Sports Car Club of America, Inc. announced Monday that its National Championship Runoffs will move to Road America following the final year of its agreement with Heartland Park Topeka in 2008.

The announcement came after an SCCA Board of Directors vote this weekend. The Board directed its staff to move forward to negotiate a three-year agreement with Road America, located in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

“Club Racing in the United States has evolved in the last decade, and rotating the Runoffs will do nothing but help the event and the Club Racing program, overall,” SCCA Chairman R.J. Gordy said.

“This is by no means a reflection on the job that Raymond Irwin and his staff have done at Heartland Park Topeka,” SCCA President & CEO Jim Julow said. “In the last four years, they have met every challenge and request and built a tremendous facility that is worthy of potentially hosting not only the Runoffs, but other high-profile road racing events in the future.”

“As the SCCA National Championship Runoffs enters into the next chapter of its rich history, the efforts of Heartland Park, the City of Topeka and the State of Kansas have indeed created lofty expectations for all future hosts of the event,” SCCA Area 6 (Kansas) Director Lisa Noble said.

The SCCA National Championship Runoffs has been held at five different venues, including the now extinct Riverside International Raceway (1964, 1966 and 1968), Daytona International Speedway (1965, 1967 and 1969), Road Atlanta (1970-1993), Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (1994-2005) and Heartland Park Topeka (2006-2008).

The 45th SCCA National Championship Runoffs will be held at Heartland Park Topeka October 6-12, 2008.