2014 Club Racer Of The Year nominees

You may not be familiar with some of the guys on our nominees list for the 2014 Club Racer of the Year, so here’s some insight on what put them on our radar this year.

William Brinkop

William Brinkop (shown above) won the Touring 1 pole at the 2014 SCCA National Championship Runoffs over big names like Andrew Aquilante, Scotty B. White, and Mark Boden. Unfortunately, Brinkop was involved in a Turn 1, lap one incident that majorly damaged his Chevrolet Corvette and put him out of the race. A month later at the 2014 NASA Western States Championships, Brinkop brought his freshly repaired Corvette, now configured for NASA’s Super Touring 2 class, but ended up swapping to the faster Super Touring 1 class in search of competition. Because he had not qualified in ST1, he started the race from the back of the pack, but ran to a second place finish. Brinkop also competed in, and won, the hotly contested Time Trials 2 class. A month after that, Brinkop went on to win the EO class in a BMW at the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

Conner Kearby

The 17-year-old Conner Kearby qualified sixth in Formula Atlantic at the 2014 SCCA National Championship Runoffs after a season of double dipping between that and the SCCA Pro Racing Atlantic Championship Series. While his qualifying performance wasn’t stellar, sitting some 2.4sec off the pole, during the race he managed to move to third place by the end of lap one, got the lead, and then built a 12sec gap until a full course caution came out on lap 16 of 20. Even with only a few laps to go, Kearby still managed a 2.836sec margin of victory. All impressive stuff, especially considering he only received his competition license in January 2013.

Kyle Keenan

The 2014 SCCA National Championship Runoffs marked Kyle Keenan’s first attempt at the SCCA’s showpiece event. On a tight budget, the young Keenan had brought older tires to the Runoffs and qualified well in B-Spec, although off the pace. Fellow competitor David Daughtery donated a set of Hoosier tires to Keenan in time for the last qualifying session. Keenan used those tires to then out-qualify Daughtery and start in second place. In the race, Keenan drove to a 3.57sec margin of victory, giving both himself and the Kia marquee a 100 percent win record at the Runoffs.

Kyle Kelley

Kyle Kelley has been to the SCCA National Championship Runoffs many times, often running multiple classes. In 2014, Kelley competed in GT-1 and Touring 2. In Touring 2, driving a C5 Chevrolet Corvette, Kelley qualified fourth, nearly two seconds off the pole. After making it through the opening lap Turn 2 chaos, Kelley went on to battle Andrew Longe in one of the best races of this year’s Runoffs. Kelley finished second by a margin of 0.047sec. The next day, Kelley ran the GT-1 race in another Corvette, claiming that victory by an incredible 30.277sec.

Kyle Loustaunau

Kyle Loustaunau won the Spec Miata class at the 2014 NASA Western States Championships by 1.2sec in a rented 1.8-liter Miata after qualifying for the event driving the less capable 1.6-liter Miata. Winning that race qualified Loustaunau for the Mazda Ladder shootout, which he won. With his wins in hand, Loustaunau now advances to the SCCA Pro Racing Battery Tender Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires series in 2015.

Nigel Saurino

In order to make his rookie SCCA National Championship Runoffs attempt in 2014, Nigel Saurino had to miss a week of college and an important test, but his gamble paid off. It wasn’t all roses at the Runoffs for Saurino, however, as he wrecked his F Production MG Midget early in qualifying and had to rebuild the car. He ended up qualifying third, nearly a second off the pole, but ran an incredible race, winning the class by 8.243sec over Joe Huffaker Jr.