INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (September 30, 2017) – To close out the second day of racing from the 2017 SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Formula 1000 (FB) field took to the 15-turn, 2.592-mile road circuit.
Gary Hickman, in the No. 76 Edge Engineering Inc. Phoenix F1K 12 Suzuki, started on pole with No. 77 Alex Mayer to his side. But as the duo came down to Turn 1 it appeared as if the entire front portion of the FB field had managed to catch the front-row starters.
“I’m pretty confident that neither Alex, nor myself, expected that many cars to pass us coming up to the braking zone in one,” Hickman said about the race’s start. “I stood on my brakes, turned in and there was a hole there and I took it. Somehow, miraculously, I came out ahead of everybody.”
Hickman scooted off at the front with Mayer, in a JDR Racecars JDR JDR Suzuki, giving chase. The No. 00 Hoosier/Stan Photon VD07 Suzuki of Jeremy Hill, and the No. 5 Jake Latham/Hoosier Stohr F1000 Kawasaki of Glenn Cooper filled third and fourth.
After a few laps, Hill had dropped away from the front runners, but had a gap on the rest of the field. Then Mayer took a quick excursion off track, giving a nice buffer to Hickman. But Hickman returned the favor a few laps later with a bobble.
“I came into Turn 13 and I was carrying a lot of speed,” Hickman recalled. “I went for my brakes and I had no brakes. I went to turn left and the car was not turning. Somehow, I gathered it up and kept it on the track. But by the time I got it all gathered up and pointed the right direction, Alex caught me and went flying by.”
“I spent the next seven or eight laps just running Alex down,” Hickman continued. “I got by him once, then he got by me again.”
The competition remained fierce between Mayer and Hickman, with both driving as hard as they could. However, the battle was cut short with only a handful of laps remaining due to an on-track incident. Mayer, of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, had won his first ever Runoffs in six starts.
“It’s awesome to win here,” Mayer said about his win. “I was raised here. It’s great to do this on the actual Indianapolis Speedway.”
Hickman earned the runner-up spot, his highest Runoffs finish to date. And Hill held on for the final spot on the podium.
“I got an awesome start,” Hill said. “But I couldn’t hold on to Alex and Gary anyway. And I knew that pretty much from the get go. So, my plan was just to try and hang on to them as long as I could in case something happened and protect the third position for sure.”
Cooper finished fourth and Kevin Roggenbuck, in the No. 12 Lake Union Sea Ray Ralph Firman RFR F1000 Kawasaki, finished fifth.
The Sunoco Hard Charger award went to David William O’Leary in the No. 31 O’Leary Motorsports Mygale SJ04- GSXR Suzuki for finishing thirteenth, five spots higher than where he started.
The 54th SCCA National Championship Runoffs, the Pinnacle of American Motorsports, crowns Sports Car Club of America’s Road Racing National Champions this year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Friday, September 29 through Sunday, Oct 1.
While the live broadcast of all 28 National Championships is available at SCCA.com and Motor Trend OnDemand, each race will be on demand in the coming weeks.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Provisional results for Saturday’s Formula 1000 (FB) race at the 54th SCCA National Championship Runoffs from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with finish position, starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, car and laps complete.
1, (2), Alex Mayer, Harleysville, PA, JDR JDR Suzuki, 15.
2, (1), Gary Hickman, Santee, CA, Phoenix F1K.12 Suzuki, 15.
3, (3), Jeremy Hill, Toronto, ON, Photon VD07 Suzuki, 15.
4, (5), Glenn Cooper, Roswell, GA, Stohr F1000 Kawasaki, 15.
5, (4), Kevin Roggenbuck, Woodinville, WA, Ralph Firman RFR F1000 Kawasaki, 14.
6, (10), Joel Haas, Jupiter, FL, Piper DF05 Kawasaki, 14.
7, (8), Pete Frost, Douglasville, GA, Phoenix F1K.12 Suzuki, 14.
8, (7), Tim Pierce, Leland, NC, Ralph Firman RFR F1000 Suzuki, 14.
9, (6), Mark Nixon, Oro Valley, AZ, Stohr F1000 Kawasaki, 14.
10, (12), James Michael, Fort Worth, TX, Stohr F1000 Suzuki, 14.
11, (14), Stephen Hamilton, Incline Village, NV, JDR 012 Suzuki, 14.
12, (16), Jason Slahor, Ellicott City, MD, Citation F1000 Kawasaki, 14.
13, (18), David William O'Leary, Cranberry Township, PA, Mygale SJ04- GSXR Suzuki, 14.
14, (15), Richard Franklin, Wilmington, NC, Stohr F1000 Suzuki, 13.
15, (17), Mike Meyers, Penfield, NY, Philly Motorsports DB-F1000 Kawasaki, 13.
16, (9), Jose Gerardo, El Paso, TX, JDR JDR-12 Suzuki, 7.
17, (11), Mike Beauchamp, Green Bay, WI, Van Diemen RF99 Suzuki, 5.
DNS, (13), Todd Peterson, Boulder, CO, Ralph Firman RFR F1000 Suzuki,.
Length of Race: 39 miles
Overall Time of Race: 24:27.964
Average Speed: 95.348 mph
Margin of Victory: 00.509 seconds
Fastest Race Lap: 1:33.702 (99.584 mph)
Lap Leaders: No. 76 laps 1-4; No. 77 laps 5-15
Sunoco Hard Charger: No. 31 David William O'Leary
Image: Alex Mayer leading Gary Hickman in the Formula 1000 Runoffs race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Credit: Jay Bonvouloir
