INDIANAPOLIS — Redeeming a near-miss from Daytona in 2015, Kip Van Steenburg snagged a long-awaited E Production title at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs on Saturday on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Chris Dryden and Jesse Prather completed the podium.
Van Steenburg’s previous Runoffs appearance ended in the lead, one lap prematurely, and his shot at redemption was delayed yet another year due to personal issues. But as chaos reigned all around Van Steenburg’s No. 4 German Excellence Porsche 944, he pulled into Victory Lane with his first title and a 2.441-second margin of victory.
“Daytona was such a heartbreak for me,” the newly crowned champion said. “I put it on the pole, and I’ve run that course so many times. To come one lap from the end and have a caliper fall off the car, that was pretty tough. So this is especially sweet. Last year, my mom passed away, so I had to deal with that and missed the Runoffs. So this is for her, and I couldn’t feel better.”
Van Steenburg got a breather after a hairy moment on lap six during a battle with Tire Rack polesitter Matt Reynolds’ No. 71 Reynolds Brothers Racing/Vintage Conn/JPM Mazda Miata. Reynolds made contact with a lapped car, cutting a tire and ending Reynolds’ day. From there, Van Steenburg managed the gap to the trailing cars and to the checkered flag.
“I was contemplating how I was going to get around that driver, and Matt caught me,” Van Steenburg said. “I thought, I’ll see what Matt does. Sure enough, he got collected and I went on the other side of him. It was almost like using someone like a pick in basketball. After we built a little bit of a lead, it was just trying to manage the tires. My car weighs so much, it just eats up tires, so you have to back up to push it to where there a little bit unhappy, but not completely unhappy.”
The craziness started at the green flag for the field, where just behind Van Steenburg and Reynolds was a flood of race cars.
“The start was absolutely crazy,” Dryden said. “There were nine of us all right there for first four or five laps. You’d look in the mirror and there was somebody else back there the next time.”
Slowly but surely, however, that field thinned out. Joe Moser slowed from second place on lap four and on lap 12 John Brakke spun (and nearly collected Prather) into the gravel in the battle for third. Soon after, a full-course caution came out, without a safety car, for one lap to retrieve yet another parked car.
“Kip played it smart and just kept his foot down,” Dryden said of the full course yellow, which meant no passing around the course. “By the time I realized there was no safety car coming, I tried to catch back up, but I think if I had managed to stay with Kip, then Jesse and I may have been able to run him down. He played it right.”
Prather was one of those who took advantage of the field at the start, moving from the fourth row to second in the first corner.
“I had the best start I could possibly get,” Prather said. “I probably could have gone to the lead, that’s how good of a start it was. Matt (Reynolds) gave me just enough room, up against the wall to the right, and I went around him, too. I think I came out in second, and then Moser went right back around me.”
Eric Powell, who battled for the podium early in the No. 41 CCP Fabrication/Kostopoulos Autosport Porsche 924S, finished fourth. Brakke recovered from his mid-race spin to finish fifth.
Source : speedsport.com
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