At the SCCA National Championship Runoffs: First-day fast

First day fast qualifiers

This year’s Runoffs features four full days of qualifying, with each racing class allocated one qualifying session each day. But not all sessions are created equal, because the cool air of early morning helps engines make more power. So the scheduled is staggered to give each group a chance at morning air.

In some years, rain has moved in partway through the qualifying period and made the first day’s times the fastest, so every driver had a reason to race hard from the first green flag.

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Eric Heinrich (ABOVE LEFT) took the top time in Super Touring Under in the second qualifying session of the day.

“This is a fantastic start to the Runoffs, my car is strong, well prepared and handling great," Heinrich says. “This being the only early morning session of the week meant that getting it done today was critical. My BFGoodrich tires are as fast and reliable as ever and my Pagid brake pads are making braking from such high speeds easy. We did a lot of testing and data evaluation the last few days, even going so far as to experiment with different transmissions, diff ratios, and wings and it has really paid off so far.”

SCCA Classes on the Bubble

In order to crown a national champion, SCCA requires that a racing class field 10 cars in at least one track session at the Runoffs. This year, the Touring 3 class garnered only six entries, and one of those was a no-show. So the T3 race has been combined with the T2 group, and will race as a demonstration only.

“It's a shame there won't be a champion considering the effort, talent, speed, and quality of the drivers that showed up. It really robs us of all our effort,” says T3 competitor Scotty B. White (TOP, Jeff Zurschmeide photo).

The Prototype 1, Formula Atlantic, and Formula Mazda classes arrived at the Runoffs showing only the minimum 10 entries. The GT-3 and GT-Lite classes each had 11 entries, making full participation critical for those classes to crown a champion.

“I think the costs have been a bit prohibitive and the competitiveness of the Swift 014 and Ralt versus the Swift 016 at most tracks hurts as well,” says Formula Atlantic competitor Brian Novak. “I think the Honda package we are developing this year could be a huge help growing the class due to the significantly reduced operating cost of the powertrain.”

After the first round of qualifying, Formula Atlantic and GT-3 have fielded the required 10 cars. The Prototype 1 group fielded eight cars. Formula Mazda managed only six, and GT-Lite saw nine cars participate.

Runoffs driver spotlight – Nicole Jacque

Among the drivers making the long tow to Daytona this year is second-year Runoffs competitor Nicole Jacque in the T2 class.

“My first trip was last year when it was at Laguna Seca, which is my home track,” Jacque says. “Last year was actually my first full year racing and I wasn’t even thinking about doing the Runoffs, until I ran into Randy Pobst at a race and he encouraged me to go for it. Last year was easy, since the Runoffs were just 45 minutes from my house. But I’ve always wanted to run Daytona, so I figured this was my chance!”

Jacque qualified 17th out of 20 cars in Monday’s initial qualifying session, but she’s still hopeful.

“When I decided to go to the Runoffs this year, I decided to buy a real T2 car – a 2011 Mustang. Due to a number of problems with getting it all together and working, I haven’t really had much chance to drive it – so the sessions at Daytona will be very interesting getting it dialed in,” she notes.

(Photo courtesy of Nicole Jacque)