RACE: National Runoffs: NayKid Racing race report

White and Lux Vipers Take Two of Top-Five Spots at Runoffs

LEXINGTON, Ohio, September 24, 2005 -- In one of the most exciting Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Touring One (T1) class events in recent memory, NayKid Racing placed its two KUMHO Tires/ Woodhouse Auto Family Dodge Viper SRT10s in the top-five at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs Presented by Kohler®. Scotty B. White (Puyallup, Wash.), who started from the pole position and led five laps of the 20 lap event, exchanged track record for track record, lap-after-lap with eventual winner John Heinricy to finish second in the No. 3 KUMHO Tires/ Woodhouse.com Dodge Viper SRT10. In the process, White took fastest lap honors (one minute, 33.360 seconds) on lap 17 of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Just behind, Cindi Lux (Aloha, Ore.) was in a nail-biting race of her own. In some of the closest competition of the weekend, the No. 78 KUMHO Tires/ Woodhouse Auto Family Dodge Viper SRT10 would fall an excruciatingly close .162 seconds short of fourth-place at the checkered flag to come home fifth. The week's events made history for Dodge Motorsports, the SRT Division of DaimlerChrysler and Mopar Performance Parts. Never before had a Dodge Viper SRT10 earned the T1 class pole position, set fastest qualifying and fastest race laps, led a T1 National Championship event or placed multiple cars in the top-five at the SCCA Runoffs.

"After the re-start for the first yellow, I opened up a gap on the guys for a couple laps while John [Heinricy] worked his way past the others," reflected White on his race. "With John about a second back I missed a shift from second to third [gear] allowing him to blow by me on the front straight. >From then on it was about maintaining a gap and just running hard. I tried to save a bit for the end. With three laps to go I charged hard and got to his bumper only to hit oil in [turn] 10B dropping me back out of striking distance for the win. All in all it was a great week for KUMHO Tire, Dodge Motorsports/SRT and NayKid Racing."

The accolades for the Viper SRT10 add to those already accomplished earlier in the season as NayKid Racing was the first team to build and develop the Dodge Viper SRT10, in its current iteration, for SCCA use. During the course of this first, developmental season, White earned the SCCA Southern Pacific Division championship for Dodge while Lux added to the trophy case with the Northern Pacific Divisional title.

"It was a great Runoffs debut for the Dodge Viper SRT10," said Dodge Motorsports Road Racing Manager Gary Johnson. "The team has been working so hard to develop the car throughout the season. They have probably done a year's worth of development in three months. What was really impressive was the drive that both Scotty and Cindi showed all year. It was good to see their hard work and effort pay of with such a good result at Runoffs for both of them. Dodge is looking forward to next season, coming back and, hopefully, taking the win."

The third NayKid Racing, KUMHO Tire-shod entry of Ryan Snodgrass (Kirkland, Wash.), started 24th in the race. The young Northwesterner, in his second season racing with NayKid, ran as high as 21st before falling back to 22nd in the closing laps of the event.

"This race really showed how the SCCA has done an excellent job of making the Corvettes and Vipers very similar in performance," remarked Lux after the race. "Just look at the diversity of cars in the top-10. There were three of us fighting it out nose-to-tail the last two laps of the race. And that's why we come back to Mid-Ohio...to race! I cannot tell you how proud I am of our crew's effort this entire year but especially these past two weeks. These guys are truly the warriors behind our success. Scotty did a stellar job driving this whole week and I was so jazzed to see his drive to second-place. Having two of our cars in the top-five the first year out is something I can definitely live with over the winter. 2006 brings new challenges, new courses and new opportunities to get our NayKid Racing hotrods on the top-two spots on the podium next year."

SPEED Channel will air the T1 class race will be shown at 1 PM (ET), November 26th, 2005.

To learn more about NayKid Racing, please visit www.NayKidRacing.com.

For more on Lux Performance Group, LLC please see www.CindiLux.com.

Visit www.KumhoUSA.com to see the latest from KUMHO Tires.

To visit the Woodhouse family of dealerships on the web, please click onto www.Woodhouse.com.

To follow the latest from Mid-Ohio, please log onto www.SCCA.com and follow the links.

-nkr-