LEXINGTON, Ohio (Sept. 24, 2004) – John Heinricy, of Holly, Mich., won his record fourth-straight National Championship in Touring 1, dominating the 2004 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® Presented by Kohler at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. 2000 Champion Freddy Baker, of Bedford, Ohio, and Philip Croyle, of Boca Raton, Fla., completed the top three.

Driving the No. 35 Goodyear/Phoenix Performance Chevrolet Corvette, Heinricy led every session of the week. He even won the random draw to send him out in the opening qualifying session first among his 31 other competitors. At the start, Baker’s Porsche looked as if it might edge into the lead going into the first corner, but Heinricy held the line in his Corvette, driving away from the competition to score a 12.3-second victory, averaging 81.033 mph.

The win was the fourth-straight flag-to-flag for Heinricy in Touring 1, making him just the sixth driver in the 41-year history of the Runoffs to win four or more in any class.

"I was asleep at the start,” said Heinricy. “Baker got a nose ahead of me, but I worked my brakes hard. I got alongside Freddy [Baker] through the Esses, and then got going full bore and picked up the lead. I was able to drive to a reasonable lead and then to save tires. If Freddy had gotten ahead of me at the start he would have been difficult to pass. This was a brand new car this weekend; it never raced before."

Croyle moved up from his eighth starting position to score a career-best third place finish. Scotty B. White, of Puyallup, Wash., and Chris Ingle, of Newnan, Ga., completed the top five.

Now in its 41st year, the SCCA National Championship Runoffs annually crown the best amateur road racers in North America Champions. More than 700 competitors have gathered this year to battle for 24 class titles this year, with eight races being run each day from Friday through Sunday.

Celebrating its 60th Anniversary, Sports Car Club of America is a 60,000 member motorsports organization that sanctions and promotes grassroots and professional motorsports events of a variety of disciplines, including road racing, autocrossing, road rally and performance rally.

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Link to story: http://www.scca.com/News/News.asp?Ref=154