Decisive Tire Rack Pole Day
The last day of Runoffs qualifying each year is today: Tire Rack Pole Day. By day’s end, we’ll know starting grids for the three upcoming Hagerty Race Days, and we’ll know the 24 Tire Rack Pole Award winners, each of which gets $500 to spend at Tire Rack, as well as some prestigious swag.
Starting on pole can have both a competitive and psychological advantage as racers take to the track for their 15-lap or 40-minute contests that decide SCCA National Champions for the year. History shows things can sometimes get “interesting” through the first couple turns during race starts at VIR. When the green flag flies, drivers on pole may have a cleaner run through those opening corners, and that can make all the difference.
Tire Rack, the Official Tire Retailer of SCCA since 1995, was established more than 40 years ago by an SCCA member with a passion to find the right tires, wheels, and now brakes and suspension products for racers and enthusiasts. Along with the Runoffs Pole Award, Tire Rack also supports SCCA’s National Solo program, Time Trials Nationals and National Tour, and Track Night in America.
Tire Rack Pole Award winners will be celebrated at the end of the day in victory circle. First, however, all the SCCA volunteers making the Runoffs happen behind the scenes will be treated to lunch Thursday thanks to Tire Rack.
Bringing a Cadillac to a Gunfight
It’s not really “knife to a gunfight” territory, but John Heinricy’s run to a 17th National Championship comes with more question marks than his past efforts.
While Touring 2 is full of proven monsters – the 996 and 997 generations Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars, the power of the Dodge Viper, the BMW M2, the Ford Mustang, and the C5 Corvette, to name a few – Heinricy is bringing a Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing that was released as a street car for the first time in 2022. And it’s in a class loaded with names that could start a Who’s Who discussion of SCCA road racers – Mark Boden, Kurt Rezzetano, and Scotty B. White are all annual contenders for the podium.
So can the Cadillac, sporting a bevy of stock parts, compete? If anyone can make it happen, it’s Heinricy. Though the 75-year-old veteran would become the second-oldest to claim a crown if he won this year, he’s just two years removed from his last title. And as one of the engineers on the team that launched Cadillac’s V-Series line in the early 2000s, he knows his way around the car. We’re not going to count the “Heinrocket” out yet.