ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Tim Kautz, of Geneva, Ill., captured the 2010 Formula F National Championship during the 47th SCCA Runoffs Presented by Subway Friday at Road America. Jeremy Treadway, of Putnam Station, N.Y., finished second, while Scott Rubenzer, of nearby Brookfield, Wis., was third.

Formula F was the last race of the day and it got off to an inauspicious start. Treadway, who started fourth in the No. 12 Goodyear/Loynings/Stonebridge Swift DB6 Ford, got a great jump and led the race early. But, halfway through the first lap, an incident involving Mark Keller (No. 66 Swift DB-1 Ford) and Randy Acock (No. 14 Acock Engineering & Associates, LP Van Diemen RF-98 Ford) brought out a full-course caution.

When the race went green again on lap four, Kautz’s No. 88 Braeburn/Hoosier/TwoDogg Boyce Body Piper DF3D Ford filled Treadway’s mirrors for the next three laps. On lap seven, it was a virtual three-way drag race (Treadway, Kautz and Rubenzer) down the front straight for the race lead – a drag race that Kautz won. In fact, Kautz took the lead and never looked back, winning by 6.918-seconds over Treadway. Additionally, Kautz set a new Formula F SCCA Runoffs fast lap record with a time of 2:22.001 (101.408 mph).

“The first few laps I had no plan to go around Jeremy,” Kautz said. “The goal was for us to get away. I thought if Jeremy and I could work together, push each other and go, then the last couple of laps we could duke it out for the win. After about lap five or six, I saw some other cars coming up to play in my mirrors and I had the straight-line speed to go around him, so it was time to go. We did and the car was so good. The Hoosiers were awesome today. Sometimes the skinny tires can go away, but the temperature was perfect and the car was great.”

In the 2009 race, Kautz was locked in a battle with Tony Coello for the race win, but the two tangled in the final corner trying to navigate around a slower car, crashing out of the race.

“This is incredible,” Kautz said. “I was not a fun person to be with after last year’s race. So, I have to thank everybody that helped me claw out of the doldrums and get me back up here. This is very sweet for me.”

Though Treadway got a good jump at the start, he knew the race was going to be a tough battle.

“Most people brake a little too hard for Turn One on the first lap,” Treadway said. “I figured on the outside line, when I ran Formula Atlantic here during the June Sprints, I got stuck out there and realized it wasn’t too bad on the outside line on the curbs. So, I went to the outside, knowing that we had to. We knew that we were going to be down a little on straight-line speed and we were going to try and gap them as quick as we could. It just wasn’t possible before that caution. We maintained it. Timmy worked well with us, behind us. He could have gone around just about any time he wanted to, but he was working with us to gap them. Then the caution came.

“[The lead] was just temporary. I got a little bit of a lead and tried to get some heat in the tires, but it was just temporary. It was a matter of time, a matter of laps before Timmy went around us and we just tried to maintain and keep him close in case he made a mistake.

“If you’re faster on the straightaway, but slower in the corner than somebody, it’s pretty easy to block them, but when you’ve got two miles of straightaway here, it’s pretty tough. You try to hustle as hard as you can through the turns to get a little bit of a run on them, to make it so it’s a braking maneuver to get by, but that wasn’t happening today. [Tim] got off the turns as well as us and just motored by us. We were in a different league speed wise today.”

Rubenzer, who won last year’s Formula F National Championship, started second in the No. 31 Storage Battery Systems Citation 95 FF Ford. At the race start, Rubenzer got shuffled to third when Treadway took the lead. In the first part of the race, it looked like Rubenzer was in contention to defend his Formula F National title. But, in the end, he did not have enough to stay with Kautz and Treadway, and he finished third.

“I had a pretty uneventful race,” Rubenzer said. “I had a decent start, but when I got to the second corner I knew I just didn’t have the grip I did the other day. I probably should have made more changes than I did, but being old and conservative I didn’t. I struggled with the car the whole time. I was sliding all over. I was hooked up the other day. I wished for 80 degrees, but it didn’t happen.

“It was a good race. Everything was nice and close. You can run close with these guys because they’re good drivers. I think each individual’s car comes in at a different time. All of a sudden Tim or Jeremy’s car starts working better and they gap us, then all of a sudden we’d close a little and it goes back and forth like that for awhile before it stabilizes. These two guys were just much better than I today.”

William Valet, of Coram, N.Y. drove the No. 83 Loynings Engines/ Goodyear Swift Ford to a fourth-place finish. Driving the No. 7 Advanced Borehole Services Swift DB1 Ford, John Benson, of Dade City, Fla., was fifth.

Arthur Foster, Clifford Johnson, Lewis Cooper, Reid Hazleton, and Ethan Shippert finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Lawrence Bangert was the Sunoco Hard Charger for advancing 15 positions throughout the race. Bangert started 35th and finished 20th in No. 18 R&A Manufacturing Swift R&A DB-1 Ford.

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - Provisional Results from Friday's Formula F National Championship Race, part of the 47th SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America with finish position, starting position in parenthesis, driver, hometown, car and laps complete.

1, (3), Timothy Kautz, Geneva, IL, Piper DF3D Ford, 13.

2, (4), Jeremy Treadway, Putnam Sta., NY, Swift DB6 Ford, 13.

3, (2), Scott Rubenzer, Brookfield, WI, Citation 95FF Ford, 13.

4, (5), William Valet, Coram, NY, Swift Ford, 13.

5, (12), John Benson, Dade City, FL, Swift DB1 Ford, 13.

6, (7), Arthur A Foster, Salem, CT, Van Diemen RF00 Ford, 13.

7, (8), Clifford A Johnson, Leawood, KS, Piper DF-5 Ford, 13.

8, (6), Lewis Cooper, Grosse Pointe, MI, Van Diemen RF00 Ford, 13.

9, (1), Reid Hazelton, Burlington, WI, Van Diemen RF-92 Ford, 13.

10, (15), Ethan Shippert, Petaluma, CA, Van Diemen RF97K Ford, 13.

11, (14), Michael R Kolthoff, Hamilton, OH, Swift DB-6 Ford, 13.

12, (16), Michael Scanlan, Great Neck, NY, Swift DB-6 Honda, 13.

13, (20), Wesley D Cunningham, Houston, TX, Swift DB-1 Ford, 13.

14, (18), Robert Albani, Hicksville, NY, Van Diemen RF2000 Ford, 13.

15, (23), Allen S Wheatcroft, Chicago, IL, Van Diemen RF-98K Ford, 13.

16, (19), Will Gallaher, Santa Rosa, CA, Piper DF5 Ford, 13.

17, (22), Bill Kephart, Colorado Springs, CO, Vestal 2006 Ford, 13.

18, (25), Megan Sauce, Arlington, TX, Swift DB6 Ford, 13.

19, (24), Doug Stout, Pueblo, CO, Swift DB-1 Ford, 13.

20, (35), Lawrence Bangert, Issaquah, WA, Swift R&A DB-1 Ford, 13.

21, (17), John Butkovich, Pueblo, CO, Swift DB1, 13.

22, (29), John Luxon, West Chicago, IL, Piper DF2-002 Ford, 13.

23, (30), Paul Reineck, Wilmette, IL, Van Diemen RF-98K Ford, 13.

24, (26), Dan Layton, St Louis, MO, Van Diemen RF98/00 Honda, 12.

25, (32), Daniel Helman, Huffman, TX, Crossle 25F Ford, 12.

26, (33), James Rogerson, Pearland, TX, Crossle 25F Ford, 12.

27, (34), Robert L Albert, Irwin, PA, Chevron B-67-88 Ford, 12.

28, (10), David Livingston Jr, Nashville, TN, Swift DB3/89 Ford, 9.

29, (11), Marc Blanc, New Glarus, WI, Swift DB16 Ford, 8.

30, (13), Russell J Ruedisueli, Rochester Hls, MI, Van Diemen RF-99-K Ford, 6.

DNF, (21), Stan Townes, Santa Clara, CA, Swift DB1 Ford, 5.

DNF, (9), Michael Sauce, Arlington, TX, Sauce SVM1 Ford, 0.

DNF, (27), Mark Keller, Snohomish, WA, Swift DB-1 Ford, 0.

DNF, (28), Randy Acock, Robstown, TX, Van Diemen RF-98 Ford, 0.

DNF, (31), Bill Brooks, Grass Valley, CA, Swift DB-1 Ford, 0.
Time of Race: 38:00.491

Winner's average speed: 82.088 mph

Fastest race lap: #88 Timothy Kautz 2:22.001 (101.408 mph)

Lap Leaders: 1-6 #12 Jeremy Treadway, 7-13 #88 Timothy Kautz

Sunoco Hard Charger: #18 R Lawrence Bangert