November 4 – 6, 2011
The 18th annual ARRC presented by Grassroots Motorsports – and hosted by the Atlanta Region SCCA and Road Atlanta – was sponsored by Trackside Tim’s, Cool Shirt, Carbotech Performance Brakes, Hilton Garden Inn, Appalachian – Hoosier Racing Tire, and SCCA Enterprises.
Group 9 – Pro IT – IT7, ITA, ITB, ITC, ITR, ITS, ITT, ITX, ISM
The first race of the weekend, Friday evening, was the first race of the 2012 Pro IT season. Brian Price started on pole with Trevor Degioanni along side. Price dropped to 4th place on lap 1 and Mauricio Montana led the first lap. Degioanni took the lead on lap 2 and led all the way to the checkered flag. Matt Reppert finished 2nd after moving into that position on lap 5. Price finished 3rd ahead of Montana.
The Pro IT awards banquet for the 2011 season was held Friday night.
2011 Pro IT Champions
ITS Matt Reppert
ISM Mike Cottrell
IT7 Tom Lyttle
ITA Chuck Baader
ITB Michael Alexander
ITT Paul Brewer
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| Trevor Degioanni Acura Integra GSR Winner in ITS and overall. |
Brian Price Mazda Miata Winner in ITA, 3rd overall. |
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| Cliff Brown Mazda Miata Winner in ISM, 5th overall. |
Kirk Knestis Volkswagen Golf Winner in ITB, 28th overall. |
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| Tom Rogers Mazda Miata Winner in ISM2, 32nd overall. |
Alan Fever Mazda RX-7 Winner in IT7, 35th overall. |
Group 1 – BS, EP, FP, HP, GT3, GTL, SPU, SRF, SSB, SSC, STL
It was a cold morning for the first ARRC race on Saturday.
The defending SPU ARRC champion, Jim Kellogg, had pole position and led every lap for the overall and SPU win. Jim Coman ran in 2nd every lap to finish 2nd in SPU, despite a spin at Turn 10. Mark Mangiafico started 3rd on the grid, dropped to 6th at the start, but worked his way back to finish 3rd overall.
Brian Laughlin and Ryan Pilla battled hard the first part of the race in STL. Laughlin led the 1st lap and Pilla led the next two. Laughlin took the point again, but Pilla hounded him, with the two running nose to 
tail for several laps. Around halfway they caught traffic coming out from under the bridge and through Turn 12. Laughlin was able to get through the traffic, but Pilla was held up and lost a lot of ground, ending the STL battle for the lead. Laughlin wins STL with Pilla finishing second. Laughlin set a track record for STL with a 1:43.710.
Chris Current led Dan McBreen in SRF through lap 14. On lap 15 McBreen was 
able to get a better exit out of Turn 7 and was able to pass Current on the back straight headed into Turn 10. Current was able to take the lead back from McBreen on lap 17. On the last lap the 2 made it three wide going by a lapped car into Turn 6, with McBreen moving back into the lead. Current stayed with McBreen down the back straight and they came out from under the bridge side by side and through Turn 12. Current edged out McBreen by .01 seconds for the win.
Andrew von Charbonneau started in last place and moved up to 10th place overall, winning SSB and setting the SSB track record with a 1:44.016.
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| Jim Kellogg BMW Mini-cup Winner in SPU and overall. |
Brian Laughlin Mazda Miata Winner in STL, 4th overall. |
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| Chris Current SCCA Enterprises Spec Racer Ford Winner in SRF, 7th overall. |
Andrew von Charbonneau Ford Mustang Winner in SSB, 10th overall. |
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| Voytek Burdzy Mazda 2 Winner in BS, 15th overall. |
#94 Evelyn Vlasak Austin Sprite Winner in HP, 20th overall. |
Group 2 – GT1, GTA, SPO
It took awhile to even complete a green flag lap of the Group 2 race. Before receiving the green flag, the field was black flagged due to an incident on the pace lap. Robert Monette spun and hit the wall, collecting Mike Kelly in the process.
Then before completing the first lap, Paige Alexander spun coming out of Turn 7 after getting on the throttle. She spun to drivers right and collected Kurt Roehrig, who stayed to the inside when exiting Turn 7. Neither car was able to continue. This brought out the "double yellow". As mentioned earlier, Saturday morning started out cold. Could cold tires have been a factor in these 2 incidents?
After the race was finally re-started, Simon Gregg led every lap with Zach Monette applying pressure the whole race. Monette ran faster times on several 
laps and was even able to get by Gregg once on the front straight and lead for a few turns. Gregg’s margin of victory over Monette was only .841 seconds. Monette’s 2nd place finish at the ARRC capped off a season where he won the Southeast Division SARRC championship by winning all nine of the races he entered and received the Regional Driver of the Year award for the Atlanta Region.
Gene Felton ran 3rd overall and in the lead of SPO until 5 laps from the end of the shortened race when Grant Leadbetter took the final podium position and the SPO win. The ARRC races were scheduled for 20 laps, but this race reached the time limit and was checkered after lap 15.
All 3 classes in this group are also a part of the V8 StockCar Road Racing Series championship. David Machavern clinched the GT1 V8 StockCar championship the previous day in qualifying. Randy Walker won the GTA V8 StockCar championship. Paul Breehne clinched the SPO V8 StockCar championship before the ARRC, but wasn’t able to make the ARRC because of a crash at Daytona.
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| Simon Gregg Chevrolet Corvette Winner in GT1 and overall. |
Grant Leadbetter Dodge Charger Winner in SPO, 3rd overall. |
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| Randy Walker Chevrolet Monte Carlo Winner in GTA, 7th overall. |
Group 3 – CF, F5, F6, FF, FFX, FST, FV, FC, CFC
The overall win in Group 3 was pretty much uncontested with Robert La Rocca winning FC over Sean O’Connell by a lap.
Mike Eakin and David Klutsenbaker battled for the lead of CFC, swapping the lead a couple of times during the first half of the race. Eakin took the CFC win and was 3rd overall, winning his 2nd ARRC championship. Klutsenbaker finished 15th overall.
Another good battle that didn’t last to the end was between Russ McBride and 
Sam Lockwood. McBride jumped ahead of Lockwood on the first lap. Lockwood pressured McBride, even passing him on the back straight only to be re-passed before the lap ended. At the halfway point, Lockwood pulled off at Turn 7 with an overheating engine. According to Lockwood, it was caused by the Fall leaves clogging up the radiator inlets. McBride won FFX and finished 4th overall.
Robert Clark and Reece Everard had a close finish for the win in FST with Clark taking the win. Everard had to battle back after a spin at the start after going wide at Turn 1.
Anthony Henderson repeats as the FV ARRC champion.
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| Robert La Rocca Ralph Firman RFR 2000 Winner in FC and overall. |
Mike Eakin Reynard SF 2000 Winner in CFC, 3rd overall. |
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| Russ McBride Swift DB-3 FFit Winner in FFX, 4th overall. |
Wayne Nicolette Lola 1973 T-340 Winner in CF, 5th overall. |
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| Adrian Aveni Ford Swift DB1 Winner in FF, 6th overall. |
Robert Clark Evolution CM-1 2006 Winner in FST, 7th overall. |
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| Anthony Henderson Volkswagen Caracal C FV Winner in FV, 12th overall. |
Group 4 – IT7, ITR, ITS, ITB
Matt Reppert had pole position with Mauricio Montana next to him on the front row. Montana grabbed the lead at the start, but Reppert was able to take it back going into Turn 1 on the 2nd lap. He never looked back and went on to win by a margin of 13.416 seconds. Randy Hutchings had a good run from 8th
place on the grid, to 3rd place on lap 14, only to spin in his own oil going into Turn 6 on lap 15. The closest racing was the race for 3rd place in ITS and overall in the closing laps. Dave Volante was leading Tom Donnelly and James Slechta at the end of lap 19. Donnelly got a better exit out of Turn 7 and drove by Volante down the back straight. They came out from under the bridge nose to tail with Volante on the inside line through Turn 12 and the finishing order was Volante, Donnelly, and Slechta
Sixteen year old Ben Wolf wins IT7 on his first trip to the ARRC.
In ITB, Tristan Herbert and Kevin Ruck ran nose to tail the first five laps, exchanging the lead a couple of times. Eventually Ruck pulled off with a flat tire, reportedly caused by brake failure going into Turn 10a. Herbert took the ITB win.
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| Matt Reppert BMW 325 Winner in ITS and overall. |
Ben Wolf Mazda RX-7 Winner in IT7, 6th overall. |
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| Tristan Herbert Volkswagen Golf Winner in ITB, 8th overall. |
Group 5 – SM, SM2, SSM, SM5
The largest field of the weekend was the Spec Miata group with 54 cars starting. On the first lap Danny Steyn, the pole sitter, was tapped into a spin at Turn 10 causing a multi-car incident. Steyn dropped back to 14th overall. Blake Clements led the first 7 laps until he dropped out with what was reported to be a gearbox problem. Steyn made a great charge back through the field and was in the lead by lap 11. He held the lead to the end to win SM and overall.
In SM2 Craig Heyl started 34th, seven places behind the highest placed SM2 car of Ben Rooke. Heyl got a great start and by the end of the first lap was in 23rd, and Rooke dropped to 31st. Heyl went on to cross the line first in SM2, but was disqualified for the 2nd year in a row, giving the SM2 win to Rooke. Heyl’s engine was found "non-compliant" in post-race tech.
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| Danny Steyn Mazda Miata Winner in SM and overall. |
Lee York Mazda Miata Winner in SSM, 16th overall. |
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| Ben Rooke Mazda Miata Winner in SM2, 25th overall. |
Group 6 – ITA, ITC, ITT
Brian Price and Joe Moser put on a good show for the overall and ITA win in
Group 6. Price led until lap 9 when a lapped car allowed Moser to get close enough to draft Price down the back straight. Moser was able to get by and had the lead at the start/finish line, but Price took the lead back at Turn 1. A few laps later Price went into Turn 1 a little hot and went off course, allowing Moser by into the lead. Moser led until lap 19 when he went off at Turn 1 and got stuck in the gravel trap, giving the lead and the win to Price. Kevin Ruck and Joe’s brother Robert Moser ran in 3rd and 4th the whole race until Joe Moser went off, promoting them to 2nd and 3rd.
Will Perry and Jinx Jordan had a good fight for the ITC win for most of the race, until the last few laps when Perry was able to put a couple of cars between them. Perry has competed in all 18 ARRC events.
Paul Brewer was the only ITT entrant and said that his intent was to try to get the lap record for ITT, but he missed it by .7 seconds.
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| Brian Price Mazda Miata Winner in ITA and overall. |
William Perry Honda CRX Winner in ITC, 12th overall. |
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| Paul Brewer Nissan Pickup Winner in ITT, 13th overall. |
Group 7 – AS, GT2, ITO, SP2, SP3, STO, STU, T1, T2, T3
For Group 7 the racing started a day earlier than it did for the other groups, as Group 7 drivers elected to have a qualifying race. Bob Mayer led most of the qualifying race over Jeff Dernehl, but in the last few laps Mayer was balked by lapped traffic and Dernehl was able to get by for the lead and the win. Mayer’s 2nd place finish in the qualifying race was enough to clinch the GT2 V8 StockCar championship. The grid for Saturday’s race was set by the results of the qualifying race.
In Saturday’s race Dernehl led the first two laps. After Mayer got by, Dernehl
kept the pressure on throughout the rest of the race. On the last lap there was about a four car length gap between Mayer and Dernehl going into Turn 9, but when they came out from under the bridge they were nose to tail. They crossed the finish line side by side with Mayer edging out Dernehl for the overall win and the STO class win. Dernehl took the GT2 class win, capping off a season in which he was also the Atlanta Region National Driver of the Year.
In T2 Clark Crawford led all but the last two laps. Wayne Pressley got a good run coming out of Turn 5 and was able to make the pass on Crawford going through Turn 6.
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| Bob Mayer Chevrolet Corvette Z06R Winner in STO and overall. |
Jeff Dernehl Mazda RX-7 Winner in GT2, 2nd overall. |
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| Dainton Brooks Ford Mustang-Cobra Winner in AS, 5th overall. |
John De Barros Mazda 6 Winner in STU, 6th overall. |
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| Rob Bodle Ford Mustang Winner in ITO, 7th overall. |
Wayne Pressley Lotus Elise Winner in T2, 8th overall. |
Group 8 – ASR, CSR, DSR, FA, FB, FE, FM, FS, S2, FEP
The first three grid positions were defending ARRC champions Michael Mallinen (FS) , Jacek Mucha (ASR), and Jean-Luc Liverato (CSR). Mallinen led every lap until he blew his engine on lap 16 at Turn 11. Liverato, who had just gotten by Mucha into 2nd place a couple of laps earlier, spins in Mallinen’s oil. Jim Downing (CSR) was able to take advantage of the incident and pass Mucha before the caution. The race was "checkered" early because of the incident and the oil on the track. Downing gets the win on his home track and gives credit to the corner workers at Turn 10a for getting the debris flag out and saving him from spinning in Mallinen’s oil. "I guess this goes into the category of you take it anyway you can get it" said Downing.
In the last few laps Tilden Kinlaw was battling with Paul Schneider for the lead in FE but spun at Turn 5 allowing Eric Cruz into 2nd place. The finishing order for FE was Schneider, Cruz, and Kinlaw.
Michael Mallinen set the track record in FS with a 1:18.163. Jacek Mucha set the track record in ASR with a 1:18.125. And Jean-Luc Liverato set the track record in CSR with a 1:18.920.
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| Jim Downing Peach Mazda Day-02 Winner in CSR and overall. |
Jacek Mucha Swift jms016cp Mazda Winner in ASR, 2nd overall. |
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| J.R. Osborne Stohr F1000 Winner in FS, 3rd overall. |
Glenn Cooper RFR F1000 Winner in FB, 5th overall. |
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| Paul Schneider SCCA FE Winner in FE, 9th overall. |
Beau Borders Star Mazda Formula Mazda Winner in FM, 10th overall. |
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| Theodoros Zorbas Toyota Swift Atlantic Winner in FA, 25th overall. |
SCCA Enterprises Pro Racing
On Sunday, SCCA Enterprises Pro Racing ran double headers for it’s Spec Racer Ford and Formula Enterprises classes. This was the season finale for both classes, and the series finale, as it was announced a few days later that the SCCA Pro Racing Spec Racer Ford and Pro Formula Enterprises race series would not return in 2012. SRF and FE cars will continue to compete in SCCA Club Racing.
Group 10 – SCCA Pro Spec Racer Ford
Tray Ayers had pole position for Sunday morning’s race. Richard Spicer started 3rd, but by lap 4 was into the lead. Around lap 5 the race went double yellow due to an incident at Turn 5 involving Bob Gilbert and Mark Vultaggio. The two made contact and Vultaggio hit the tire wall hard exiting Turn 5. The track cleanup and tire wall repair was lengthy and the caution was 7 laps, causing the race to be shortened to 18 laps from the scheduled 20 laps 
because of a 40 minute time limit. Frank Futrelle, who started 7th, passed Spicer for the lead a couple of laps after the restart. Spicer regained the lead on lap 17 and went on to win over Futrelle and Ayers by .172 seconds. Points leader Scott Rettich finished fourth. Second in points, Brian Schofield led the opening laps, but pulled off course at Turn 1 with transmission problems. As a result, Spicer moved into 2nd in the points ahead of Schofield.
The grid for the 2nd race was set by fast laps in Race 1. Ayers had pole, followed by Rettich and Spicer. Spicer pulled off track on the front straight with suspension damage after a few laps, giving the championship to Rettich. Brian Schofield also DNF’d again, this time with suspension damage after being hit from behind at the start. Ayers, Rettich, and Frank Futrelle ran in the lead group for a while, but Futrelle eventually dropped out. Ayers won at his home track by .241 seconds over Rettich.
This was Scott Rettich’s 2nd consecutive Pro SRF championship.
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| Richard Spicer Winner – Race 1, 21st Place – Race 2. |
Frank Futrelle 2nd Place – Race 1, 17th Place – Race 2. |
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| Tray Ayers 3rd Place – Race 1, Winner – Race 2. |
Scott Rettich 4th Place – Race 1, 2nd Place – Race 2. |
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| John Greene 6th Place – Race 1, 3rd Place – Race 2. |
Group 11 – SCCA Pro Formula Enterprises
Coming into this race weekend Scott Rettich already had 8 SCCA Pro FE wins in 8 races. Could he make it a perfect season?
For Race 1, Jay Motorsports occupied the front row with Jason Wolfe on pole and Patrick Gallagher second. Rettich started third. Rettich moved into 2nd after Gallagher spun at Turn 3 on the first lap. This dropped Gallagher back to about 10th place. Rettich went after Wolfe and, on lap 10, passed him for the lead. Wolfe got back by him on the next lap, and on the lap after that Rettich regained the lead. While trying to keep up with Rettich, Wolfe spun at Turn 7
on lap 15. The car stalled and left him sitting in the middle of the track for the rest of the race, with cars going by on the inside and outside of him, with at least one near miss. There was never enough of a gap for the corner workers to get to his car to move him. Not sure why they didn’t go "full course" caution to move him with 5 laps to go. Rettich went on to win by 3.015 seconds over Mark Eaton, but Eaton was disqualified for being underweight. Gallagher inherited 2nd place. Matt Schneider finished 4th, but was also disqualified for being underweight. Paul Schneider finished 5th on the track, but moved up to 3rd after the demotions of Eaton and Matt Schneider. Rettich’s 9th win clinched the championship with 1 race to go, and that perfect season was in sight.
Just as with the SRF races, the grid for the 2nd FE race was set by fast laps in Race 1. Wolfe, Rettich, and Gallagher were the top 3 positions on the grid. Rettich and Wolfe exchanged the lead a couple of times and then, going into Turn 1, Rettich tried to pass Wolf on the inside and Wolf shut the door. Rettich had to check up and this allowed Gallagher by into 2nd place. On lap 9 Gallagher spun in Turn 1 and collected Rettich. Rettich was not able to continue, ending his bid for a perfect season. When the full course caution came out to clear Rettich’s car, the pace car failed to pick up the leader Wolfe. This is where I’m not clear on what happened, but it was reported that officials tried to signal Wolfe to slow down so the safety car could pass him, but Wolfe continued around the track and passed the field to get back to the front, effectively putting him a lap up on the field. He was then black flagged and held in pit lane until the field passed. Paul Schneider was the leader at the restart. On the last lap Paul and Matt Schneider are side by side on the back straight. Matt appears from underneath the bridge without Paul and takes his first pro win in 2011. Matt started the race at the back of the field as a result of his being disqualified in Race 1. Sean Miller and Patrick Linn finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
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| Scott Rettich Winner – Race 1, 12th Place – Race 2. |
Patrick Gallagher 2nd Place – Race 1, 10th Place – Race 2. |
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| Paul Schneider 3rd Place – Race 1, 6th Place – Race 2. |
Matt Schneider 16th Place – Race 1, Winner – Race 2. |
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| Shaun Miller 5th Place – Race 1, 2nd Place – Race 2. |
Patrick Linn 12th Place – Race 1, 3rd Place – Race 2. |
Officials and Workers
The 18th running of the American Road Race of Champions was a successful event because of the work of all the SCCA officials, SCCA workers, and other workers and volunteers. The most visible are the corner workers in Flagging and Communications, but other areas are Emergency Services, Starters, Timing & Scoring, Scrutineers, Registrars, Stewards, and Race Control. And at the ARRC there were 3 great announcers. Pictured below are just some of the dedicated workers.
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