Going back to his roots, Bobby Runyan Jr. took the weekend off from his normal stock car racing to enter a double regional event in the San Francisco SCCA. Runyan Jr. drove one of Porter Racing’s Formula Continental’s powered by JKB Energy at Thunderhill Raceway in Northern California. Although not unfamiliar with Formula cars, being the 2009 Formula Ford Champion, Runyan Jr. had never driven a winged car. The 2.0 liter powered machine would be his first attempt at such a race car with this much power and the added down force that the front and rear wings would provide.
Runyan Jr. spent much of Thursday’s test day getting back up to speed turning right on the 2.866 mile long course and getting used to the higher power that the 2.0 liter Formula Continental produced relative to his Formula Ford that he had previously driven for Porter Racing to the Championship. It didn’t take long. In his qualifying run, Bobby took the fast time of the field, beating the time set in the exact same car that had at one time owned the track record. Saturday morning, Runyan Jr. would lead the field of 25 cars to the green flag. Bobby would enter turn one with the lead and never look back. The race would stay green, and Bobby would lead wire to wire for his first winged Formula win in his first attempt of his career.
Later that day, Runyan Jr. would make his 2nd attempt at the weekend to qualify for Sunday’s race. Not to be one to let off, Bobby earned his 2nd pole of the weekend. This would set Runyan Jr. up to make a full sweep of the weekend’s racing, two fast times and one win, with just Sunday’s race left to close out the perfect weekend. Sunday came and Bobby lead the field to the green flag once again. Jeffery Pietz was off pole and motored his Van Diemon DP into first place going into turn one. Runyan went wide and was able to cross over and under Pietz going into turn 2, completing the pass. Bobby would slowly extend his lead and get comfortably away from second place. With plenty of track between him and the next car, Bobby decided to see just what this Formula car could do. In his last lap, he was actually able to lay down a faster lap than he did the day before in qualifying. Now on tires that had been qualified on twice and had two full races, Bobby made his Swift DB6 go faster than it had ever gone before. While not fast enough for a track record, it was enough to impress the grizzled veteran and team owner, Neil Porter. Not one to hand out accolades easily, Neil simply said, “You did a hell of a job, Bobby. Great weekend.” So Bobby would achieve two Poles and two wins, the perfect weekend, in his first time in a JKB Energy/Raging Bull Motorsports Formula Continental.
Bobby would like to thank all of his sponsors, JKB Energy, Raging Bull Motorsports, Eye Black, Sparco, Brenda Athletics, Brown’s Shop Support as well as all of his friends and family that continue to support him.
For more information about Bobby, please visit bobbyrunyan.com. If you would like to contact him, he can be reached at bobby@bobbyrunyan.com.
