TOPEKA, Kan. (Oct. 15, 2006) – Chuck Mathis, of St. Jacob, Ill., made his first SCCA G Production National Championship look easy winning by 14.032-seconds over polesitter Andy Deatherage, of Cleveland, Ohio, at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs Presented by Kansas, As Big As You Think. Chris Albin, of Maryland Heights, Mo., finished third.

As a light rain began to fall on the G Production start, Deatherage powered his No. 9 Woody Service/Hoosier Suzuki Swift GT to the lead in Turn One and led the first six laps before Mathis made a move to the inside of Deatherage in Turn 14 to take the lead. From there, Mathis put some distance between his No. 54 Hoosier/247-Parts.com/Gateway Motorsport Volkswagen Rabbit and the rest of the field en route to his first National Championship.

“Chasing Woody [Deatherage], I didn’t know if I was going to get it done for a while,” Mathis said. “He was running good. We were pretty much evenly matched. Once [the rain] started to come down, I saw him wiggle a little bit a few times and I figured it’s time to go or it’s not gonna’ happen. I can race anywhere with Woody. We’ve raced motorcycles together since the ‘80s. I had the brakes fail pretty much completely by the end of the race. I could get something if I pumped the brakes five or six times. But with the rain, you couldn’t stop anyhow so it didn’t really matter. Other than that, it was pretty good.”

Ken Bouquillon, of New Milford, Conn., finished fourth in the No. 29 Gmt Racing/Rebello Racing Engines Nissan 510 and Jonathan Goodale, of Conifer, Colo., brought the No. 4 Hoosier/Bimmerhaus/JeffCo Sheriff Suzuki Swift GTI home in fifth. David Hammer, of North East, Pa., won the Sunoco Hard Charger of the race award for advancing nine positions throughout the race, starting 24th and finishing 15th.

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.

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