Chicago Region SCCA Drivers at the 2024 SCCA Runoffs
By Steve Laske
The Chicago Region SCCA wishes to congratulate the 34 Chicago Region members that competed in the 2024 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® presented by Sunoco at Road America, October 01, thru October 06, 2024. Once the last checkered flag dropped on Sunday October 6th there were five Chicago Region drivers (six races) that had podium finishes. Mike Varacins and Brian Tomasi in Formula Continental (FC); Chris Bovis in GT-Lite (GTL); Rick Dittman in GT1; and Mark Boden in Touring 1 (T1) and Touring 2 (T2).
Michael Varacins, looking for a new challenge, made a switch to Formula Continental® (FC) in 2019 after earning seven career SCCA National Championships in Formula Vee®. On Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, at Road America, Mike completed his goal of winning another Runoffs title, clinching the FC gold medal at the SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® presented by Sunoco.
Brian Tomasi was happy that the FC race was only 13 laps as his No. 96 Hoosier/Subway Van Diemen RF01/Ford shut off on the cool down lap, but it hung on long enough to secure his seventh career podium finish. Tomasi was a National Champion in 2004 and 2010 before taking a break from motorsports following the 2011 season. Random appearances at the Runoffs left him hunting for more, but it all came together on Friday at Road America with another podium finish.
Chris Bovis gave everything he had to pass a moving obstacle on the track during the GT-Lite race but came up short. Bovis’ CRX, which runs in a front-wheel-drive configuration versus Peter Shadowen’s Honda CRX with rear-wheel-drive battled all the way to the finish, but Chris didn’t have enough to win the race settling to finishing 2nd, for his seventh career Runoffs podium.
Rick Dittman qualified sixth for the start of the GT1 race and made it through the incident going in to turn one. A car struggled at the start and as others tried to pass the ensuing incident took out two cars and brought out and a full course yellow before the completion of the first lap. By lap four the ground pounders were back up to speed. Race leader Ave fired off down into Turn 1 with the restart and was speeding toward Turn 3 when he lost a cylinder and began to slow. That gave Romito the lead with Ruehlow giving chase. In third was Rick Dittman driving the No. 24 RDE Chevrolet Corvette. As the race came to a close and the forth place car was closing in on Dittman, he was able to finish in third place and win the final podium position. This was Rick’s first Runoffs medal in eleven attempts.
Mark Boden Touring 1 (T1), and Touring 2 (T2), qualified fourth on the grid for the T1 race and a spin at 13 took a car out of contention and Boden moved up to 3rd position for the remainder of the race and ultimately earned the runner-up step on this year’s T1 podium. In his second race of the day, in Touring 2 (T2) Mark in his No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports Porsche 911 moved around Jason Ott’s Porsche 911 Carrera on lap five, then holding off Ott to the finish. Mark crossed the finish line third to earn his 23rd podium and his second of the day. Boden was also recognized for his lap five move on Ott. After starting on row three of the grid and then Boden’s pass on lap five earned him the Sunoco Hard Charger award as well.
These five drivers obviously have years of experience and many podium finishes to show for it. The Chicago Region would also like to recognize two new drivers to the road racing scene.
Calvin Kautz Formula F (FF), 2024 marked the 19 year olds third appearance at the Runoffs, until this year, his best starting position had been fifth. This year he’s starting on the Tire Rack Pole for the Formula F race with a time of 2:22.552. Earlier this year at the June Sprints® weekend Calvin finished 4th on Saturday in the Hoosier Super Tour, and 7th on Sunday for the June Sprints.
On Friday of the runoffs when the green flag flew for the start of the FF race Calvin hammered down as the 13-car field sprinted toward Turn 1 of Road America. Theodore Burns took off at the start, jumping from third to first, but by Turn 5, Jonathan Kotyk who qualified 2nd was in the lead, followed by Calvin now running in second. A turn later, Calvin had slotted himself into the lead. In fourth was Sebastian Mateo Naranjo, although Naranjo exchanged that position for second overall a few turns later. Lap 10 saw the first significant contact for the front pack, as Naranjo and Kautz touched tires entering Turn 5. Kautz launched into the air, stopped, and then rejoined the pack, however the incident removed him from the front pack and contention for the win. Calvin rejoined the race and with three laps to go fought his way back to finish sixth
Matthew Novak Spec Miata (SM) and Spec MX-5 (SMX), made his third appearance at the SCCA Runoffs at age 18. Mathew competed in both classes, SM, and SMX, at the runoffs with a fair showing. However his performance at the 2024 Chicago Region June Sprints® is what stands out. In 2023 June Sprints Matthew finished second in Spec Miata his first June Sprints podium finish. In 2024 at the June Sprints weekend in the Spec Miata race he finished 14th on Saturday and 6th on Sunday. In the Spec MX-5 race on Saturday he finished 12th, and for Sundays race he took the win.
Both Calvin and Matthew are showing great talent and their race performance underscores that statement. These are two drivers that we need to watch, and support at the June Sprints and future Runoffs.
