SCCA Runoffs notebook: A Hansen record falls

Rettich breaks a Hansen record

Formula Enterprises driver Scott Rettich of Columbus, Ohio broke an obscure but important record this week at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs presented by Garmin VIRB. Rettich claimed his eighth consecutive Tire Rack pole position in the class, beating a record set by the legendary Jerry Hansen, who took seven consecutive pole positions in A Sports Racing from 1975 through '81.

"It certainly means a lot to beat a record set by such a legend in club racing," Rettich said. Jerry Hansen set so many records that people thought were unbeatable. To come away with eight poles in a row is amazing."

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Not many drivers think about records like this, but Rettich has had his eye on it for a while.

"Once I got to four or five poles in a row, I started honing in on it and I knew it was going to be a possibility," he said.

Rettich started on pole for Formula Enterprises (above, Digital Automotive Depictions photo), and took the win with a 23.154-second margin of victory. But he's also competing this week in Spec Racer Ford and Spec Racer Ford 3. Not surprisingly, he's up front in all both of those classes as well.

"For SRF, SportsCar [magazine] picked me to win," Rettich said, "and I think it'll be down to the top four or five of us to battle it out at the end. I think we're also strong in SRF3, but it's a deeply competitive class. I think I've got a strong chance in all three."

No one gets into the SCCA record book alone, and Rettich is quick to offer thanks for the support he's received.

"I'd like to thank my team, Alliance Autosport, Red Line Synthetic Oil, PDi Communication Systems, and all my team members, my parents and my wife Rebecca."

Hanna Zellers plays it smart

Hanna Zellers of Granger, Ind. started third in the No. 23 HZ Motorsports/One Formula Racing Formula Enterprises (pictured, author photo), but fell back on the first lap. Then she ran one of the smartest races of the day to finish second, and along the way she set the fast race lap of 1:30.563.

SCCA favorite Scott Rettich won the race handily, but the battle everyone was watching was the three-way scramble between Dean Opperman, Paul Schneider, and Zellers. She hung back in fourth and allowed Opperman and Schneider to wear each other out before making her move.

"For the first third of the race, I was worried that there would be an incident right in front of me," Zellers says. "I figured that anything can happen, so I was focused on driving smooth and hitting my marks. I just wanted to let Dean and Paul do their thing."

Ebben's tale of two racetracks

On Monday and Tuesday, Cliff Ebben of Freedom, Wis., drove his No. 36 McMahon Group/Stumpf Ford/Lamers Ford Mustang to a new Runoffs qualifying record of 1:21.927, earned the provisional Tire Rack pole position in GT-1, and then he packed up and left.

Ebben took his car to Virginia International Raceway to compete in Saturday's SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am series on Saturday, but he plans to be back at Mid-Ohio on Sunday to compete at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs presented by Garmin VIRB.

"We weren't planning to run the Trans-Am races after Elkhart Lake," Ebben says, "but we did really well there, and decided to do the rest of the season."

As a result, Ebben found himself needing to be in two places during the week-long Runoffs. But fortunately, there's just enough time between the races to tow the race car from Virginia to Ohio.

"Both my sons are racing at the Runoffs, so I want to be there," Ebben insists. "We should do pretty good; the car's been running well."

With one qualifying session left on Thursday afternoon, Ebben could still be edged out of the pole position, but that's a risk you take when you're running two races in two states on one weekend.

The GT-1 class will race at 4:40 p.m ET on Sunday.

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  SCCA National Championship Runoffs presented by Garmin VIRB

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