Speedway, Indiana. Home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and race fans that embrace motorsports. And the little city certainly embraced the Runoffs® participants Monday night.
Hundreds of workers, racers, crew and family wandered onto main street to sample Daredevil Brewing’s finest work, listen to the Max Allen band play some covers, and sample Speedway’s own Tacos & Tequila’s local fare.
Special thanks goes to the Indy Region SCCA, specifically CJ Harleman, for being the boots on the ground to make everyone feel welcome.
But relaxation time is over and it’s back to qualifying Tuesday morning with all 28 car classes getting 18-minute sessions on track. Follow all the action — with live timing, audio commentary and a static camera — right here!
Defending Champion Challenges
Qualifying Monday wasn’t particularly kind to a couple defending Runoffs champions. Justin Hille, who took the Spec Miata Runoffs win last year at Mid-Ohio, experienced engine troubles with his V2 Motorsports Mazda Miata. As a result, his Monday qualifying position was 84th out of 86 cars. Was his team able to sort out the troubles? That will be something to watch Tuesday when the SM class takes to the 15-turn, 2.592-mile road circuit at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Another defending champ that stumbled Monday was American Sedan racer Andy McDermid in his Weather Tech/Felice Performance/Lane Automotive/T&A Shocks/Pro System Brakes Ford Mustang. McDermid had an incident on the back third of the track and ended up smacking a wall, crunching up the left side of his car. Again, it is a developing story to keep an eye on.