Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA

RACE: Mid-Ohio Runoffs Saturday ramblings

>From Greg Rubenstein The Runoffs Ramblings Volume 1, Number 4 Saturday, October 12, 1996 KASIEWICZ SECOND WOMAN CHAMPION: Congratulations to Andrea Kasiewicz, DE/Detroit, winner of Friday's Sports 2000 race to become the SCCA's second female ...

>From Greg Rubenstein

The Runoffs Ramblings Volume 1, Number 4 Saturday, October 12, 1996

KASIEWICZ SECOND WOMAN CHAMPION: Congratulations to Andrea Kasiewicz, DE/Detroit, winner of Friday's Sports 2000 race to become the SCCA's second female National Champion. Kasiewicz, from Carol Stream, Ill., claimed her title in spectacular fashion, coming up from sixth to take over the lead on lap seven. Once in front of the 18-car S2 field, she never looked back, taking the win with a 1.268-second margin over David Downey, CE/OhV. Catherine "Cat" Kizer became the first female SCCA National Champion after winning the 1979 H Production contest. DSR NEWS: Dale Tholen has been posthumously selected as the 1996 winner of the D Sports Racing Sportsmanship Award. Tholen, who died earlier this year, was one of the originators of the H Modified class, predecessor of DSR. The DSR Sportsmanship Award was begun in 1978 by Dave Ammen, who donated the perpetual Silver Trophy, with Ed Walsh the first recipient. Each year at The Runoffs, the DSR drivers, crews and long-time DSR fans vote for the person who has contributed the most to the expansion and enjoyment of the DSR class.

EARL STILL SCOUTING: Bob Earl, part of the selection committee for the Team Green Driver Academy (see TRR No. 1), spent two hours pouring through the driver bios book on Thursday looking for young drivers and came up with 15 under the age of 25 for him to scout. Earl started out in Formula Fords in SFR/NorPac and became an instructor in their drivers' school. Earl is the 1973 SCCA National FF Champion, having competed in the the 1973 and 74 Road Atlanta Runoffs.

RANDY AND THE RUBBERS: No, not the name of a new rock group. Randy Canfield/WDC, five-time National HP Champion, has a ritual getting in and out of his race car that involves the use of rubber boots. If you missed it, be sure to watch next year.

QUIET RUNOFFS: As of Saturday morning, not a single car has exceeded the 108db Runoffs limit.

LIVE RADIO BROADCASTS: Saturday afternoon's races will be broadcast live on Mansfield radio station WYXZ 98.7 FM. Yesterday afternoon's races were also broadcast live.

IN-CAR CAMERAS: In-car cameras will be utilized in each of Saturday and Sunday's televised races. For Saturday's races, they will be: CSR-#0 Jeff Miller; FF-#17 John LaRue; SSC-#17 Henry Van Vurst; FV-#88 Mark Richardson; AS-#59 Simon Gregg. For Sunday's races they will be: GT4-#37 Russ Theus; FC-#14 J Michael Johnson; GT3-#98 Pete Peterson; SRF-#16 Keith Scharf; GT1-#35 Kerry Alexander.

FAST TV VIGNETTES: The First Auto Sports Television (FAST) production crew, under the leadership of John Mullin, spent Friday taping more than 20 vignettes that will be shown during the live broadcasts. Among the features being filmed are: The Timing & Scoring Crew doing the Macarena, with David Hobbs doing the intro; corner workers at Station Eight performing the Neon song; Colonel Joe Hauser racing in his 32nd consecutive Runoffs; Jeremy Treadway, 17-year old driver on the outside FC pole; Team Green Driver Academy talent search; FA-Dan Carmichael; SR-Tom Van Camp; CSR-Chuck Billington; Tom Foster, in the Tracer Racing hot tub; William Fralick; Jeff Miller; FF-Bruce May; Jon Horgas; SSC-Eric Heuschele; Husband and wife Lea and Bill Bartlett; FV-Lisa and Bill Noble; Jacques Lazier; AS-Steve Anderson; Robert Nagle; Aaron Tennyson; GT4-Russ Theus; Rusty Bell; FC-Dave Weitzenhof; J Michael Johnson, who made his television racing debut on MTV's The Real World; GT3-Pete Peterson; Mike Cyphert; SRF-Warren Stillwell; GT1-Dave Steel, Crew Chief for Mike Lewis. Steel was the 1995 Mechanic of the Year Award winner; Max Lagod.

AVE ON THE MEND: Tony Ave was here at The Valvoline Runoffs and is doing very well in rehabilitation after his accident at the June Sprints when he was trying to qualify for the Formula Atlantic race here at The Valvoline Runoffs. He is well ahead of his rehab schedule and is hopeful of testing a race car soon. Dr. Tom Dehn, who attended Ave at the scene of the Road America incident in June, was awarded the Val D. Scroggie Award at Thursday's Worker of the Year awards social.

VOTE FOR THE 1996 MECHANIC OF THE YEAR: Nominations are coming due for the 1996 SCCA Mechanic of the Year Award. The winner will receive a custom-built roller tool chest and a check to help fill it with tools. Submit a short narration on the credits of your nominee to the SCCA trailer.

ONE OLD LICENSE: Chuck Dietrich is walking around the paddock, showing off his original SCCA Competition License. He has one of the very first licenses issued, and he is said to be the longest continuously-racing driver in the SCCA. Dietrich still races the former Diedier Theys-owned SuperVee which he bought in 1990 and reconfigured to FA specs. He has been racing in SCCA since 1952.

FOR STEPHEN KING FANS: The Reformatory, in nearby Mansfield, was featured in the movie "The Shawshank Redemption." The Richland County Hospitality Booth in the paddock is setting up tours for those interested in visiting this local landmark.

THE RUNOFFS RAMBLINGS COLLECTION BOX KIDNAPPED: The collection box for The Runoffs Ramblings has been kidnapped, but there will be no ransom offered and the staff of TRR doesn't really care if the box is returned. Any submissions for Sunday's final TRR must now be submitted to the SCCA trailer.

SPORTSCAR SCOREBOARD: After Friday's races (pending tech/appeals, of course) SportsCar has three "RIGHTS" versus six "WRONGS" in the annual "Who Will Win?" predictionsbetter luck today and tomorrow.

LES CHEVALIERS: Les Chevaliers du Deuxieme Hemisiecle, long a tradition here at The Runoffs with their Race-weekend induction ceremonies, will likely be no more with the death last summer of Founder Pete Wimberly. The Chevaliers was an honarary society of competitors who had passed the the age of 50. Some of the notable members include Paul Newman, Dan Carmichael and Marsha Mason.

NEW GT2 FOR BILL DAVIS: This year's Runoffs marks the end of the first season of competition for the new GT2 Pontiac Sunfire of Bill Davis, of Endicott, N.Y./NE/WDC. Davis designed and built the Pontiac Motorsports-sponsored #72 machine.

OPENING CEREMONIES: Canton, Ohio, Mayor Richard Watkins sang the National Anthem for this year's opening ceremonies. The MC was Steve Nelson, News Director for WMFD-TV 68/50 in Mansfield, Ohio. Also speaking were Nick Craw, President of SCCA, and Marge Binks, Chair of the SCCA Board of Directors, and Mansfield Mayor Lydia Reed.

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article NESCCA - Bridgehampton Nationals results (race group 3)
Next article ProRally: Sand Hills schedule

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA