Mason Workman earned the F Production gold medal on Saturday, the second of three Hagerty Race Days at the 60th anniversary SCCA National Championship Runoffs presented by Sunoco, when he crossed the finish line 5.498sec ahead of defending champion Ken Kannard.
The way he got to that finish line in the No. 52 Hoosier/Mazda/Planet Miata/JPM Mazda Miata followed a path that was anything but predictable.
But the story of Workman’s win begins with the 20 Runoffs starts it took him to earn the gold and starts to turn when he and his crew, which consists mainly of himself and his family, cobbling together a working transmission two hours before the start of the race.
Once he made it to the grid, the path to gold at the end of 13 laps was paved with a variety of incidents that continued to evolve. Those included:
- Tire Rack Pole Sitter Cliff Ira seeing his day end on lap five when he was collected by a lapped car racing through the kink.
- Kevin Ruck racing out ahead of the field, building a lead of more than seven seconds after the full course caution caused during the lap five incident.
- A daring pass around Joe Moser on the outside of the Carousel to move into second on lap nine, and Moser pulling off track with mechanical issues on lap 12 with less than two laps to go.
- The engine in Ruck’s Acura blowing with just two corners left in the race and a significant lead on Workman.
And though Workman had shed the rest of the field he still needed to avoid Ruck, who had spun in his own oil and come to a stop on the racing line in Canada Corner. Workman went to the brakes and began to slide on the slick track but had the presence inside his Miata to steer to the outside and avoid the Acura.
“I saw it and pulled off-line, but I had to go back across it because he pulled it down to the apex,” Workman said. “I slid right through it and went around the outside of it and looked in the mirror to see what happened behind me.”
Once clear, Workman just had to climb the hill to the checkered flag and take his victory lap – which was delayed as the track cleanup continued.
“This is unbelievable,” Workman said. “I can’t believe it. I have tried so hard. I built the very first FP Miata in 2001 and here we are. This is 52 National event wins with this car, which hits it right on my car number. It was just digging from start to finish for me. I was working as hard as I possibly could every second of every lap, and trying to figure out what I had compared to other people and here we are.”
If that wasn’t enough excitement for one race, the battle behind Workman featured Kannard’s No. 51 Northwest Cable/G-Loc/JPM Acura Integra patiently working through the field from eighth on the grid to lead a field of Miatas that included Stephen Simonds, David Bednarz, Charlie Campbell and Doug Weaver all in a pack. Kannard, a veteran who earned his first gold medal a year ago in his 23rd start, avoided the carnage in the paraphrased adage that you must first finish to finish on the podium. That was closer than he expected when he revealed post-race that he was missing second gear for the final laps.
“I had that saying in mind, and sometimes I had to give it up to let somebody in so we didn’t have contact,” Kannard said. “If I didn’t, everyone’s race was going to be ruined. Patience was huge. I’ve been doing this a while, so I just had to take what they could give me. I took what I could get and waited for the next turn of events. I thought they were going to get into each other and they didn’t, it was just such a gaggle of cars. I was sitting at the back of that watching for a lot of it.”
Simonds got the better of that Miata battle that looked like a race for fourth until Ruck’s late race incident. He started 12th and worked his way forward and – for much of the last three laps – led a train that was nose-to-tail through the field. Pleased with a top-five run in just his third Runoffs start after a career best of 13th previously, he was pleasantly surprised as he cleared Ruck and realized a podium was within reach.
“It feels unreal,” Simonds said. “It’s been a little tougher week than I thought. I knew we had some speed but I just woke up with the thought that I was going to go race and have fun and see what happens. It was a ton of fun out there. Except for a couple of incidents, everyone raced hard and raced clean. It was the most fun I’ve had in a race car.”
Bednarz and Campbell completed the top five, while Mike Gnadt improved 10 positions on the grid to finish 11th and earn the Sunoco Hard Charger Award.
The 60th anniversary SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® presented by Sunoco is the pinnacle of American amateur motorsports and crowns Sports Car Club of America’s Road Racing National Champions this year at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI, during Hagerty Race Days running Friday, Oct. 4, through Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024.
Live, online video coverage of Runoffs races, presented by Mazda, is available throughout the three days of competition at SCCA.com/runoffs-live. Live timing and scoring for each race are also available at SCCA.com/pages/runoffs-live-timing.
Below are final results for Saturday's F Production race at the 2024 SCCA® National Championship Runoffs, with finish position, starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, car, and laps completed.
1, (4), Mason Workman, Canal Winchester, OH, Mazda Miata, 13.
2, (8), Ken Kannard, Sebring, FL, Acura Integra, 13.
3, (12), Stephen Simonds, Rosharon, TX, Mazda Miata, 13.
4, (9), David Bednarz, Dexter, MI, Mazda Miata, 13.
5, (7), Charlie Campbell, Corry, PA, Mazda Miata, 13.
6, (10), Doug Weaver, Chatham, ON, Mazda Miata, 13.
7, (15), Bill Verdien, Menomonee Falls, WI, Mazda Miata, 13.
8, (16), Mark Weber, Saint Louis, MO, Mazda Miata, 13.
9, (17), Gerald Lamb, Oswego, IL, Mazda Miata, 13.
10, (18), Wiley Timbrook, Arvada, CO, Mazda Miata, 13.
11, (21), Mike Gnadt, Kiel, WI, MG Midget, 13.
12, (19), Michael Froh, Elkhart Lake, WI, Mazda Miata, 13.
13, (23), James Simaras, Lisbon, WI, Mazda Miata, 13.
14, (20), Paul F Jensen, Colorado Springs, CO, Mazda Miata, 13.
15, (24), Joseph Boruch, East Harwich, MA, Mazda Miata, 13.
16, (22), William Storms, Maple Ridge, BC, Honda Civic Del Sol Si VTEC, 13.
17, (25), Robert Keller, Algonquin, IL, Volvo P-1800, 13.
18, (2), Kevin Ruck, Marysville, OH, Acura Integra, 12.
19, (3), Joe Moser, Dallas, TX, Acura Integra GSR, 12.
20, (14), Thomas Gaydos, Aurora, OH, Honda CR-X, 11.
21, (11), Steven Powers, Phoenix, AZ, Mazda Miata, 10.
22, (5), David Strittmatter, Akron, OH, Acura Integra, 9.
DNF, (1), Cliff Ira, Kansas City, MO, Honda Civic Del Sol Si VTEC, 3.
DNF, (6), Bill Hingston, Parker, CO, Mazda Miata, 2.
DNS, (13), Eric Griesinger, Plainfield, IL, Mazda Miata, 0.
DNS, (26), Larry Funk, Oberlin, OH, Honda CR-X Si, 0.
Race Stats
Length of Race: 52.62 miles
Overall Time of Race: 41:13.605 (avg. 76.587 mph)
Margin of Victory: 5.489 seconds
Fastest Race Lap: 2:33.246 (95.094 mph)
Lap Leaders: #73, Laps 1-12; #52 lap 13
Sunoco Hard Charger: #74 Mike Gnadt
Photo by: Jeff Loewe
