The 2021 SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Indy are over and we came up just short of our goal of winning our third title. But if you consider the fact that this was just our third race weekend with the new body work on the car and a whole host of other changes since we got the car and first ran it at the June Sprints in the summer of 2020, then 2nd place is a pretty good outcome. We were consistently fast in official practices and the three qualifying runs leading up to the race, always in the top three and several times at the top of the time sheets. The only issues we fought all week were a failed starter motor and figuring out how to get rid of an aero porpoising effect at high speed. With both of those problems solved, we worked with new driver coaches Dan Clarke and Thomas Merrill in gaining lap time through various corner sequences. Ultimately, we qualified in 2nd position less than a tenth of a second behind the pole sitter, Lee Alexander, after going into the last day of qualifying sitting on provisional pole. We also ran tire warmers for the first time at the Runoffs since one of our main competitors, Chip Romer, runs them and they definitely provide an early advantage in having the tires up to temp early on. I’ve actually petitioned SCCA’s Club Racing Board to try and get tire warmers banned starting next year as they are really an over the top effort for our racing series and are not allowed in almost all other forms of racing except for those at the very top of the racing pyramid in Formula One. We felt we needed to do it this year so as not to be disadvantaged against one of our main rivals.
We got the race start we wanted and passed Lee Alexander by out braking him into the first corner and taking the lead. However, at the start of lap 3, Lee roared past me on the front straight and held off my late braking effort into turn 1 and then proceeded to slowly pull away. We were able to stabilize the gap and eventually start cutting into his lead slightly, but soon his lap times stayed consistently fast and ours starting falling off. Fortunately, we had built a good enough gap to 3rd place runner, Chip Romer, that we hung on for second at the waving checkered flag. Unlike many of the Runoffs races in other classes, our race stayed green for the full 19 lap distance, so we got a real full length race that made it physically challenging with the hot humid conditions.
Jason Hohmann (our crew chief, head mechanic, and owner of Bulldog Motorsports) and Chris Garcia, his lead mechanic, built and maintained Elana in impeccable condition and, fortunately, I had no mishaps driving her except one instance where we got run into from behind, but it thankfully caused only very minor damage that was easily repaired. We are already thinking about next year’s Runoffs that return to Virginia International Raceway and hope to achieve our goal of making that final step again.
I had lots of family support this year at the race as my wife, Sandy, and my nephews, Rich Brusselback and Tyler Reynolds, and their families were in attendance and a good time was had by all.
