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Spencer Dickinson, long-time crew for Steve Introne, waves at flaggers on the victory lap while Steve’s family (4 more Intrones) were piled into the back of the Mini.
The 2022 National Championship Runoffs were a tale of two weather systems. For all of practice and qualifying, the Virginia International Raceway was bathed in cool temperatures, clear and sunny skies. Then as Qualifying came to a close, the remnants of Hurricane Ian arrived overnight on Thursday.
In addition to heavy rains, multiple areas surrounding the track lost power and faced fallen trees. The first day of championship races on Friday were in conditions nothing close to the days leading up. The volunteer workers that braved the rain, cold and wind were nothing short of heroic. Unlike drivers that had just one race to battle the elements, the workers spent the entire day in it. In a first that I can remember, racing was called early and the FX race was canceled for Friday and moved to Saturday morning. This required the entire Saturday schedule to be adjusted and the races shortened to accommodate.
As the worst of it passed through, Saturday conditions were still less than ideal – misting, rain and overcast alternating back and forth. Drivers were forced to do the rain dance – are we running wets or drys? During the Spec Miata race, the commentators were heard remarking that half the track was in downpours while the other half had dry lines!
Sunday brought more consistent rain back. But at the close of racing, all 26 races were run and 26 National Champions crowned for the season.
NER Brings Home a Title
In one of the most talked-about races for New England Region, we watched Steve Introne and his #12 B-Spec Mini Cooper dominate qualifying, win the Tire Rack Pole Award, and then lead every lap from green to checker to claim his first National Championship.
He is unofficially credited with the longest victory lap in Runoffs history, stopping at 4 flag stations and slowing down for the other 10 in order to wave, cheer, and celebrate with his F&C brethren. At one point, the commentators thought he’d still be on track when the pace lap for the FA race began.
After an extensive tear-down in Impound, Steve and two other B-Spec drivers quashed all the rumor mills and protests filed with 100% legal cars. To wrap up his week, Steve was honored with the Inside the SCCA podcast Veterans Challenge Driver of Distinction and the Gee Dubb Henderson Award of Excellence.
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The only other podium appearance for NER this year went to Jason Conzo in his #04 Formula Enterprises 2 car. With a P4 starting position on the grid, Jason had a fabulous start and quickly took the lead, which he held for the first nine laps of the race. But with zero visibility in many parts of the course due to the rain, an off track excursion dropped him back to third. With just two laps to go, Jason found the opening, made that final pass and finished in 2nd place. For his first visit to VIR, it was an impressive performance for the young driver.
Other Notable Finishes
T4 – 4th Place – Nick Leverone
AS – 4th Place – Thomas West
Other notable performances came from Nick Leverone and Thomas West, each just missing the podiums with 4th place finishes in T4 and AS. Nick was battling hard in his SM race, running 4th for most of the time, until one small error sent him off track and to the back of the pack with only two laps to go. Not enough time to recover, and a hard way to end that race.
For the rest of NER performances, official results are available in the link below.
NER Block Party
On Wednesday night, the Runoffs hosted its annual Block Party – similar to our NER Paddock Crawl. The turn out at the NER paddock spots in the West Grass was outstanding. JB Swan, Greg Amy, Anthony Ruddy, Kathy Barnes and many other NER members served well over 200 people ribs, burgers, hot dogs, chips, and all sorts of other foods. The region was a magnet for everyone else with its kegs and taps from our local breweries that were served up. Big thanks to Black Hog Brewing, Glasstown Brewing, and some non-alcoholic options from Athletic Brewing for donating the beverages.
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