Ira Takes STL National Championship in Ultra-Dramatic Fashion at Mazda Raceway

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 Cliff Ira, of Kansas City, Missouri, nursed his a wounded car to a barn-burner of an SCCA National Championship Runoffs® Super Touring Lite win at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in his first trip to the event. Brian Laughlin, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Spencer Trenery, of Berkeley, California completed the podium. 
Ira’s No. 36 Fira Motorsports Acura Integra GSR was billowing smoke as it crossed the finish line, averaging 78.189 mph around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile course.
 
Ira started the race as the Tire Rack Polesitter, but Trenery’s No. 8 Fantasy Junction/TOP1 Motors Acura Integra controlled the early pace of the 20-lap race as he built a gap of more than six seconds.
 
The eventual champion sat third after getting passed by Laughlin’s No. 27 Tulsa Radiology/Mazda/Hoosier/Jesse Prather Motorsports Mazda Miata on lap five before beginning his march to the front. He got back around Laughlin on lap nine, then put his head down and ran fast laps to chase down Trenery. On lap 16, Ira was back in the lead.
 
With two laps remaining in the race, smoke began to pour from the rear of Ira’s Acura. However, the seemingly-inevitable mechanical failure forcing Ira’s early retirement from the race never happened, and he completed the final two laps of the race to capture the title in his maiden attempt.
 
“There was enough oil to make oil pressure,” Ira said. “That’s about all I need. I had my brother Greg on the radio, and he just told me to watch my gauges. He asked me if I was losing power, and I wasn’t, so I was just thinking well, if I could breathe, I can drive this thing because it was all in the cockpit. I just stayed in it, and it had pressure to the end.
 
“This was a year-and-a-half plan. This is a really close class. They created this STL class, and I’m an IT racer. The ability to take my car and go National racing, this was my opportunity. My brother Greg is an E Production racer, and I can go racing with him now. It started a year and a half ago to come to this Runoffs. This is one of my favorite places to visit and watch the Monterey Historics. This is truly a dream come true.
 
“We talk about luck, and sometimes the Runoffs is 90 percent luck. Luck was on my side, today. I thought my motor was going to let go, I didn’t know what was going on. I got lucky, and have to take my hat off to these guys. They drove a great race. I’m just stoked.”
 
While Trenery’s tires faded, Laughlin followed Ira’s lap 16 pass by making a move for second under braking entering the Corkscrew, earning him the GoPro Hero Move of the Race.
 
“Going into the Corkscrew, I thought it’s now or never. I’ve gotta go for it, I’ve got to try,’” Laughlin said. “I stuck it in there and it worked. The Acuras had a little more top end power on the straightaways, and we’d catch up in a few of the turns. To have a class like this right now, that is so equal, it’s pretty neat. The outcome of it is great. It was so close, nobody ran away from anyone else, and that’s all I wanted was a close, clean and fair race.
 
Still two seconds back, Laughlin’s only hope at a National Championship in the closing stages was a failure from Ira.
 
“Selfishly, Greg and I are still friends, but I was thinking come on baby, let go!” Laughlin exclaimed. “I thought I felt oil on the track, I wasn’t sure. But I thought don’t throw away right now where you are for something stupid, because I didn’t even know if I could catch him.”
 
Trenery experimented with softer tires that faded at the finish.
 
“There was a little bit of a ball up on the start that I was lucky enough not to get involved in,” Trenery said. “Following that, I knew I was going to be strong in the opening half of the race because it was cool out and we ran on the softest possible compound available. Right from the start, we had a good car.
 
“I passed Brian into Turn Four, and Cliff into Turn Eight, and put up a pretty good lead of almost five seconds in the first half of the race. Right about lap eight or lap nine, I felt the tires start to give way a little bit.”
 
Finishing just off the podium, in fourth, was multi-time National Champion Jim Drago, of Memphis, Tennessee, in his No. 2 East Street Racing/SafeRacer Mazda Miata.
 
Tim Auger, of Monterey, California, finished fifth in his No. 07 Augersmiles.com/Baja Cantina Acura Integra.
 
Colin Rosenberg, of Torrance, California, finished 11th in his No. 66 BFGoodrich Tires/HPD/Enkei/Cobalt Friction Honda Civic Si after starting 19th. That improvement earned him the Sunoco Hard Charger award.
 
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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