Whitston takes third FV Runoffs win, claims Super Sweep

Andrew Whitston clinched the gold medal running in Formula Vee (FV) at the 60th running of the SCCA National Championship Runoffs at VIRginia International Raceway, and in the process locked in much more than his third SCCA National Championship title.

His road to victory began in qualifying, where he earned the Tire Rack Pole in his No. 12 RocketMotors/LOA Const/InfamousBrew Protoform P3. But while his qualifying time of 2:15.639 led the 27-car field, it didn’t do so by much – the top four qualifiers of Alex Scaler, Brian Farnham, and one of Andrew’s brother’s Steve Whitston all set times within 0.673sec of the pole.

The green flag flew a few minutes past 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, the second of three Hagerty Race days, with Andrew Whitston taking the point into Turn 1, followed by Farnham and Scaler.

A few mid-pack tangles built opening lap excitement, but there was also shuffling up front, with Farnham leading the pack into lap two; Scaler, Steve Whitston, and Andrew Whitston were in the small breakaway group. Andrew Abbott, Zachary Whitston, and a few others made up the second grouping – but the race was forced to hit pause as double yellows emerged to allow crews to clean up those opening-lap incidents.

During the caution, Abbott gave up his fifth-place position by pulling into the pits, his dad acting fast to replace a flat tire.

“I have zero idea [why the tire went flat],” Abbott said. “It was a fresh set, and on the first race lap coming down Roller Coaster, it just didn’t turn, and I was like, that’s weird. Through Hog Pen it was fine, and then in Turn 1 it locked up. I looked at it in the braking zone and I could see it and it was down.

“I was trying to get out of everybody’s way, and it was kind of a hard spot to do that,” he explained. “A full-course caution came out, and I was on the radio [with my dad, telling him] go get a tire, go get a tire, go get a tire!”

Abbott limped his No. 25 Hoosier/Autowerks/LDC Equipment Vector AM-1 around the circuit until the tire was ready, his dad changed the tire, and Abbott rejoined the field – which was still under caution – in last place.

The field restarted on lap four, with a seven pack quickly separating themselves up front. Two pairs of those Vees went for passes into Roller Coaster, with that motion shuffling Farnham back and Andrew Whitston forward. But into Turn 1, Steve Whitston locked his front tires and slid into Farnham, dropping them from contention. Zachary Whitston then had a quick spin in the Oak Tree sequence to fall out of the lead battle himself.

Up front, Andrew Whitston and Scaler had formed a two-car train several seconds ahead of the next pack of three Vees, while Abbott used the laps after the restart to climb back through the field.

“[At the restart] I got on it and passed a bunch of people on the front straightaway, luckily not getting caught in bad spots and just picking people off,” Abbott said. “And the next thing I know, I’m like holy crap, this is for the podium – we’re here, let’s go!”