Charlie James, of Joplin, Mo., earned his first Sports Car Club of America National Championship, taking the inaugural B-Spec title at the 50th SCCA National Championship Runoffs® Sunday at Road America. Joel Lipperini, of Pittston, Pa., and Tony Kester, of Joliet, Ill., completed the podium. James started third in his No. 02 SafeRacer/BFGoodrich/Sparco/FedEx/Joe Gibbs MINI Cooper and took the lead after SafeRacer Polesitter Joel Weinberger slid off and into the Turn One barrier at the start when his quick-release steering wheel reportedly came loose. From there, James held the lead for the rest of the 12-lap, 48-mile race, beating Lipperini to the checkered flag by 2.867 seconds. “It feels great to be a Champion,†James said. “As a longtime SCCA member, this just feels awesome. It feels good to be here and especially for the first B-Spec podium. We were happy just to be here and support the new class. “The Turn One incident was definitely interesting at the very start. It shocked us all and we weren’t sure what to make of it. Joel was behind me and we just put our heads down and started to race and see where we all ended up.†Lipperini, a three-time SCCA National Champion, started fourth in his No. 81 BFGoodrich Tires/Honda/Racelabz/Hawk/RedLine Honda Fit and moved to second on the opening lap. “It was just about getting through Turn One clean,†Lipperini said. “From then on, we just ran our own race. I tried to run down Charlie, but it was actually a pretty boring race from my seat.†A former Formula Ford Champion, Kester started 10th in the No. 99 Continental Mazda/ALM ACC Members MAZDA2, and worked his way to third in his first Runoffs appearance since 1992. “First lap of qualifying on Tuesday, I got tapped by another car and my Mazda got put on its lid,†Kester said. “It was like an astronaut test as the car was spinning on its roof while it was sliding down the track. It ended up in the gravel and flipped back up onto its wheels. So when my mechanic Vince Fiore started putting it back together, he pulled about 50 or 60 pounds of gravel out of it. On the warmup lap, when I was weaving back and forth, I could hear the gravel somewhere in the car sliding back and forth. “The guys worked real hard. John Doonan with Mazda helped us get some parts. Pounded out the roof. There were actually a couple of holes worn through the roof. So, it’s now the FrankenMazda. They put it together and it was pretty good, all things considered. We had a good race, and I ended up third. “The race with Mike [Asselta] was one of the best races I’ve had with anybody.†Asselta finished fourth in his No. 03 SafeRacer/BFG/Sparco/FedEx/Joe Gibbs MINI Cooper, followed by Shawn Young’s No. 11 Continental Mazda/STA-BIL/Castrol MAZDA2. Young turned the Hawk Performance Hot Lap for the fastest lap in the race of 2:55.373 (82.111 mph). Kester also was the Sunoco Hard Charger for his move from 10th to third, and he made the GoPro Hero Move of the Race during his run. The 50th SCCA National Championship Runoffs®, The Pinnacle of American Motorsports, will crown Sports Car Club of America’s Club Racing National Champions at Road America, Friday, September 20 through Sunday, September 22. Follow all the live timing and scoring and get results at The Sports Car Club of America - 50th SCCA National Championship Runoffs. Live Twitter stream is available @SCCALive. Follow this weekend’s races on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SCCAOfficial. The live broadcast of all 28 National Championship races will be available through Sunday at SpeedcastTV and later available On Demand from the same site. Provisional results for Sunday’s SCCA B-Spec National Championship race at the 50th SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America, with finish position, starting position in parenthesis, driver, hometown, car and laps complete. 1, (3), Charlie James, Joplin, MO, Mini Cooper, 12. 2, (4), Joel Lipperini, Pittston, PA, Honda Fit, 12. 3, (10), Tony Kester, Joliet, IL, MAZDA2 , 12. 4, (5), Mike Asselta, Overland Park, KS, Mini Cooper, 12. 5, (2), Shawn Young, Bensenville, IL, MAZDA2 , 12. 6, (8), Derrick Ambrose, Vancouver, WA, MAZDA2 , 12. 7, (7), Roy Richards, Boron, CA, Honda Fit, 12. DNF, (1), Joel Weinberger, Hinsdale, IL, MAZDA2 , 0. DNF, (6), Brian Kelm, Plymouth, MI, Ford Fiesta, 0. DNS, (9), Mark Boden, Winnetka, IL, MAZDA2.
Great news. I'm still not sure if B-spec really achieved it's goal--to bring affordable racing to the masses, with minimal fuss with car prep. You have former SCCA champions and formula ford champions in there; almost like Sprint drivers driving nationwide, and then you look at the sponsors/factory involvement; it is a two-tiered program, and that will probably undo it. Having a set of relatively high-powered racing teams in a relatively underpowered car isn't going to attract a ton of newcomers.
SCCA "amateur" racing has always been that way. :mad2: Congratulations to Charlie James, because he did the best job of playing the game (and driving)!
Congrats are still definitely in order, I don't want to seem to be raining on his parade, he earned it and deserves it; I should have been more enthusiastic about that in my post, I just wish the B-spec series would have worked out differently. It seemed to me the two-tier issues with SCCA and NASA was exactly what B-spec was trying to avoid, to no avail. Still a fun series, one that I hoped to maybe participate in someday, but that dream is out the window.