LEXINGTON, Ohio (Sept. 25, 2004) – Brian Tomasi, of Elgin, Ill., captured his first National Championship Saturday, taking the Formula Continental class at the 2004 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® Presented by Kohler at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Dave Weitzenhof, of Bath, Ohio, and Mark Defer, of Streetsboro, Ohio, completed the top three.
Driving the No. 96 Hoosier/RMX/Nova/Subway Van Diemen RF01, Tomasi led every lap en route to his first-ever Runoffs win. Starting on pole, after setting a new lap record on Tuesday, Tomasi got a great jump to maintain the lead at the start. Showing great car control, Tomasi steadily began to pull away from second place in the openings laps. As the race progressed, Tomasi continued to build his lead as the field began to spread out. Setting a new lap record of 1:24.667 (96.009), Tomasi cruised to the checkered flag, winning by 9.51 seconds with an average speed of 86.687 mph.
“All I wanted to do in my career was to win the [Road America] June Sprints and the Runoffs,” said Tomasi, who captured the SCCA Chicago Region Triple Crown with the win. “Now I have done both in the same year. I got a very good start and was able to pull away. I was nervous about things before the race. I thought it would be a battle but when I got a great start it made the difference. I think that my tires worked better today in the cooler temperatures than Dave's [Weitzenhof] did.”
Rick Silver, of Derwood, Md., finished fourth, and Chas Shaffer, of Catlett, Va., 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=165