SCCA Runoffs notebook: Young, old and determined

Qualifying continues on Wednesday at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs presented by Garmin VIRB. Among the many records that might be broken this week are two set by IndyCar driver Graham Rahal in 2005. At age 16, Rahal drove a Formula Atlantic to the record as the youngest driver to win a Runoffs pole position and then became the youngest driver to win a national championship.

Now 15-year-old Neil Verhagen is poised to break both those records. Verhagen, of Mooresville, N.C., has driven his Honda-powered Formula F (pictured above, Digital Automotive Depictions photo) to the lead in the first two qualifying sessions of the week with a comfortable margin over second place.

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"I'm really looking forward to this weekend," Verhagen says. "It's Formula F racing, so a lot of draft plays into it. The pack runs really close together."

Whether or not he wins the championship, Verhagen has his goals set higher for next year.

"Ideally, we'd like to go to USF2000," Verhagen says, "but if don't get that for any reason, we're looking at Formula Fords in Europe. I don't have an enormous budget to spend with a series, so we would see if we could do anything over there."

Like all aspiring professional drivers, Verhagen has a long list of people to thank for getting him to this point.

"I'd really like to thank K-Hill Racing, because they've put a phenomenal package together for me this year," he says. "I also have to thank Tonis Kasemets, my head engineer, and my Oma and Opa and my Grandma and Grandpa for supporting me and helping me and funding me to get here. It's been a team effort."

49 years in SCCA racing

Like many young men in the late 1960s, Dick Colburn decided to try his hand at SCCA racing. In 1968 he bought an Austin-Healey "Bugeye" Sprite, taped up the headlights, and went to the track. Now 49 years year, Colburn is celebrating his 40th entry at the Runoffs.

"I fast-tracked my way into a national license, which wasn't easy to do back then," says Colburn (pictured). "I got my first D Sports Racing car in November of 1970, and my first race in it was April of 1971 at Laguna Seca."

In the course of 40 trips to the Runoffs, Colburn has too many memories to recount, but one stood out, from his first Runoffs.

"In 1974 I made my first visit to the Runoffs in Atlanta, and I was paddocked in an area known as The Bog, down below the paved paddock by a creek," Colburn recalls. "I was putting in a spare motor, working all alone. I could hear general murmuring of people and generators and dropped tools on the pavement, and I went up and children were going from pit to pit in costumes, trick-or-treating. That was 1974 and it set the pace for my Runoffs experiences."

In the course of his career, Colburn has mixed with some of the legends of Sports Racing, and he has new plans for his 50th year behind the wheel.

"I'd have to thank great racers like Red LeGrand, and Frank Plotkin who built the Kangaroo, my first DSR in 1970," he says. "It's a long story, but I just re-acquired my old Kangaroo DSR again. I'm going to relive history by going vintage racing sometime next year."

Surrender is not an option

Brian Husting had a tough time in practice this year. In his first practice session, Husting's Touring 4 Chevy Cobalt took a hit from behind under braking for Turn 2, Mid-Ohio's famous Keyhole hairpin. The car shot across the grass and went hard into the guardrail, crushing the front end.

"I went head-on into the guardrail at whatever speed and ended up in the gravel," Husting says. "I thought at that point that we were done and headed back to California after my first session."

Yet the commitment that gets a driver to the Runoffs is not easily set aside, and Husting had a week to get his car fixed.

"I got some great words of encouragement from the Safety Steward about going for it," Husting says, "so I've been visiting the junk yards of Shelby, Ohio with my crew chief Dan Wiegandt (pictured, at right, with Husting), and we found a yard with 7 or 8 Cobalts. We've cannibalized everything we can to rebuild this car."

"I think we have parts from five different Cobalts on this car now," Weigandt observes.

In addition to finding parts, Husting resorted to some seriously old school crash repair techniques.

"In the maintenance yard here at the track they have huge blocks of concrete with loops of wire cable sticking out," he explains. "We would tow-strap the car to those and I'd go as fast as I could in reverse to try and pull out the car. I think by Tuesday I'd spent more time in reverse than going forward on the track!"

One thing that's predictable at the Runoffs is that other teams will also pitch in to help a competitor get back on track.

"We got some help from (GT-1 driver) Mike Lewis' crew chief Joe to do some welding last night," Husting says. "That helped out a lot. We're focused on cosmetics today so I can put the car together and get my tech sticker in time for qualifying."