Brakke Wins E Production Gold at SCCA Runoffs at Road America
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Sept. 22, 2012) – Gumout pole winner Jon Brakke, of Fargo, N.D., outlasted Greg Ira, of Plantation, Fla., to win his third-career E Production National Championship at the 49th SCCA National Championship Runoffs® at Road America. Kevin Leigh, of Harrisonburg, Va., finished third.
Driving the No. 89 Margaret Peterson Bars Mazda Miata, Brakke spent the first eight laps engaged in a second-place battle with Ira, while the then race leader Aaron Downey, of Rossmoor, Calif., drove away. But, just before lap nine started, Downey pulled his No. 5 roundpeg.com Mazda RX-3 to pit lane with a broken shifter. Downey’s day was done.
From there, Brakke inherited the race lead with Ira’s No. 2 First Coast Auto Sales Datsun 240-Z in tow and never looked back. The two drivers never traded positions after Downey went out. Brakke won by 2.318-seconds for this third National Crown. Brakke turned the Hawk Performance fast race lap, with a 2:28.626.
“When I saw the grid, I actually said, ‘Aaron’s going to get me. Greg’s going to get me. And, Sam’s going to get me at the start,” Brakke said. “And, I was right. At that point, it was a matter of trying not to drive their race because Greg was going to out-torque me out of the corners every time. It was necessary to get a run at him somewhere, putting together a series of corners – hope I could pass and keep it. We traded back-and-forth in corner one, seven, eight, Canada Corner, a bunch of them.
“Aaron has done such a great job with that car. He was running phenomenally. He was in the lead. That’s not the way to win a race – to have your competition fail like that. It’s just too bad. It was lucky for me. This was a hard fought win. It was very similar to 2010 when Greg and I battled in that race. I’m third time lucky.”
“My strategy developed as the race went along,” Ira said. “I think both Jon and I could have caught Aaron if we hadn’t been messing with each other. We were costing each other a little bit of time. He made a great pass and I elected to stay back there in hopes we could catch Aaron because I was catching him for sure. I could see his car was getting loose. It would have been a great three-way battle at the end. Jon and I were battling in a lot of the corners behind Aaron. He had his head down and was gapping us a bit.
“It’s been a while since I ran 13 laps at 10 tenths. Jon, Aaron and I all have pretty close cars in their own different ways. I was really anticipating this. I was hoping that all three could go through to the end. It was sad to see Aaron pull off. Sometimes it’s hard to catch Jon when he’s out by himself. But, we had a great race.”
Ira recorded his third-consecutive E Production runner-up finish and his fourth E Production podium.
Leigh started sixth in the No. 97 JBS Racing Hoosier BMW Z3. He was up to fourth by lap eight. On lap 10, third-running Sam Halkias, Westerville, Ohio, spun his No. 83 Catawba Island Marina/Buckeye Triumph TR6 in turn five. This allowed Leigh to inherit third and he held on for his first-career E Production National Championship podium.
“The BMW has a lot of power down the straightaways, that was obvious,” Leigh said. “It’s a struggle in the corners. After the first lap, we were fifth. Through attrition, we moved it up to third. These two guys kind of pulled away from us. I knew I had a lot of good competition behind me. They really kept me more than honest. It was a handful. I am just happy to be here at the podium.”
Austin Snader, of Brookshire, Texas, finished fourth in the No. 64 Snader Racing/Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8. Snader earned the GoPro Move of the Race for his last lap efforts in trying to capture the final podium spot. Rick Kavitski, of Freeland, Pa., finished fifth in the No. 24 RDK Engineering Inc. Mazda Miata.
Jeff Willert, of East Troy, Wis., was the Sunoco Hard Charger. He started 29th and finished 15th.
Now in its 49th year, the SCCA National Championship Runoffs annually crowns Champions in the Sports Car Club of America's Club Racing classes. The live broadcast of all 28 National Championship races will be available through Sunday at www.SpeedcastTV.com/scca and later available On Demand from the same site.
Follow the action on Twitter @SCCAOfficial or the SCCA, Inc. Official Facebook page at facebook.com/sccaofficial. More information is available at www.scca.com.
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - Provisional Results from Saturday’s E Production National Championship Race, part of the 49th SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America with finish position, starting position in parenthesis, driver, hometown, car and laps complete.
1, (1), Jon Brakke, Fargo, ND, Mazda Miata, 13. 2, (2), Greg Ira, Plantation, FL, Datsun 240-Z, 13. 3, (6), Kevin Leigh, Harrisonburg, VA, BMW Z3, 13. 4, (9), Austin Snader, Brookshire, TX, Mazda RX-8, 13. 5, (8), Rick Kavitski, Freeland, PA, Mazda Miata, 13. 6, (11), James Simaras, Oconomowoc, WI, Mazda RX-7, 13. 7, (12), Rob Coffey, Thunder Ray, ON, Honda Prelude Si, 13. 8, (10), William Lamkin, Broomfield, CO, Mazda Miata, 13. 9, (22), Don Bunt, Rockford, IL, Datsun 240z, 13. 10, (13), Gary Gist, Del Mar, CA, Mazda RX-7, 13. 11, (21), Brian Haupt, Spring Hill, KS, Mazda RX-7, 13. 12, (25), Tony Jimerson, Vallejo, CA, Mazda RX-7, 13. 13, (23), Steven Burkett, Saint Louis, MO, Mazda RX-7, 13. 14, (18), Bill Allman, Topeka, KS, Mazda RX-7, 12. 15, (29), Jeff Willert, East Troy, WI, Mazda RX-7, 12. 16, (28), Ron Olsen, Barrington, IL, Mazda RX-7, 12. 17, (4), Sam Halkias, Westerville, OH, Triumph TR6, 11. 18, (24), Charlie Clark, Mission, KS, Mazda RX-7, 11. 19, (30), Rich Olsen, South Barrington, IL, Mazda RX-7, 9. 20, (31), Donald Walsh, Orrtanna, PA, Mazda RX-7, 9. 21, (3), Aaron Downey, Rossmoor, CA, Mazda RX-3, 8. DNF, (27), Greg Kasprzyk, Yatesville, PA, BMW 325, 5. DNF, (7), Mark Brakke, Coon Rapids, MN, Mazda Miata, 4. DNF, (5), Matt Reynolds, Boerne, TX, Mazda Miata, 3. DNF, (20), Steve Smyczek, Brookfield, WI, Mazda RX-7, 2. DNF, (19), Robert E. Hummel, McHenry, IL, Mazda RX-7, 1. DNF, (17), John Schmitt, Sunbury, OH, Honda Prelude Si, 1. DNS, (14), Jesse Prather, Topeka, KS, Mazda MX-5, . DNS, (15), Sam Moore, Kannapolis, NC, BMW Z3, . DNS, (16), Michael Sturm, Grafton, WI, Honda Prelude Si, . DNS, (26), Guy Ruse, Boulder, CO, Mazda RX-7, .
Overall Time of Race: 32:37.817 Average Race Speed: 95.617 mph Margin of Victory: 2.318 seconds Hawk Fastest Race Lap: 2:28.626 Fastest Race Lap Average Speed: 96.887 mph Sunoco Hard Charger: #52 Jeff Willert Lap Leaders: #5 - Laps 1 – 7; #89 - Laps 8 – 13
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2012 SCCA National Championship Runoffs
