RACE: Heartland Park regional race preview

Former SCCA National Champion to Race On Heartland Park Road Course This Weekend

TOPEKA, Kansas (March 30, 2005) - With the Sports Car Club of America National Championship Runoffs® still over a year away, Heartland Park Topeka is already starting to attract the best of the best in road course racing.

Jon Brakke, the 2003 SCCA E-Production National Champion, will be at Heartland Park Topeka this weekend for the first road course event of 2005, the Kaw Valley Race Group SCCA Double-Regional Club Race.

A practicing attorney in Fargo, N.D. since 1979, Brakke began his SCCA racing career the same year driving a 1966 Chevrolet Corvair in both the D-Production and GT-3 classes. Brakke finished fifth on two occasions while driving the Corvair (1994 and '99).

In 2001 Brakke built and raced a second-generation Mazda Miata in the E-Production class, the same car he will be competing in this weekend. After a seventh-place finish at the Runoffs in 2001, Brakke was the runner-up in 2002 before winning the class in 2003 against more than 40 of the best production car road racers in the United States.

The Kaw Valley Race Group SCCA Double-Regional Club Race is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, April 2-3. Gates will open at 8:30 a.m., with racing scheduled for the afternoon each day. Spectator admission is free for both days of racing.

Heartland Park Topeka, a multi-purpose racing facility located in Topeka, Kan. annually hosts NHRA POWERade drag racing, Championship OFF-Road Racing (CORR), and the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in addition to many other events throughout the race season.

-hpt-