SCCA National Champion Runoffs
presented by Garmin VIRB
at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
September 24, 2016
I would like to congratulate Justin Hille on his first national championship win. He had an amazing week being fastest each day. I would also like to congratulate Michael Carter on 2nd place at his first runoffs. Sorry my car started misfiring during the warmup lap and I couldn't give you the push at the start. Congrats to Elivan Goulart on 3rd and Jim Drago on 4th
This was a pretty tough and fun week at the Runoffs. My dad, Kurt Nufer and I got at Mid Ohio late Friday night in order to practice. We struggled both Saturday and Sunday getting the car setup right. The qualifying times on Monday and Tuesday were beyond our reach. We knew the car was fast if we could just get the brakes and tires to work the way we wanted them. Jim Drago was kind enough to loan us a set of tires for Wednesday. That was the day I put my #27 SM car in 4th place. My qualifying time held on Thursday. I was excited to be starting in 4th behind Hille, M. Carter and Drago.
I knew the race would be tough because of the many fast drivers in the field. There was only 1 second between the first twenty cars in the field. I felt good about my chances starting in fourth position. Unfortunately as we started our warm up lap, my engine began misfiring and continued to do so intermittently throughout the race. Despite the issue, we were still able to hang on to tenth place.
Thank you to my family, especially my dad, and friends for all your support. I would like to thank Jim Drago and York for all their help and advice.; I couldn't do it without the help from the East Street Racing team.Thank you to James at Mazda Racing for all the parts help. Thanks to Jordan Smart for pointing us in the right direction about the brakes. A big thank you to all the other racers who are always so willing to share their racecraft knowledge with me and help me to improve. I would also like to thankSuburban Auto Body Inc, Florissant Auto Paint, Mazda Motorsports, Hoosier tires, and East Street Racing.
Finally, thank you to the SCCA and the workers for putting on such a great racing event.
Thanks again to everyone in the SM community for making this such a fun season. I look forward to seeing everyone again next year! -Max Nufer