🏳️ Matthew Dirks

Matthew Dirks is a semi-professional racer competing in national solo sprint championships across three series: NASA, the SCCA Majors, and the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup. He primarily races spec and production-based cars, most frequently the Nissan 350Z in NASA's Spec Z class and Mazda MX-5 variants in both SCCA and Cup competition. His main base is with Mazda operations, fielding spec Miatas across 56 of his 128 career starts.[1]

Over ten indexed seasons from 2016 to 2023, Dirks has accumulated 36 wins and 61 podiums across the three series, with his strongest record in NASA. In NASA he won 36 races and took 59 podiums from 82 starts, establishing himself as a consistent front-runner in the Spec Z and Spec Miata classes; he took NASA championships in 2018, 2021, and 2023. His record in the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup, a series mixing amateur and graded professionals across North America, tells a different story: 2 podiums from 34 starts across four seasons, finishing 22nd in the 2023 championship. The SCCA Majors, where he has 12 starts as of 2026, remains a minor part of his racing.[2]

Dirks races regularly against Daniel Williams, a semi-professional competitor with substantial experience across the same three series, and they are closely matched in head-to-head racing. Against the Mazda grid he typically finishes ahead of Charley Williams, a developing competitor. He has finished ahead of established professionals including Connor Zilisch, a Gold-graded NASCAR and Cup driver with 34 Mazda MX-5 Cup starts, and Parker Kligerman, a Silver-graded driver with more than 200 NASCAR starts combined; these remain occasional outcomes rather than a pattern.