In the world of US amateur auto racing, the SCCA Runoffs is the most highly anticipated event of the year, where racers from all over the country travel to compete for the title of SCCA National Champion. With transportation support from HG Trackside, Jackson Racing traveled to Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, CA to qualify and race in B-Spec and Touring 3 (T3) classes.
The driver of the Jackson Racing/BFGoodrich B-Spec Ford Fiesta is Oscar Jackson Jr., from Chino, CA, who has been racing in the SCCA for 12 years. Oscar has already taken home the SCCA National Championship in the Touring 4 category, driving a Jackson Racing/BFGoodrich Scion FR-S to the top step at the 2016 Runoffs. Piloting the Jackson Racing T3 Ford Mustang Shelby GT is Vincent “Hollywood” Piemonte from Burbank, CA, a professional stunt performer and is attending his second Runoffs.
Testing began on October 13 where Jackson Racing worked on setup and preparation for qualifying the next week. Qualifying spans over three days for the Runoffs with the first day of racing on Friday October 19. Jackson qualified on pole each qualifying day and set a new qualifying lap record of 1:59.3. Piemonte qualified seventh in T3, improving throughout the week to a fast lap time of 1:50.2, only tenths separating 4th-12th.
Saturday October 20, T4 and B-Spec went out for the last race of the day where Jackson chose an outside starting position, which helped him maintain his pole position going into turn two. Jackson led the entire B-spec field in the Ford Fiesta from start to checkered maintaining a four and a half second gap over second place for most of the race until the last lap where the second-place driver Pipal closed the gap to about half a second due to T4 traffic.
Sunday October 21, the T3 race began with Piemonte in seventh place and there was no shortage of action. At one-point Piemonte dropped down to ninth and the two cars in front started to battle for position and came into contact with each other, which gave Piemonte the advantage. The sixth-place Ford Mustang of Scotty B. White became Piemonte’s next target, which Piemonte closed the gap quickly. A great Mustang battle commenced, with traffic on the last lap causing problems. In only his second Runoffs, Piemonte finished in the top ten in seventh place, a two-position improvement over his 2017 race.
The SCCA Runoffs 2019 will take place at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), October 8-13.
