Aquilante Takes Fourth Career Runoffs Gold Medal at Mazda Raceway

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Andrew Aquilante, of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, captured the Touring 1 title at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs® at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Scotty White, of Auburn, Washington, and Mark Boden, of Winnetka, Illinois, completed the podium positions. 
Driving his No. 32 Phoenix Performance/Hoosier/Hawk Performance Ford Mustang, Aquilante survived an opening lap incident at the start, which collected Tire Rack polesitter William Brinkop, to capture is fourth SCCA National Championship. Once taking the lead on the opening lap, Aquilante stayed at the front of the pack for the 20-lap race that averaged 85.153 mph around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile course.
 
“It’s been a difficult week for T1,” Aquilante said. “Coming into Laguna from the East Coast we don’t have any car experience. We have track experience from pro racing, but we didn’t have any experience with the current crop of cars we brought out. We knew there were going to be a lot of questions. We did the testing and answered some questions, but also created some more questions. We had to go back and work on the sound, because it’s so much stricter out here.
 
“The car we were supposed to drive, the Corvette, we had issues with in the first two qualifying sessions, so we had to switch to a spare car that we had thrown together last minute and brought out. We qualified second.
 
“In the race, I got a pretty good start. I cleared Brinkop over the rise. When I looked back into Turn One there were cars backwards and sideways. From there, I got a little pressure, I think from Darrell Anderson, and I got away from him. I worked on hitting my marks and keeping it consistent.”
 
White started from deep in the field, in eighth, and worked his way up to second by the time the checkered flag flew. His finish, while driving his No. 0 GOT CDL?/Knight Transport/BFGoodrich Tires/Hawk Performance Dodge Viper, marked his fourth career Runoffs podium.
 
“I qualified perfectly, because we knew the first four, five or 10 cars would get taken out in Turn One,” White said. “But really, all these guys are fast and excellent drivers. There’s a lot of guys that want to be sitting here talking on the microphone, and maybe they wanted it a little too much. I didn’t see anything blatant. I think guys were arguing for position and it went bad, but it went good for us. Fortunately, the BFGoodrich Tires and Hawk Performance brakes allowed me to avoid that mess. I think I gained about four or five spots.
 
“I sound like a broken record trying to sell tires, but we’re able to place the car wherever we want it. I didn’t have a magic, two-second faster lap to qualify on the pole, but I ran faster in the race than I did in qualifying. The car is consistent and fast. The SRT Viper you can put an alignment on it and leave it for the rest of your life. We knew that we raced well. I don’t know if I would have had something for Pratt [Cole] or Darrell [Anderson], but we figured we could race these guys if we got through the first couple turns clean. It wasn’t a total surprise that we did how we did. We’re running the 10-year-old Viper. It’s down about triple digit horsepower over the other Vipers, but it’s a good hot-rod, I love it.”
 
Mark Boden, in his No. 47 Fall-Line Motorsports/Trim-Tex BMW M3, finished third, which is Runoffs podium number six for the Midwest driver. Boden sustained damage in the Lap One tussle that collected four cars, but that didn’t stop him from doing what it took to finish the race in the top three.
 
“Scotty [White] said it was a record that we made it to Turn Two,” Boden said. “I didn’t even make Turn Two, I was already in major contact before Turn One.
 
“We felt we had a good, consistent car. Thanks to BMW because it’s a great car. The car does very well and through the course of a race it’s very consistent. Unfortunately, the early contact gave us damage and some toe-in and camber-out that we didn’t need and some tire rub that we didn’t want. Thanks to Hoosier the tire held up. We didn’t run the pace we wanted to run, but the car was great and the tire held up.
 
“It was pretty uneventful after that. I was able to work by some traffic and try to track down Scotty. I was doing it, but we didn’t have enough car.”
 
Connie Bogan, in the No. 10 NNAWG.com Dodge Viper, finished fourth. He was able to make huge improvements on his 9th-place starting position.
 
What captured the attention of most onlookers of the Touring 1 race was the four-way battle for fifth. John Iles came out on top by finishing fifth, in the No. 44 Cortex Racing Ford Mustang, ahead of Igor Lyustin, in his No. 71 Driving Ambition/Hoosier Tires/HPD Acura NSX. Kenneth Davis and Michael Pettiford were also in contention for the position.
 
For much of the 20-lap race, Lyustin was able to hold off the trio of Davis, Pettiford and Iles until Lap 17. Davis tried an outside pass in Turn 11, but wasn’t able to make it stick. Later in the lap, Iles was able to take advantage of the attempted pass by getting by both Davis and Lyustin.
 
Aside from finishing fifth, Iles also earned the Sunoco Hard Charger award after getting to fifth from his 14-place starting position.
 
The 51st SCCA National Championship Runoffs®, The Pinnacle of American Motorsports, will crown Sports Car Club of America’s Club Racing National Champions at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Friday, October 10 through Sunday, October 12.
 
The live broadcast of all 27 National Championship races is available live at SCCA.com, along with live timing and notes. Each race will be on demand at a later date on SpeedcastTV.com.
Adam Sinclair
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