First-ever Runoffs co-champions: Bruni & Pardus in SM

Here’s something we’ve never said before: today we crowned a pair of Co-National Champions at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs®. Spec Miata drivers Preston Pardus and Nicolas Bruni were crowned on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, during the first of three Hagerty Race Days, writing a new chapter in the Runoffs history books. How did we get there? That story has many twists and turns.

In qualifying, Danny Steyn earned Tire Rack Pole Awards in both Spec Miata and Super Touring® Lite – he has certainly figured out the 18-turns and 3.27-miles of VIRginia International Raceway. The time he laid down in his No. 39 OPM/Rossini/G-Loc/Planet Miata 2002 Mazda Miata was the fastest of the 50-car field, but the drivers behind him had set qualifying times mere fractions of a second slower — including Pardus, Bruni, Rob Hines, Charles Mactutus, and more. In all, one second covered the top 14 qualifiers.

The green flag waved just past 1 p.m. ET as part of the first of three Hagerty Race Days at the Runoffs – and with it, the story began to unfold.

Steyn and Bruni hooked together to lead through Turn 1, with a little mid-pack tangling resulting in a couple of cars temporarily exiting the racing surface. As the field neared the bridge after the Turn 5-6 complex, Jeremy Butz and Chris Clark tangled, bumping Clark into the barrier, flipping his car multiple times. The race was immediately black flagged to tend to the drivers and repair the barrier.

Following a roughly 40-minute delay, the field took to the track once more for a single-file race restart, led by Steyn, Bruni, and Pardus. But rather than the originally planned 15-lap battle, the race would be a 23-minute timed sprint to the checker.

Except for a little dust in Turn 1, drivers stayed clean during the restart, with Steyn leading the charge. Into Roller Coaster, Pardus popped to the front in his No. 42 Danus Utilities/East Street Racing 2003 Mazda Miata followed by Bruni, Mactutus, and Jim Drago. Steyn was now in fifth, trailed by Raiden Nicol and Elivan Goulart.

The front pack fanned four wide starting lap five, with Nicol diving into Turn 1 and emerging in the lead, putting Pardus in hot pursuit.

Two laps later, the front five had broken from the field, with Nicol being chased by Pardus and more. Pardus soon made his move, passing for the lead, placing Nicol in second, followed by Steyn, Mactutus, and Bruni. That lead pack bravely headed four wide into South Bend and Oak Tree, with Steyn and Nicol discovering their piece of racetrack was the corner exit’s dirt.

This scrap broke the pack slightly, and by lap 10, the frontrunners were Bruni, Pardus, Drago, Brian Henderson (who was up from sixth), and Mactutus, followed by Steyn and Daniel Conway. It wasn’t long before there was more action up front as Mactutus went into the grass at the top of Roller Coaster and rejoined the track all the way down at Hog Pen.

When the white waved, the front grouping was made up of just Pardus and Bruni, leaving Steyn, Henderson, Drago, Conway, and Ethan Jacobs embroiled in a battle for third.

Out of Oak Tree, Pardus and Bruni went side-by-side for a photo finish.

“We were coming through those last few turns, I’d missed South Bend by a mile, and we went down into Oak Tree,” said Bruni. “Preston got a little wide I think, and I was able to get alongside of him down the back straight. We went two wide through Roller Coaster; he came out ahead, I tucked back inside.”

Bruni had one last shot in his No. 6 East Street Racing 2002 Mazda Miata. “[Pardus] got a little loose on exit and I got the run,” said Bruni. “I was like, alright, let’s see where we get to.”

Pardus thought he had Bruni beat in South Bend, although he quickly discovered that was not the case.

“I lost whatever time I had,” Pardus said. “Thankfully, I recovered enough. Going through Hog Pen I thought I had it in hand, but he had a run — I don’t know, he side-drafted me or something there and got up next to me and across the line.”