2015 SCCA Formula Vee champion Michael Varacins on winning

The 2015 SCCA National Championship Runoffs presented by Garmin VIRB marked Michael Varacins' fourth Formula Vee national championship in the SCCA, but his most recent victory was different.

"The biggest thing that's changed for me is my attitude going into the season," Varacins states. "I've had a resurgence of desire to go back and defend my championship again in 2016. It's a good motivator!"

Varacins won all his prior SCCA championships at Road America – one in 2009, 2012, and then in 2013. Now having won at Daytona, he's looking ahead to the 2016 SCCA Runoffs at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and planning his strategy.

"SCCA has thrown us a curve ball," Varacins says. "When the Runoffs were at one track for a few years, you had more time to develop. Lately, we've been bouncing around with different types of tracks. Mid-Ohio puts more focus on different parts of the power band than Road America or Daytona, plus handling and vehicle dynamics will play a bigger part, too. The approach is definitely different."

In addition to claiming the 2015 Formula Vee crown, Varacins has been nominated for the SCCA President's Cup. This award, originally presented by President Eisenhower, is given each year to a driver demonstrating ability, competitiveness, and success at the SCCA Runoffs. Prior winners include Roger Penske, Skip Barber, Bobby Rahal, Jim Hall, and Paul Newman, and many others. This year's nominees include Varacins, 2015 Spec Miata champion Jonathan Goring, and 2015 Formula 500 champion Calvin Stewart.

"It's doubly special for me to be nominated this year," Varacins says. "I've won the Runoffs a few times in the past and was never nominated. This year was very rewarding to get the nomination, because this was my best performance. Of my four Runoffs victories, this is the only one where I can look back and say that I would not have done anything differently throughout the race. It was a close race and I didn't make any mistakes."

But for Varacins, the real depth of this nomination has more to do with two other men than his own achievements.

"We lost two key guys from the Formula Vee community right before the race," Varacins notes. "One of them was my engine builder, Jim Wallschlaeger of Vee Tech Engines. He played a vital role and he passed away unexpectedly about a week and a half before I left for Daytona. Then Bob Lybarger passed away about three days before the Runoffs started."

Wallschlaeger was a noted engine builder and Formula Vee driver, and Lybarger a transmission builder, Formula Vee driver, SCCA Club Racing steward, and a past member of both the SCCA Club Racing Board and the SCCA Board of Directors.

"So we lost two guys who were key not only to me, but to the class," Varacins explains. "That made it much more emotional to win the championship and to be nominated for the President's Cup. It's incredibly special for me."