The 63rd running of the Mission Foods SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® technically took to Road America’s 4.048-mile circuit on Oct. 1-2, 2026, with two days of qualifying, but it was Touring 3 that had the honor of seeing the first green flag during the Oct. 3-4 Hagerty Race Days – and what a way to begin the weekend’s National Championship races.
Leading the 12-car field to the starter’s stand was Kansas City Region’s Nic Hammann in his No. 41 Nissan/Carbotech/Paragon Brakes Nissan 370Z Nismo on the Tire Rack Pole, a spot he earned after breaking the existing Runoffs qualifying track record. His time was a full second up on the field, but the race wasn’t going to be easy for the defending Touring 3 champ, as Scotty B. White had his Ford Mustang V6 on the outside pole, with Rob Piekarczyk in a Toyota 86 third and John LoGiudice sitting in fourth his own Mustang.
By the time the 13-lap race had concluded, Hammann had led, dropped to second, challenged for the lead, and wound up in the wall just yards short of the finish line. Meanwhile, the driver who crossed the finish line first would be relegated to last, allowing LoGiudice to take the win in his very first Runoffs appearance.
Let’s begin with the start.
With a flick of the wrist, the green emerged from the starter’s hand and the field hammered down. Hammann pulled White, getting a clean run into Turn 1 followed extremely closely by White, with the two already putting a gap on LoGiudice in third and Gamaliel Aguilar-Gamez in fourth, followed by William Bolt and the rest of the field – Piekarczyk fell to the middle of the pack at the green.
It took no time for this to turn into a two-car race, with Hammann gapping White by 1.6sec just three laps in, while the two ran away from LoGiudice and the rest of the field by more than five seconds.
The race for third was keeping itself in line, but Aguilar-Gamez chased LoGiudice with a vengeance, pushing to get his 370Z into the final podium spot. The story was the same in the battle for fifth, with Piekarczyk and Bolt all over each other while working lap four. Soon thereafter, Bolt slowed, allowing Piekarczyk to lay claim to the position.
Aquilar-Gamez was looking strong, but a tire lockup heading into the fast Turn 5 sent him into the tire barrier, handing fourth to Piekarczyk.
At the same time, White had set the fastest lap of the race while following Hammann, White gaining on Hammann and dropping Hammann’s lead to a tick over half a second.
Tight on Hammann’s bumper, White popped to the inside into Turn 1 with five laps to go, his momentum good from Turn 14, but not good enough to get clear. Showing he meant business, White took the lead four corners later.
The next lap, it was Hammann’s turn to show a nose into Turn 5, but White maintained the spot. This was the beginning of the final duel as the two leaders closed on the back of the field.
On the final lap, Hammann looked to the inside into Turn 1, then again into Turn 5, this time taking the spot. White fired back, jumping to the inside to reclaim the lead in Turn 6. Running to the inside into Turn 14, Hammann pulled even with White with the two touching mid turn as they headed onto the front straight. That contact led to more as they climbed the hill to the checker. It was there that Hammann found himself bouncing through the grass, running through a series of Mission Foods signs, and making hard contact with the tire barrier under the Mission Foods bridge.
A post-race evaluation of the incident resulted in White being placed last in the results, with Milwaukee Region’s LoGiudice earning the win in his No. 73 After Breast Cancer Diagnosis Ford Mustang V6. Neohio Region’s Piekarczyk in his No. 99 Kryderracing/Carbotech Toyota 86 crossed the line in what would become second, and Colorado Region’s Michael Pettiford took third in his No. 4 GO 4 IT/Hoosier/Carbotech Pontiac Solstice GXP. Jared Lendrum finished fourth, with Ben Sedler fifth, who also claimed the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for his run from 10th on the grid. Thanks to his lapping some of the field, Nic Hammann earned a sixth-place finish.
LoGiudice was happy with his race. “I hate to use this term, but it’s better to be lucky than good, but given my profession as a physician, I don’t want to be lucky, I want to be good,” he said. “ started to creep up and something happened at 5, but luckily he didn’t pressure me in the second half of the race.”
The 63rd Mission Foods SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® is the pinnacle of American amateur motorsports and crowns Sports Car Club of America™ Champions as part of the Summit Racing Equipment SCCA Road Racing program. In 2026, two Hagerty Race Days at Wisconsin’s Road America decide 23 gold-medal winners.
The live, online Runoffs Broadcast presented by Mazda features video over both competition days at SCCA’s Official YouTube Channel. Live timing and scoring for each race is also available at SCCA.com/live.
Below are provisional results for Saturday’s Touring 3 race at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs; with finish position, starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, car, and laps completed.
- 1, (4), John LoGiudice, Hartland, WI, Ford Mustang V6, 13.
2, (3), Rob Piekarczyk, Brunswick, OH, Toyota 86, 13.
3, (7), Michael Pettiford, Louisville, CO, Pontiac Solstice GXP, 13.
4, (8), Jared Lendrum, Queensbury, NY, Subaru WRX Sti, 13.
5, (10), Ben Sedler, Harrison, OH, Mazda MX-5 Cup, 13.
6, (1), Nic Hammann, Elkhart Lake, WI, Nissan 370Z Nismo, 12.
7, (9), Robert Damler, Zionsville, IN, Ford Mustang GT, 12.
8, (12), Edward Karabec, Scarborough, ME, BMW SpecE46, 12.
9, (11), David Muramoto, Aurora, CO, Nissan 350Z Track, 12.
10, (6), William Bolt, Alpharetta, GA, Nissan 350Z Nismo, 6.
11, (2), Scotty B White, Auburn, WA, Ford Mustang V6, 13.
DNF, (5), Gamaliel Aguilar-Gamez, Renton, WA, Nissan 370Z Nismo, 5.
Race Stats
Length of Race: 52.62miles
Overall Time of Race: 33:14.385 (avg. 97.715 mph)
Margin of Victory: 37.141 seconds
Fastest Race Lap: 2:27.540 (98.772 mph)
Lap Leaders: #41, Laps 1-8; #0, Laps 9-13
Sunoco Hard Charger: #43 Ben Sedler
Photo by Jay Bonvouloir
