootout is a shootout and it's whoever performs the best in those two days [in November]. And I didn't perform the best in those two days. Noah did, so he deserved it.”
(Incidentally, Harmon is teamed with 2019 Spec Miata National Champ Todd Buras in the Cup Series, setting up what should be quite an interesting friendly rivalry.)
In addition to the MX-5 Cup series, Ethan will be a regular in the Toyota SRO GR Cup Pro Series, one of four drivers entered by the mega North Carolina-based TechSport Racing.
"I did one GR Cup race last year,” he says. "I qualified third and finished inside the top five. It’s also a very competitive series – about as competitive as MX-5 Cup, and because there are no schedule conflicts, there are actually a lot of drivers that do both.”
There is also no schedule conflict between either MX-5 or GR Cup series and the Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2025, SCCA National Championship Runoffs. So will Ethan return to Road America to defend his title?
(Ethan's 2024 Spec Miata Runoffs victory was impressive. He has eyes on repeating in 2025. Photo by Rick Corwine)
"I'm trying,” he said. “I’m really trying to focus – to get back and try to defend the championship.
“And, honestly, I want to thank SCCA a lot for the opportunities,” he continued. "Presenting the award to me – it’s such a prestigious award, and to be announced a winner of that is just amazing. It’s super gratifying to know all the names that are on there. And I just can't thank SCCA enough."
Mature and skilled beyond his years, Ethan Goulart. The President’s Cup once again has gone to a young driver with the brightest of futures.
NOTE: Ethan Goulart was the special guest on Brian Bielanski’s , and both Goularts, Ethan and Dad Elivan, appeared on Bielanski’s . Bielanski is an excellent host, and Ethan’s detailing his 2024 Runoffs victory is well worth the listen.
Lead photo by Stefan Jackowniak
