🇺🇸 Maximilian Opalski

Maximilian Opalski is an American entry-level professional, graded FIA Silver, who races solo in American club and national multiclass championships that put amateurs and graded professionals on the same track. The bulk of his work has come in NASA's Spec Miata class, driving a Mazda MX-5 Miata in spec trim, and in the Mustang Challenge's DH class, driving a Ford Mustang Dark Horse R for Max Opalski Racing, the team he founded himself. He is currently racing for Automatic Racing in the Zenith Racing Series.[1]

Across eight seasons on record, from 2018 to 2026, his NASA Spec Miata program has produced seven wins and nineteen podiums from thirty-four starts, easily the largest share of his career. He has also taken two wins and two podiums from ten SCCA Majors starts spread across the EP, SM and STL classes, two podiums in two seasons of the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin for Copeland Motorsports, ten Mustang Challenge starts for his own team, and smaller stints in SCCA Regionals and SKUSA karting. In the Zenith Racing Series, his most recent program, he sits fourteenth in the championship standings with one podium from the five rounds raced so far this season.[2]

His most frequent opponents give a sense of where he sits: against Jeremy Fletcher, the 2025 Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin champion, he is closely matched, while against Sam Paley, another entry-level professional graded FIA Silver with Mustang Challenge and US F4 starts, he usually finishes behind. The standout line in his record is a single finish ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, now a Formula 1 driver and a former Formula Regional European and Italian F4 champion, and he has also beaten Noel Leon, the 2023 Euroformula Open champion, once. The team that has fielded him most, in NASA, has also run the established professional Connor Zilisch among its drivers.