Golay Wins Wild F500 National Championship Race

TOPEKA, Kan. (Oct. 14, 2006) – Bryan Golay, of Avon, Ohio, charged through the field from eighth to take his first F500 title at the 2006 SCCA National Championship Runoffs Presented by Kansas, As Big As You Think. David Cox, of Fisher, Ill., and Clint McMahan, of Covington, Ga., completed the podium.

The Formula 500 race started with a bang, literally, when a Turn Five incident on lap two sent then leader, No. 56 Brian Novak, of Dearborn, Mich., and polesitter, No. 92 Jason Knuteson, of Danville, Ind., into the grass. Coming out of the chaos on top was the No. 34 Dolphin-Motorsports.com Invader QC1 of Clint McMahan.

McMahan would lead for three laps before Golay’s No. 4 QRE Invader appeared in his mirrors. Golay made his move for the lead in Turn Six and immediately began to pull away. Suddenly, as Golay crossed the line to lead lap seven, he began to slow and McMahan regained the lead without hesitation.

Golay fell all the way back to fifth before he began to pick up speed and positions on his way back to the top. By lap 12, Golay was up to the second spot and looking to pass McMahan. One a lap later, in the Chicane, Golay retook the lead from McMahan and sailed to checkered flag by 8.017-seconds.

“Winning feels better than I imagined,” Golay said. “I was real slow on straight line speed. Then Clint [McMahan] came right past me and I thought ‘What am I doing?’ Then I saw Clint [McMahan] and [Brian] Novak get together and I was right behind and went off track but was able to get right back on. From then on I just drove the car. It felt like there was a spark plug loose, I had no power and I was letting people by. I don’t know what happened then, but I got onto the drag strip and punched it right before I was going to pit and the engine came back on. So I stayed out and just drove it.”

The runner-up spot would go to the No. 85 Scorpion of Cox. Cox had to endure a late-race battle with McMahan, who would hang on to finish third - enough to earn up the Sunoco Hard Charger award for advancing nine positions throughout the race.

Steve Jondal, of Somerset, Wis., would bring his No. 38 Jondal Machine/Milltronics Manufacturing Red Devil LD across the line in fourth, with the No. 84 Chico B/Dons Workshop KBS QRE of Jeff Jorgenson, from San Jose, Calif., behind him in fifth.

Now in its 43rd year, the SCCA National Championship Runoffs Presented by Kansas, As Big As You Think annually crowns the best amateur road racers in North America as Champions. More than 750 competitors have gathered this year to battle for 25 class titles, with nine races on Friday and eight Saturday and Sunday. This marks the first year that the Runoffs is held at Heartland Park Topeka.

Celebrating its 62nd anniversary, Sports Car Club of America is a 55,000 member organization that sanctions and promotes grassroots and professional motorsports events in a variety of disciplines, including road racing, Solo, road rally and rallycross.