Rettich Edges Ayers for SCCA Pro Racing Spec Racer Ford Title in VIR
Scott Rettich, of Oxford, Ohio, had an eventful finish to earn his first professional racing Championship Sunday in the season-finale of the SCCA Pro Racing Spec Racer Ford Championship at VIRginia International Raceway Sunday.
In the season’s final race Sunday, Brian Schofield, of Penbroke Pines, Fla., started from the pole and led every lap en route to his third win of the season. The drama for the season-long Championship unfolded behind him, though, as Rettich and Tray Ayres, of Woodstock, Ga., traded positions, swinging the direction of the Championship trophy several times as the 15-lap, 49.05-mile race unfolded.
As Schofield took the white flag, signaling one lap to go, Rettich ran second in his No. 17 PDI Communication Systems/Springfield Car Wash SRF, which would have been a good enough position to clinch the Championship. But entering the front straight, Rettich ran wide and off course, allowing third-place Ayers through in his No. 7 Ayres Racing SRF as well as the No. 8 Expanded Tech/PM Racing/8 Ball SRF of Jean-Luc Liverato. The pendulum swung to Ayers for the title, but when Liverato moved around Ayers for second on the final lap, the title was sealed for Rettich.
Rettich won the 10-race Championship by just five points over Ayers 1033 to 1028. It was Rettich’s first professional Championship and marks the first Champion for the series which was re-launched this year after a six-year hiatus.
As was the case for every race weekend for the series in 2010, the drivers ran a doubleheader, with a race on Saturday and Sunday. In Saturday’s race, Rick Bellew, of Mobile, Ala., captured his first series win in tricky wet conditions driving his No. 10 M&M Motorsports entry over Bobby Sak, of Kalamazoo, Mich. Rettich finished third, followed by Ayers and Chris Current, of Silver Springs, Mo.
Bellew finished third in the Championship, which dropped a racer’s worst Round, with 727 points, followed by Ernst Krueger (666 points) and Robert Reed (539 points).
Schofield finished sixth despite only running four of the 10 Rounds, with 476 points, followed by Todd Harris (442 points), JD Pfetzing (372 points), Liverato (366 points) and Sak (362 points).