To put it mildly, the F Production (FP) race during the 63rd Mission Foods SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® at Road America was utterly unbelievable in its unpredictability. There, one driver picked up his second championship in the class during a battle that saw drama unfold all but simultaneously before the race ended under caution.
This one featured race craft, luck, and a whole lot of holding on while the action unfolded.
With the top five qualifiers within roughly one second of the Tire Rack Pole, a battle was all but guaranteed on the class's Hagerty Race Day. Stephen Simonds earned that pole in his No. 63 JPM/Goodyear/Mazda/Carbotech Mazda Miata, followed by four heavy hitters: 2024 FP National Champion Mason Workman, six-time GT-Lite champion Peter Shadowen, three-time Prod champion Craig Chima and two-time Runoffs champion Cliff Ira.
Workman made the most of the start, gaining the lead into Turn 1, with Shadowen slotting into second and Simonds settling for third. Chima, driving a well-handling Lotus, jumped into fourth, then advanced to third, pushing Simonds back another position by the time the field got to Turn 7.
While Workman pulled a near two-second lead in his No. 52 Mazda/Hoosier/JPM/Carbotech Mazda Miata into lap two, the group of Shadowen, Chima, Simonds, last year’s FP champ Chris Bovis, and Doug Weaver were sorting out amongst themselves who would head the group that was increasingly trailing the leader.
Weaver was on a mission, taking the time to work his way up even more from his sixth-place qualifying position to sit third, following Shadowen in the group’s pursuit of Workman. The others in this group, which included Simonds, Chima, and David Strittmatter, were all looking to improve their positions. Fortunately for Workman, that meant he could continue to stretch his lead to 4.5sec by lap five.
That second group got smaller as Shadowen pulled into the pits starting lap six. By Turn 3 on the next go-round, Strittmatter pulled off when his pace quickly slowed, and then in Turn 5, Bovis had contact with Weaver, with Simonds ending up in the back of Bovis as Bovis and Weaver spun. Bovis made contact with the barrier with Weaver pulling off; Simonds took damage but continued.
The lap six chaos brought out a full-course caution, erasing Workman’s hard-earned lead – this was undoubtedly not what Workman wanted.
Amazingly, more attrition occurred during the pace lap, but not up front. And up front, Workman led the field to the green to restart the race with four to go. Workman put the hammer down, with Chima tucking his Lotus in behind. Simonds retained third, bodywork flapping in the wind from the earlier incident.
Chima dodged to the inside into Turn 5, grabbing the lead from a then-impatient Workman who poked his nose to the inside and outside multiple times into Turn 8. In Canada Corner, Workman and Simonds freight trained Chima’s more nimble car to push Chima back to third. Chima fired back with two to go into Turn 1, but thought better of the situation. The top three, chased by Steven Powers and Cliff Ira, got aggressive, with Powers and Chima making contact into Turn 7, then Powers and Ira made contact exiting the Carousel, sending Ira into the wall.
Last lap, it was Workman up front and Simonds in tow, the two having an eight second gap to Graham Fuller’s No. 22 Red Line Oil/Toyota TRD/Goodyear Toyota Tercel to decide the win. Workman ran defensive into Turn 5, then as the pair headed to Turn 6, a full-course caution was called for another incident that happened further back in the pack. With that, the madness came to an end as the race ended under double yellow and the top three headed to the podium to spray well-earned Mazza sparkling wine.
“I’d like to say that it was uneventful, but I was flogging the car all to hell and back,” Workman said after collecting his second Runoffs gold medal in the class. While he was certainly excited to take the win, his thoughts were also on racing competition within his family. “I thought it couldn’t get much better than when my boy [finished sixth in Touring 4] today, but he’s still got some stuff to learn from the old man,” he chuckled. “He’s going to be better than me, I was hoping it would take at least one year, and I think next year he’ll be much better than me.”
Simonds emerged from the fray in second, albeit with a car that was a little worse for wear. “I definitely survived the war and the battle, and pretty much everything else they could throw at me,” Simonds said. “That was an interesting race, for sure.
“I think we definitely had a shot at [the win], but I wasn’t going to do anything stupid until I was ready.”
There was a lot of confusion, but Fuller knew exactly where he was when the race finished under yellow. “I knew where I was,” he said, adding that he didn’t expect to end his race on the podium. “I didn’t really have the pace to keep up with the Miatas – they were three and a half seconds faster than we were all week. So yeah, [third] is a nice prize.”
Ken Kannard finished fourth, Michael Lewis took fifth, and Mark Sargis rounded out the top six, with Sargis earning the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for his impressive run from 26th on the grid.
The 63rd Mission Foods SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® is the pinnacle of American amateur motorsports and crowns Sports Car Club of America™ Champions as part of the Summit Racing Equipment SCCA Road Racing program. In 2026, two Hagerty Race Days at Wisconsin’s Road America decide 23 gold-medal winners.
The live, online Runoffs Broadcast presented by Mazda features video over both competition days at SCCA’s Official YouTube Channel. Live timing and scoring for each race is also available at SCCA.com/live.
Below are official results for Sunday's F Production race at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs; with finish position, starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, car, and laps completed.
- 1, (2), Mason Workman, Canal Winchester, OH, Mazda Miata, 13.
2, (1), Stephen Simonds, Alvin, TX, Mazda Miata, 13.
3, (11), Graham Fuller, Summit Point, WV, Toyota Tercel, 13.
4, (9), Ken Kannard, Sebring, FL, Acura Integra, 13.
5, (12), Michael Lewis, Poway, CA, Mazda RX-7, 13.
6, (26), Mark Sargis, Germantown, WI, Mazda Miata, 13.
7, (15), Mark Weber, Saint Louis, MO, Mazda Miata, 13.
8, (14), Bill Verdien, River Hills, WI, Mazda Miata, 13.
9, (16), Gerald Lamb, Oswego, IL, Mazda Miata, 13.
10, (18), Michael Froh, Elkhart Lake, WI, Mazda Miata, 13.
11, (24), James Gregorius, Livonia, NY, Mazda RX-7, 13.
12, (8), David Bednarz, Dexter, MI, Mazda Miata, 13.
13, (19), Lans Stout, Cornelius, OR, Mazda Miata, 13.
14, (13), Thomas Gaydos, Aurora, OH, Honda Civic Si, 13.
15, (22), Chris Kopley, Easton, CT, Toyota Paseo, 13.
16, (23), Steven Powers, Mesa, AZ, Mazda Miata, 11.
17, (5), Cliff Ira, Jacksonville, FL, Honda Civic Del Sol Si VTEC, 11.
18, (21), James Simaras, Lisbon, WI, Mazda Miata, 9.
19, (4), Craig Chima, Akron, OH, Lotus Super Seven, 11.
20, (17), Daniel Snow, Orange, CA, Fiat X 1/9, 9.
21, (6), Doug Weaver, Chatham, ON, Mazda Miata, 7.
22, (25), Mike Gnadt, Kiel, WI, MG Midget, 7.
23, (7), David Strittmatter, Akron, OH, Acura Integra, 6.
24, (10), Chris Bovis, Carrollton, VA, Honda CRX Si, 6.
25, (3), Peter Shadowen, West Palm Beach, FL, Honda CRX Si, 6.
DNS, (20), Larry Funk, Oberlin, OH, Honda CRX Si.
Race Stats
Length of Race: 52.62 miles
Overall Time of Race: 41:50.585 (avg. 75.459mph)
Margin of Victory: 00.258 seconds
Fastest Race Lap: 2:33.240 (95.098 mph)
Lap Leaders: #52, Laps 1-13
Sunoco Hard Charger: #88 Mark Sargis
Photo by Jay Bonvouloir
