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Bill Collins Wins 2015 SCCA Driver Of The Year Award

The Land of Lakes region of the Sports Car Club of America presented Bill Collins, the owner and founder of Interstate Truck Driving School with the "Road Racing Driver of the Year" Award for 2015.  

Bill's passion for driving runs deep.  He has raced cars for over 45 years and driven the big rigs for over 40.  As the owner of the school, Bill has the opportunity to share his passion for driving with new drivers that can take advantage of the financial benefits of the trucking industry.

In route to his "Driver of the Year" Award, Bill had to go back to school this past spring.  It had been several years since he had driven in the road racing series. Even though he had recent experience with oval track racing, the SCCA required him to go back through the same process as a rookie driver.

"I really welcomed the opportunity to go back to school" Bill said after the three day course at BIR Performance Driving School in May.  Bill went on to comment "Gary Curtis runs a great program and I used the experience not only to get up to speed in road racing again, but also to learn what I could to improve what we offer at Interstate".  Bill is dedicated to always improving the training at Interstate Truck Driving School so he is always looking for new ideas and methods.

 
After passing the drivers school with flying colors, Bill achieved the following results in 2015:

 

Brainerd International  May 23rd- 2nd SRF
Brainerd International  May 24th - 1st SRF
Brainerd International  July 4th - 1st SP2 
Brainerd International  July 5th - 1st SP2
Gingerman Raceway July 11th - 8th - T2 Corvette
Gingerman Raceway July 12th - 4th - T2 Corvette
Road America - Aug 8th - 7th - T2 Corvette
Road America - Aug 9th - 6th - T2 Corvette
Michigan International - Aug 22nd - 2nd - T2 Corvette
Michigan International - Aug 23rd - 2nd  - T2 Corvette
Brainerd International - Aug 29th - 1st - T2 Corvette
Brainerd International - Aug 30th - 1st - T2 Corvette
Daytona International Speedway Sept 27th - 5th - T2 Corvette
 
Along with the Driver of the Year Award, Bill set two track records (BIR and Michigan) and finished first in points for the T2 Class for the LOL region of SCCA. 
 
The September race at Daytona was the Season Championship Invitational for the Sports Car Club of America. The road course at Daytona uses most of the famous banked oval and Bill's Corvette topped out at 168MPH in the tri-oval.  The four cars that finished in front of Bill in the Championship Race were very well funded professional teams so his 5th place finished was a big accomplishment.  He was the fastest of seven Corvettes in the field due to the excellent preparation by Doug Rippie Motorsports of Waverly Minnesota.
 
Bill has already begun preparing for the 2016 season by making improvements in the suspension of the Interstate Truck Driving School Corvette.  His first race next year will be early January at Homestead Florida followed by a race at Sebring Florida.  
 
You can follow Bill's quest for a 2016 National Championship here on our website or our Facebook page.