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.]

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Loyning Claims CSR National Championship

Arnie Loyning, of Portland, Oregon, captured his first National Championship today, taking the C Sports Racing class win at the 2005 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Eric Vassian, of Atlanta, Georgia, claimed the silver medal after starting forth, and Bill Goldkind, of Holbrook, New York, completed the top-three after starting in the eigth place slot.

Driving the No. 27 Loyning Engine Service Swift Viking, Loyning and polesitter Jacek Mucha went side-by-side into the opening turn. The two made contact in the esses resulting in Mucha off course, with third place starter Rennie Clayton also caught up in the incident.

After making contact, Loyning continued, holding the lead ahead of Jeremy Treadway, who moved up from his seventh place starting position. Battling for the lead with Loyning, the duo ran nose-to-tail for several laps, before Treadway took the lead on lap four. After briefly falling back, Loyning closed the gap and began looking for a way past Treadway.

Entering the esses on lap 10, Loyning got alongside Treadway and retook the lead. Immediately after relinquishing the lead, Treadway slowed and pulled off-course. With a lead of over the 20 seconds, the best battle on course was for second between Mike McGinley and Richard Cottrill. Having secured the position, McGinley spun off-course on lap 17 and making contact with the tire barrier. Unchallenged to the checkered flag, Loyning crossed the start/finish winning by 37.969.

“I think that I left enough room for him [Mucha] and then I looked in my mirrors and saw cars all over the place,” said Loyning discussing the first turn incident. “[Later,]I was chasing Jeremy Treadway and I knew I could get past him. He was all over the track. He was strong on the straightaway, but I was faster in the corners. He was using all the road. My engine cut out a couple times during the race, but it always restarted. I don't know what was wrong. There were some lights on my dash, but I don't know what they meant! I hoped that my engine would not blow up into a ball of fire ---- I would have to say that my gearbox broke! It would not have been good for business.” (Note: Loyning builds and sells race engines.)

Thirteenth place starter Richard Cottrill, of Longmont, Colorado, finished fourth, and tenth place starter Jim Downing, of Atlanta, Georgia, completed the top-five.

[Editted from a story sourced from SCCA's news.]

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Reupert Shows New Engine & Arctic Cat Deal

Mike Reupert says, "I would like to invite everyone at the Runoffs to stop by garage # 20 and take a look at our latest DSR engine. It is a 2005 876cc four cylinder two stroke engine. It uses stock cylinders, pistons and heads from a 2005 Arctic Cat engine. I have been working on the design for 3 years, and started actually working on building the engine May 27th."

"I would also to announce Arctic Cat as a new sponsor on our car. More details to come. I hope this helps DSR continue to gain more respect and visibility and help give Arctic cat more exposure to all SCCA members.

The new engine for now uses the same Bendix Fuel injection that we have been using for 20 years. It is a constant flow style injection that is used in small airplanes. Full electronic injection will hopefully come in the next year.
The ignition is controlled by a Motec M-4 Pro ECU.
The engine does come from the factory with computer controlled exhaust timing (note-blocked off on picture above), but I am not sure it would be of any real advantage for road racing at the RPMs we run. (7,000 to 9,500 RPM)"

See more details on the Sports Racer forum here.

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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.]

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