October 6th, 2017
Long known as the Racing Capital of the World, Indianapolis Motor Speedway most recently hosted the 2017 SCCA Runoffs to crown the latest crop of National Champions. After a season of qualifying races in the books, Capaldi Racing prepped the #68 Wolverine Bronze / Hoosier Tire / Ford Performance / Boss 302 Mustang for the weeklong event and entrusted Craig Capaldi to pilot the car for 2017.
The event would include (4) qualifying sessions that would collectively set the starting grid for the Championship race. Capaldi got up to speed quickly in the first session and posted the 12th fastest timed lap in only his first time on the track for the week. The team worked throughout the remaining qualifiers in an attempt to get the car and Capaldi closer to the top of the time sheets. As the qualifiers came to a close the team found some more pace that would place the #68 Wolverine Bronze / Hoosier Tire / Ford Performance / Boss 302 Mustang in the 16th starting position. The team had worked hard on getting the car consistency in place for the main event, “We knew coming into the event we would be a little out gunned in straight line pace against the Corvettes and Vipers so our game plan was to make up as much as we could in the road course. The guys have really put a good handling car under me and we feel we can turn this into a good result” stated Capaldi.
Friday morning would bring the main event, as the green flag was shown the #68 Wolverine Bronze / Hoosier Tire / Ford Performance / Boss 302 Mustang got a good start as was able to make up some positions on the opening lap before settling into a 3 way battle for the top 10. Capaldi would continue to battle door to door for the entirety of the 19 lap race trading positions with the competition. As the checkered flag was shown, the team would come home with a respectful 13th place finishing position in their first ever Runoffs event. Leo Capaldi, team principle was pleased with the result “These are the top guys from across the country. To qualify, turn every lap, and finish the Runoffs is an accomplishment in its own. The team put a good car on track and we learned some things moving forward, we are looking forward to debuting our new car in 2018 which will defiantly give us some more pace”.
With 2017 coming to a close, the team is already hard at work and ready to begin the development of a new Mustang for the 2018 season with hopes of a return appearance at the 2018 SCCA Runoffs. Full race coverage will be available in the coming weeks online at https://www.scca.com/pages/2015-scca-runoffs-ondemand
