Last year, the SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® was nominated for the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Award for Best Motorsports Race. This reader-driven poll pit the Runoffs against some of the best motorsports events in America, including the NHRA U.S. Nationals, Chili Bowl, Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, and more. When voting concluded, the Runoffs ranked fourth, bested only by Sick Week, NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals, and King of the Hammers. This year, the Runoffs is back in the running, and we’re hoping to make our move onto the podium – but we need your help.
Voting for the 10Best Award is open now and runs through Monday, April 28, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Results will be revealed on Wednesday, May 7.
Why should the Runoffs be a USA Today 10Best winner? Perhaps this highlight reel from the 2024 Runoffs at Road America will convince you…
Ready to vote? Click the link! Then click the link again tomorrow and the next day and the next day – because you’re allowed to vote once every eight hours!
10Best Lineup Vote for the Runoffs
Need more convincing before casting your vote? There’s a storied history to tell about the Runoffs, with that journey beginning more than 60 years ago…
Runoffs History
It was 1964 when SCCA first declared National Championship Runoffs winners. Since then, the Runoffs has evolved into what is now commonly agreed to be the pinnacle of amateur road racing in the United States. The Runoffs has been named by Car and Driver magazine as one of the Top 10 racing events in motorsports, and Edmunds called the event “an institution.”
Hundreds of drivers compete for National Championship medals each year at the Runoffs. The record for the largest Runoffs entry occurred in 2017 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with 969 entries. Meanwhile, the 2025 and ’26 Runoffs will take place in fall at America’s National Park of Speed, Road America. Over the years, however, SCCA’s National Championship has been decided at a multitude of tracks.
For the first six years, SCCA’s National Championship alternated between Riverside International Raceway in California (1964, ’66, ’68) and Florida’s Daytona International Speedway (1965, ’67, ’69).
After that – and for the next two dozen years – the Runoffs was held at Road Atlanta in Georgia. That era saw a fantastic period that produced many memorable moments. Then in 1994, the Runoffs moved north to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course through 2005.
In 2006, the Runoffs added a fifth track to its resume: Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, KS. That was followed by a 2009 visit to Wisconsin’s Road America.
In 2014, the Runoffs began a more frequent alternating schedule. To begin the rotation, SCCA selected one of the country’s most historic road courses west of the Rockies: Laguna Seca. It marked the first time the Runoffs took place out west since the event’s final visit to Riverside International Raceway.
Since then, the Runoffs has added stops at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway, Daytona International Speedway, and VIRginia International Raceway to its history book.
Who’s won a Runoffs title? Just the who’s who of motorsports. We’ll name drop Graham Rahal, Jimmy Vasser, Paul Newman, Skip Barber, Boris Said, Bob Tullius, Bob Sharp, Scott Sharp, Jim Fitzgerald, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Doc Bundy, Peter Gregg, Bob Holbert, and Randy Pobst.
Photo by Jeff Loewe
