Hugh Stewart #23 – 3rd Place in T1

NER Holds Its Own at the Runoffs

With a smaller field at this year’s Runoffs, NER continued to be a region sending a solid field of quality drivers and workers to compete and facilitate the running of races at Road America. While no top trophies were earned in 2025, the stand-out had to be the T1 race, where Hugh Stewart and Ronald Lombardo took the 3rd and 4th spots in the field. Hugh brought home the single podium finish for NER this year. After starting on the front row in the second pack of a shared race with the GT1 field, Hugh took the lead half-way through. It was a battle til the end, as he, Drew Delmonico and eventual champion James Candelaria fought til the end putting on a great race.

Another stand-out for the week was B-Spec driver JB Swan. Our favorite Road Race Chair won the “Sonoco .260 Thursday” award. Drivers in each class whose best qualifying time came closest to including .260 earned 15 gallons of Sunoco race fuel free for their car. Not satisfied with that single accolade, during the first race of the weekend, JB also went on to win the Hard Charger award. After starting 19th on the grid, JB finished an impressive 12th overall – making up 7 positions over the course of that hard fought B-Spec race.

Rock the Block Party

Similar to NER’s Paddock Crawl, Thursday night was the Rock the Block party at Victory Circle. A few race teams, Women on Track, and of course NER hosted food stations serving food to all the hungry workers, drivers, crew and family after the first day of Qualifying.

Our dedicated NER team served hundreds of sausages, hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, and had coolers full of beer ready and waiting. Many thanks to JB, Kathy Barnes, Greg Amy, Fred White and I’m sure more that I missed who helped prep, deliver, cook and serve. While other stations ran out of food, NER is proud that our line ended as our last food came off the grill, insuring we fed everyone that came to our table.

AS
Kelly Lubash – 7th

B-Spec
JB Swan – 12th

EP
Anthony Parker – 5th

FE2
James Regan – DNS

FP
Chris Kopley – 10th

FV
Chase Johnson – 12th
Jeffrey Valeo – 8th

P
Todd Parks – 8th

SRF3
Craig Chase – 22nd
Thomas Kirchman – 29th
Kenneth Reilly – DNS

SM
Elivan Goulart – DNF
Nick Leverone – 9th

STL
Nick Leverone – 3rd
Craig McHaffie – 4th

STU
Michal Kuna – 6th
Richard Astacio – DNF

T1
Ronald Lombardo – 4th
Hugh Stewart – 3rd

T3
Edward Karabec – 15th
Daniel Moen – 17th

JB Swan: #3 B-Spec

Sunoco .260 Winner

Hardcharger Award Winner