Jaremko Takes Third DSR National Title

By Curtis Kitchen

Mark Jaremko, of Spokane, Washington, opened a huge lead early in his Lee Stohr Cars/Goodyear/Red Line Stohr WF1 and went on to win the D Sports Racing portion of the 2005 National Championship Runoffs® Presented by Kohler by over 30 seconds. Rod Morley, of Provo, Utah, finished second, and Matthew DiRenzo, of Medford, N.J., was third.

Dashing away from the very start in his pole position, Jaremko opened an 11-second lead over the rest of the field by Lap 3, utilizing a new DSR race lap record time of 1:21.606 (100.581 mph) to bolt from the other drivers and eventually take the win by 34.880 seconds. The record mark was almost two seconds faster than the previous best set by 2004 DSR Champion John Hill.

The 2005 Championship gave Jaremko, who was the fastest car in DSR all week, his third title in the past four years. And even though he made his third win look easy, Jaremko said things were far from it.

“After about five laps I lost my clutch,” Jaremko said. “That made it cumbersome to downshift. I drove hard for the first five laps and built a lead. Then I looked in my mirrors, backed off and conserved my tires. This is a brand new car, the latest from Stohr. It turned its first wheel here this week. It made life easier for me."

Steve Shelton, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., finished fourth, and Matthew DiRenzo, of Medford, N.J., completed the top five.

No. 40 James Boehm, of St. Louis, Mo., won the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for advancing nine positions to finish 12th after starting 21st.

[The story above was written by Curtis Kitchen and was pulled from the related SCCA news page.]