TOPEKA, Kan. (June 22, 2016) – An old World War II airbase in Grenada, Mississippi was the site for this weekend’s SCCA Match TourTire Rack Crossroads Showdown. The venue’s concrete holds the promise of grip and abrasion for tires. However, a layer of algae grows on it, which made things tricky during the early runs. But as the algae cleared the grip went up.

The course configuration contained a number of transitions that were tricky and technical. It also featured a huge sweeper. Overall, the layout rewarded being aggressive and setting up well in advance, which is what David Entz did in his Corvette to win A Street by 1.180 seconds over fellow Corvette driver Thomas Lackey.

In B Street, Edward Fisher in his Corvette bested Charles Krampert in a Nissan 370Z by 1.013 seconds to take the win. And the 11-driver C Street group ended up with the Mazda RX-8 of Matthew Leach at the head of the pack just .350 second in front of Dennis Sparks in another RX-8 Mazda.

Randy Adkins in a Mazda Miata won E Street with a 1.687-second margin over fellow Miata driver Jarrod Hix. And in the largest Class of the weekend, Kerry Coughlin in a Honda S2000 beat out 12 other drivers to claim the Street Touring Roadster victory by just 1.234 seconds over Miata racer Geoff Walker.

It was the Top Dog Challenge that produced the story of the weekend. Dennis Sparks was marching toward the finals when he came across his son, Chris Sparks. But it was Daddy’s Day for Dennis as he dispatched of his son and ended up facing karter Jason Vehige in the final. But Dennis hit a cone early in his run and was forced to watch Vehige’s perfect performance … right up to the last major turn where he, too, hit a cone and gave the win to Daddy Dennis.

Sunday’s Underdog Challenge saw times improving, which resulted in a lot of new dial-ins. Stephen Saunders in a Corvette beat Jeffrey Wetzel, Daniel Chhit and Zachary Lemoine before besting Chris Henthorne in the final for the Underdog Challenge win. And Alison Hill in a Toyota MR2 won the Lucky Dog Challenge by getting the better of Brandon Anderson, Michael Ford and Larry Cotter.

From here, the Match Tour series heads to Pittsburgh International Race Complex in Wampum, Pennsylvania for the July 15-17 Tire Rack Heavy Metal Showdown – the final event on the 2016 SCCA Match Tour schedule. For additional information about SCCA Solo, visit www.scca.com/solo.

Image: Dennis “Daddy” Sparks jumps for joy after winning the Top Dog Challenge