Stuart Lumpkin wins B Mod SCCA Solo Nationals

It had been a Tommy Saunders-Stuart Lumpinkin finish in 2003 & 2004. This year it was it was Lumpkin's turn as he took his third championship, driving a Dragon SR1-B.

"Tommy built an awesome car and he lets me play with it," Lupmkis said, but clearly it was a team effort.

Teammates Lumpkin and Saunders once again set the tone for B Modified as they had the previous two years. Day one nearly ended in disaster as the Dragon SR1-B broke on Saunder's second run. After some impressively fast mechanical work, the two had the car back on course for final runs when both ran their quickest.

Lumpkin's 51.836 gave him a 0.35sec advantage over Saunders after running on a mostly dry South Course in the sixth heat. Visibly worn out by the end of the session, completed so late in the day, Lumpkin was quick to suggest, "Don't count [Tommy] out. Don't count him out."

Day two was another long day. The North Course had to finish up Tuesday's heat five and run all of the sixth before it could begin Wednesday's scheduled heats. But since it was a nice, sunny day they were able to pound cars through quickly and there was ample sunlight to complete what ended up as seven-plus heats for the day.

Bruce Domeck, in the quickest open-wheel car [Ralt RT-4}, gave Lumpkin and Saunders a fight around the North Course, but couldn't keep them from finishing where they started the day. Lumpkin was quickest again at 47.314sec in the little LeGrand-based sports racer, extending his lead to 0.767sec with a class-winning combined time of 99.170sec.

[Story by Bryan Schafer sourced from SCCA's November 2005 Sports Car magazine.]