There was no sleeping in on Sunday morning for anyone near Elkhart Lake, WI, as screaming engines of Formula 600 (F6) racecars fired up early to commence the third and final Hagerty Race Day of the 60th anniversary SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® presented by Sunoco. This season, the annual event takes place Sept. 28-Oct. 6, 2024, at Road America.
Reigning F6 National Champion Calvin Stewart earned a Tire Rack Pole Award in the No. 07 SabbathTruth.com/Hoosier Novakar J10 Suzuki after posting a record-breaking qualifying lap Wednesday around the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit known as America’s National Park of Speed. Sharing the front row with Stewart was Sven de Vries in the No. 27 Novakar J9 Suzuki.
To start the 13-lap race that had 22 entries, Stewart jumped into the lead followed by de Vries and Ethan Alexander in a Red Devil Suzuki. By the end of the opening lap, James Weida and his No. 22 Weida Apartments Scorpion S1 Rotax had moved from the sixth starting spot to fourth. Behind him were Aaron Ellis in the No. 43 Hawk/CFF/Hoosier Ellis AE13 Suzuki, Eric McRee in a NovaRace Blade Suzuki, Jason Martin in a Novakar J10 Suzuki, David Lapham in a Novakar J10 Suzuki, and Keith Joslyn in a Scorpion S1 Rotax.
By the third lap, Weida had passed Alexander for the third spot. Then Weida went under de Vries in Turn 1 on lap four to take the second spot before going around Stewart in the Carousal to claim the lead. Stewart, however, was unfazed and was back at the front before the Kink.
The fifth lap saw de Vries take second away from Weida on the straight, but Weida was around de Vries again after the fifth corner. The order just short of the race’s midway point was Stewart and Weida in a fight at the front, but de Vries and Alexander were very much in the hunt as well. Ellis and Martin were still in the picture, too.
Not long after, Weida went around the outside of Stewart in Turn 5 to take the lead. From there, the driver from SCCA’s Indianapolis Region stretched his advantage to three seconds enroute to victory and his second Runoffs gold medal and National Championship.
“Once I got through traffic, I just kept my head down and kept hitting my marks,” Weida said while standing on the victory podium. “The car was great from the get-go last Monday when we tested. We didn’t have very good lap times, per se. But handling wise, I could put the car anywhere.”
The battle for the last two podium spots was intense in the remaining laps. Stewart, de Vries, Alexander, Ellis and Martin seemingly all had a shot. On lap 10, de Vries grabbed second from Stewart into Turn 1, but Stewart reclaimed the spot by Turn 5 only to give it up again in the following corner.
The penultimate lap had de Vries and Stewart still mixing it up, and Ellis was not far behind. The final trip around the circuit was fantastic as those three drivers tried to position their vehicles to the best of their ability. Stewart – with his tire performance declining – went by de Vries while the two traveled down Road America’s 4,405-foot front stretch. In Canada Corner, de Vries made another stab at Stewart, but it wasn’t quite enough. He lined up another try in Turn 14, but his focus on Stewart allowed Ellis to get a great run out of the last corner and ultimately take away the third position from de Vries before the three-car pack crossed the finish line.
Stewart’s runner-up finish nabs him a second silver medal in 14 Runoffs appearances.
“What a riot,” a smiling Stewart said about the race. “I had so much fun with Sven (de Vries), (James) Weida and Aaron (Ellis). It was fun, it was great racing, it was clean, and a wonderful time.
“I shouldn’t have let Weida get that far away,” Stewart added. “I got to hand it to Weida, he turned in some really fast times.”
The strategic move through Turn 14 netted Ellis his second bronze medal in 26 Runoffs races.
“I stayed back a bit in the beginning so I could have a run at the end,” Ellis said afterwards. “But I was a little too far back to catch James (Weida) or Calvin (Stewart) at the end.”
Finishing fourth was de Vries, with Martin in fifth. Joslyn won the Sunoco Hard Charger award for finishing in eighth position after starting 22nd.
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 Sunday's F600 race at the 2024 SCCA® National Championship Runoffs, with finish position, starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, car, and laps completed.
1, (6), James Weida, West Lafayette, IN, Scorpion S1 Rotax, 13.
2, (1), Calvin Stewart, Novi, MI, Novakar J10 Suzuki, 13.
3, (3), Aaron Ellis, Farmington, MN, Ellis AE13 Suzuki, 13.
4, (2), Sven de Vries, Holt, MI, Novakar J9 Suzuki, 13.
5, (5), Jason Martin, River Grove, IL, Novakar J10 Suzuki, 13.
6, (4), Ethan Alexander, Grafton, WI, Red Devil Suzuki, 13.
7, (7), Eric McRee, Lapeer, MI, NovaRace Blade Suzuki, 13.
8, (17), Steven Jondal, Rushford, MN, Red Devil Rotax, 13.
9, (11), George Bugg, Toney, AL, Scorpion S1 Suzuki, 13.
10, (10), H Cory McLeod, Charlotte, NC, Red Devil Aero Rotax, 13.
11, (9), Rick Eskola, Tomahawk, WI, Quadrini Invader QC1 Rotax, 13.
12, (14), Eric Van Cleef, Huntsville, AL, Novakar J10 Suzuki, 13.
13, (15), Robert Gray, Yorktown Hts, NY, Novakar J9 Suzuki, 13.
14, (16), Glen Thielke, Rubicon, WI, Red Devil JS 15 Rotax, 12.
15, (18), Jack Walbran, Saint Louis, MO, Scorpion S1 Suzuki, 12.
16, (8), David Lapham, Commerce Twp, MI, Novakar J10 Suzuki, 8.
17, (19), Timothy Friest, Leavenworth, KS, KBS Mk VII Rotax, 7.
18, (22), Keith Joslyn, Grand Island, NY, Scorpion S1 Rotax, 13.
DNF, (13), Jeff Jorgenson, Manitowoc, WI, Novakar J10 Rotax, 5.
DNF, (12), Jay Beckley, Marlton, NJ, Ellis AE13 Suzuki, 4.
DNF, (20), Paul McBride, South Bend, IN, Stinger TR-1 Rotax, 4.
DNF, (21), Richard Jones, Hilliard, OH, Stinger TR-1 Rotax, 3.
Race Stats
Length of Race: 52.62 miles
Overall Time of Race: 30:37.232 (avg. 103.115 mph)
Margin of Victory: 01.829 seconds
Fastest Race Lap: 2:18.840 (104.961 mph)
Lap Leaders: #07, Laps 1-5; #22, Laps 6-13
Sunoco Hard Charger: #38 Steven Jondal
Photo by: Rick Corwine
