Aquilante flag-to-flag in T1 for 14th Runoffs win

Andrew Aquilante, of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, solidified his hold on third all-time in SCCA road racing National Championships with a flag-to-flag win in Touring 1 on Saturday at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs.

The now 14-time champion launched from the Tire Rack pole at the VIRginia International Raceway green flag with a singular goal to put as large of a gap between his No. 33 Phoenix Performance/Hoosier/Hawk Ford Mustang and the rest of the field as possible. Aquilante successfully executed that plan, opening up a gap and marching to a 13.359-second win. He turned the quickest lap of the race in 1:55.488 on lap five, which gave him the gap to Mark Boden – himself a four-time Champion and 20-time podium finisher – he needed to get to the end.

“I pounded out a qualifying lap that was in the lead, but that car is bigger and heavier than everyone else comparatively,” Aquilante said. “Race pace is always a concern in that regard. You have to hit your marks on every lap. The first few laps were ok, but I was looking back and he was still there. About lap five, all of a sudden I think the tire pressure came in… and I kept cranking them out.”

Boden knew Aquilante was going to do his best to “run away and hide,” as Aquilante said on the podium. He cleared second-starting James Candelaria’s No. 134 Candelaria Racing Products Chevrolet Corvette on the opening lap and could see the rear of Aquilante’s Mustang. While Boden was able to get his No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3 clear of Candelaria, he couldn’t close the gap to Aquilante and finished in second.

“Andrew is so good, and he’s got that car dialed,” Boden said. “It puts the power down so well, and it gets later in the race and you see him put the power down and it’s just lifting the tire and going and it’s really pretty cool. It’s just great to be here, and I think this Runoffs showed everybody not to be afraid of the GT4 cars and that they’re a good addition to the class. I’m looking forward to next year and seeing some new, fun cars in the class and being able to retire this poor car after about 18 years.”

Candelaria earned his second career podium, and first since 2020 at Road America. While hoping for more, he left pleased with the company he had kept.