Before the Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda season finale later this month, a few young drivers from that series have opted to take on the 2017 SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
F4 racers Elliot Finlayson and Flinn Lazier will face each other, and several other SCCA competitors, in the Formula Enterprise class at the Runoffs. Additionally, F4 driver Austin McCusker is taking on the challenge that is the Formula Continental class, and F4 competitor Jacob Loomis has joined the fray in Spec Racer Ford Gen 3, which has a field of 101 competitors.
“Competing in SCCA Club events is different than professional racing and exposes our young drivers to different cars with different performance characteristics,” said SCCA Pro Racing Vice President Steve Oseth, who is also competing at the Runoffs in the Formula F class. “With the National Championship Runoffs being held at IMS this season it has brought some intense and varied competition with nearly 1,000 entries in 28 different classes. Our F4 U.S. drivers are used to large fields but they definitely have their work cut out for them this weekend.”
To read some of the thoughts of these young drivers, check out the full story here.
Runoffs Run in IndyCar Blood
The Spec Miata field is huge this year at the 2017 SCCA National Championship Runoffs. Drivers from all over the country with an immensely diverse background are in the mix, including the founder of a team which made its first Indy 500 appearance this year.
Ricardo Juncos is behind the wheel of car No. 117 in the Spec Miata class. He is also the owner of Juncos Racing, which fielded two drivers in this year’s Indy 500 -- Sebastian Saavedra and Spencer Pigot. With that, Juncos joins a rather illustrious group of SCCA Runoffs competitors who have also managed an Indy 500 team. That list includes Roger Penske, Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Chip Ganassi, Jimmy Vasser and even Paul Newman.
“When I found out the Runoffs were at Indy, I said, ‘OK, somehow I’ve got to do it,’” Juncos told writer Paul Kelly. “So, I was able to do the three (SCCA) races while I was doing everything else, the Indy 500 and the other two teams and everything else. But I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to do the Runoffs.”
Learn more about Juncos’ Runoffs experience in Paul Kelly’s full article found here.
Photo: Ricardo Juncos crossing the Yard of Bricks
Photo Credit: Jeffrey Zurschmeide
