Nine Hours of Runoffs Programming on TV This Week

Nine Hours of Runoffs Programming on SPEED This Week

TOPEKA, Kan. (Nov. 27, 2006) - Put down that turkey sandwich and turn on SPEED, where five rounds of Runoffs racing await you this week.

Starting on Tuesday, Nov. 28, catch the first Touring 3 National Championship race in SCCA history at 12 p.m. (EST). Watch as teammates Rick Gilhart, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Scott Shelton, of Los Angeles, Calif., put on a clinic for the rest of the field in their Mazda RX8s. When the checkered flag flies, one of them will have earned his first National title.

Then stay tuned for Formula Ford action at 1 p.m. (EST). Three-time National Champion Thomas Schwietz, of Winchester, Va. leads the field to the green flag, but will have his hands full with James Hakewill, of San Jose, Calif., and John Robinson II, of St. Cloud, Fla. Could a Formula Ford title be the latest addition to Schwietz' impressive Runoffs resume?

If you miss Tuesday's airings of the Touring 3 and Formula Ford races on PEE, you can catch them again Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. (EST) respectively.

The show continues on Thursday, Nov. 30, at 12 p.m. (EST) with GT-3. John Saurino, of Tulsa, Okla., seeks to defend his GT3 title against former champions Collin Jackson, of Langley, British Columbia and John Black, of Olympic Valley, Calif., all piloting Nissan 240SXs. The winner will cross the finish line over 16 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, but which previous Runoffs champ has what it takes to master the new Heartland Park Topeka circuit?

Stay put for a wild Formula 500 race at 1 p.m. (EST), where a lap two incident shakes up the leader board and promotes Clint McMahan, of Covington, Ga., and Bryan Golay, of Avon, Ohio, to the head of the field after starting 12th and eighth respectively. Golay appears to have McMahan's number, but mechanical problems for Golay make for an unpredictable race to say the least.

This week's Runoffs broadcast comes to a close with the Touring 2 race at 2 p.m. (EST). He may start fourth, but defending T2 Champion Chuck Hemmingson, of Des Moines, Iowa, wastes no time leapfrogging his Subaru Imprezza WRX STi into the lead, leaving Kristian Skavnes, of Sparta, N.J., Will Turner, of Amesbury, Mass., and Robert Schader, of Boulder, Colo., to battle for second, a fight likely to distract you from Hemmingson's dominating performance.

The Formula 500 and Touring 2 races will also be rebroadcast the following morning, Friday, Dec. 1, at 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. (EST).