By Jeff Pederson-Pedal Down Promotions

(PEDAL DOWN PROMOTIONS) October 14, 2020 – After a four-year hiatus, Jeff Bartz and the Pure Energy Racing team made an impressive return to the bright lights, big stage and white knuckle winner-take-all intensity of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Runoffs by turning in a third-place podium showing in the hotly contested F1600 Formula F national championship showcase event at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. Oct. 6-10.

Bartz, whose last taste of SCCA Runoffs action came back in 2016 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, geared his 2020 season schedule to peak for the crown jewel national title event.

The week’s activities kicked off with three days of qualifying at the team’s home track on Tuesday, Oct. 6, Wednesday, Oct. 7 and Thursday, Oct. 8.

“For qualifying, we started the week out strong and ended up on pole after the first day,” Bartz said. “On Wednesday, I was unable to get a draft with anyone and had some minor issues not allowing me to improve on my time, so we got shuffled back to fourth. On Thursday, it was a hectic session not allowing for many clean laps with a draft. I improved on my time, but not enough to move up any positions, so we ended up qualifying fourth overall for the race.

On Saturday, Oct. 10, Bartz rolled off fourth in the 13-lap, 52.624-mile SCCA F1600 Formula F national championship race, which was contested on the demanding 14-turn, 4.048-mile Road America layout. During the first half of the race, Bartz stayed in the lead pack, which saw multiple lead changes among five different drivers and numerous position swaps within the evenly-matched top-seven cars.

“Starting fourth for the race, I wanted to make sure I was aggressive enough at the start to at least get up into the top three or worst case be right at the end of the front pack of four,” Bartz said. “The draft is huge in our class especially at a track like Road America, so I wanted to make sure I was up in the front pack and hopefully fighting my way to the front of that pack.

“The early race strategy is always tricky as you want to be aggressive, but being too aggressive too early can leave you in a position to get shuffled back,” he said. “Therefore, in the early part of the race, I was trying to feel out my pace compared to everyone and stay up in the top three and ideally top two.”

After dropping back to sixth near the mid-way point of the race, Bartz clawed his way back to the front of the field to eventually seize the lead on lap 12. On the final lap, a huge surge from Tim Kautz of St. Charles, Ill., Simon Sikes of Martinez, Ga. and Robert Perona of Indianapolis, Ind. saw Bartz get shuffled back to fourth in the running order, during a mad scramble at the front of the field.

Kautz crossed the line first, followed by Sikes, Perona and Bartz. However, the results were later adjusted when SCCA officials penalized Kautz for passing under caution in the early stages of the race, which moved him back to seventh in the final results.

Kautz’s penalty gave Sikes the victory, while Perona took second and Bartz secured a third-place finish to equal his best previous performance at the SCCA Runoffs, which came in 2013 when he placed third during the most recent SCCRA Runoffs contested at Road America.

“Around the middle of the race, the battling up at the front intensified, thus slowing down the front pack and allowing the second pack to catch up with us,” Bartz said. “This was not ideal as unfortunately at this point in the race, I was at the tail end of the front pack in fourth place and vulnerable to losing positions from the group of racers that had caught up with us. I ended up falling back to sixth position at one point in the middle of the race and I was getting a bit nervous that I wouldn’t be able to catch back up to the lead pack.

“Luckily, I just kept my head down and was able to work my way back up to the front back within a couple of laps,” he said. “The last few laps of the race I was in a great position and established myself in the front pack of three. On the second to last lap, I had worked my way all the way up to the lead and Simon Sikes, the eventual winner after Tim Kautz got penalty for passing under yellow, pushed me around for a lap and I thought we would be able to get away from Tim. Tim had a big moment in one on the second to last lap where he almost spun out, but had an impressive recovery and ran us back down and was back in second place to start the final lap. I did not get the best run out of turn three as I was trying to push a bit too hard to try and keep ahead going into turn five and wound up getting passed by both Tim and Simon before reaching turn five. At this point I was back in third place and was able to mount a charge on the backside in turn 12, but unfortunately I had nowhere to go as they were two wide in front of me. Bob Perona had a great run through the carousel on the final lap and was able to get along side of me on the outside of turn 12 and won the drag race up the hill to turn 13, thus shuffling me back to fourth. I got a good run out of turn 14, but Bob made his car just wide enough to not leave me an easy lane to try and draft by him before the finish line.”

After the race, Bartz spoke about how a different strategy during the decisive final lap may have yielded a better result.

“If I could go back to the last lap, I would have hopefully gotten a better run out of turn three to put myself in a position to hold off for at least second place in turn five,” Bartz said. “If I could have done that, I could have hopefully been there more at the end, but it was such a crazy race that anything could have happened on that last lap.”

Check out Jeff Bartz’s helmet cam video from the SCCA Runoffs F1600 Formula F national championship race.

Just as he has been in every event during the 2020 season, Bartz displayed plenty of speed while racing among the leaders throughout the Pure Energy Racing team’s final race of the year. In fact, Bartz turned the fastest lap of the race with a time of 2:24.268 for an average speed of 101.012 miles per hour behind the wheel of his Van Diemen RF00 Honda.

All in all, the Plymouth, Wis. driver was pleased with how his 2020 season played out.

“Overall, even though we didn’t finish as high as I wanted to in the runoffs this year, we still ended up getting on the podium after the penalty to Tim was processed,” Bartz said. “There was some very stiff competition at the runoffs this year and at multiple events we ran with some up and coming drivers that are looking to climb the ranks and some crafty veterans. We ended up building on each weekend over the course of the season and really hit our stride late in the season.

“I am very pleased with how the season went overall and thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said. “I think we have made some major improvements this year that along with some updates we have planned for the winter will allow us to be even more competitive next year.”

Bartz, who has tallied over 100 race victories in his karting and SCCA racing career, competed in four events and eight total races during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.

Overall, Bartz captured one race victory in the Cat in the Kettle Majors at Road America on Aug. 16, while tallying four top-five showings and seven top-10 finishes in eight races during the 2020 campaign.

Bartz credits the support of his sponsors and pit crew members for helping the team to upgrade its equipment and stay highly competitive throughout the 2020 season.

“I would like to thank all my sponsors for the season, David Hobbs Honda, Mayville Limestone, Subway  and Harper Drain and Septic,” Bartz said. “Without their support and help, this year wouldn’t have been possible. I also need to thank Bart Wolf and Wolf Motorsports for their help all offseason and during the season. They were able to help us with a lot of issues we had during some weekend and we wouldn’t have been able to run as well as we did without their help. I also need to thank my crew, Scotty, Fuzzy and Dave for all their help this season, I could not have done it without them.

“Finally, I’d like to thank my parents for helping me financially and supporting me as much as they can with all of this,” he said. “Racing is not a cheap sport and I couldn’t do it without the financial support from my parents and the help from my dad on organizing the team.”

Looking ahead to the 2021 season, Bartz is aiming to test his skill at the next level by entering more Formula Race Promotions (FRP) pro racing events.

“For next year, with the amount of updates we have done, we will be looking to put the car and my development to the test and run more FRP F1600 pro races,” Bartz said. “These events have tons of track time, great competition, and are at a number of tracks I haven’t had the chance to drive yet. Getting up to speed against the tough competition will no doubt be a challenge, but learning new tracks and racing against competition like that will only further enhance and refine my driving and the development of the car.

“I will be looking to secure enough money to run as many FRP events as possible, while still running some SCCA races like the June Sprints at Road America,” he said. “I am looking forward to next year and hopefully we will be out at the track early and often throughout the season.”

For more information on Jeff Bartz and the Pure Energy Racing team, contact Pedal Down Promotions via email at pedaldownpromotions@gmail.com, by phone at 920-323-7970 or by visiting www.pedaldownpromo.com.

Pedal Down Promotions is a full-service public relations and media services company devoted to helping its clients effectively communicate with targeted audiences through press releases, newsletters, profile and feature articles, website and social media content development, printed media, editing and layout, graphic design and book publishing services.

For more information on Pedal Down Promotions, email pedaldownpromotions@gmail.com, visit www.pedaldownpromo.com or call 920-323-7970.

2020 Pure Energy Racing By The Numbers

Races – 8

Race Victories – 1

Top Five Finishes – 4

Top 10 Finishes – 7