2019 Runoffs, Lotus and Caterham results

[Kitcat]

The 2019 SCCA Runoffs were held at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) this year.

 

I watched the "F-Production" race this a.m. If only F1 were this exciting!

 

Forum member, and friend, Craig Chima, qualified in 4th and was .5 second behind the leader in his Lotus 7. Just like last year, he got the jump on everyone at the start and spurted into first, followed by a gaggle of angry Miatas. They slowly and surely picked him off over the ensuing laps and he fell to 4th, where he was hot on the heels of the Miata in front and being closely hounded from behind by another competitor.

 

Then it rained for 1 lap and got even crazier, as no one had traction, and everyone was getting sideways. Then it slowly dried off.

 

On the seventh or so lap Craig was hit from behind in the braking zone heading into turn one. Impossible for my amateurish eye to know if it was anything more than typical close racing contact. But he was punted backwards into the weeds and lost considerable time, eventually, clawing his way back into 7th where he finished.

 

The 2 front-running Miatas swapped the lead on every lap, sometimes, more than once. Finally Eric Prill pipped the leader with a great move heading into and thru the downhill S's to barely eek out a 1/2 car length victory.

 

Anyhow, good on Craig for maintaining the honor of the se7ens community, in his ancient Lotus with its tiny little engine and barn door aero at such a high speed track. The field of 20 or so cars included 7 former national Runoff's champions (including Craig, a 2 time winner), with 21 Runoffs championships among them. So the level of competition was extremely high.

 

And in other se7en news, the Caterhams in "E-Production" came in 9th and 12th. These were Caterham "Americas" from '00 and '01 that were built by Caterham specifically to SCCA's spec for E-production. My current Cat started life as a Caterham "America". They run larger motors among other things but still feature the barn-door aero that makes high speed tracks so challenging.