Robert Lentz, Sr., of Leesburg, Virginia, was the Northeast Majors Conference Champion by a seven-point margin. Lentz scored five podium finishes in seven starts, which included a class win at New Jersey Motorsports Park in his fifth championship title in 29 years.

“Other than four Mid-Atlantic Road Race Series regional championships, this is the only Championship I have won in 29 years of SCCA racing,” Lentz said. “It was nice, but unexpected, as I was not watching the points, nor was it my goal. Still, when one is 69 years old, I guess winning a championship is a big deal and I appreciated the honor.”

Throughout the season, Lentz had to deal with a reoccurring mechanical issue on his GT-2 classed car.

“We had power steering and transmission issues all season,” Lentz said. “In the last race of the season my power steering failed on the first race lap and I had to manually steer the thing through the whole race, which was tough.”

It wasn’t even until the end of the season that Lentz realized he had a chance to win the Northeastern Conference championship.

“We were looking at points in GT-Lite as my son and I were driving to the track on Sunday morning of the last race,” Lentz said. “Just out of curiosity I asked him who was leading in GT-2. He told me I would be if I just finished the race that day, which is why I drove through the power steering failure.”

Lentz made sure to give a shout out to those who made the championship possible.

“My biggest thanks goes to Kevin Allen who did most of the heavy-duty car prep and kept fixing the transmissions,” Lentz said. “Also, thanks to Roy Ebert who was with me every race and handled set-up. Lastly my son, Bobby, inspires me on track and provides coaching help along the way.

“As I age, it is especially critical that I get help with the car and these folks are my support base. Also, many thanks to Dave and Brian Rebello for a great motor that never missed a beat all year.”