2018 Tire Rack Peru Championship Tour Fast Notes

When site availability forced the rescheduling, and later cancellation, of the Tire Rack Toledo ProSolo®, the event was replaced on the calendar with the Tire Rack Peru Championship Tour in Grissom, IN. Despite the short window for planning, the Indianapolis Region SCCA stepped up to play host and put on a fantastic event.

The Raleigh Boreen-designed courses had an even balance between technicality and high-speed transitions that challenged all cars and drivers. In E Street Prepared, Clint Griest showed that the Mazda Speed6 could hang with its muscle car competitors. He set the fastest time on day one by 0.827 second. On day two, the high-speed third-gear slalom and kink element allowed the muscle to catch back up as Devin Taylor had the fastest time by 0.201 second over Griest, but that was only enough for Taylor to move into second behind Griest for the only remaining trophy. The top four drivers in ESP finished in the top 10 in PAX, showing the strength of competition in the class.

CAM Sport showed us that you shouldn’t ever assume a race is complete. Eric Brown looked to have the class under control on day one, leading by 0.241 second after the dust settled. But on day two Mike Losert came in with a mission. Running just before Brown on course, Losert set a blazing time of 40.742 seconds to jump into the lead. But Brown had an answer despite never knowing his lead had been taken. His 40.965-second run was just enough to hold onto the class win by 0.018 second. Andrew Ramos and Jonathan Rogers claimed the remaining trophies in third and fourth respectively.

Chicago Region brought their E Street cars into town with intentions of domination, and they did. Matt Waldbaum had the class covered on day one with just over a half-second gap to Michael Ron. On day two, it was Charles Mathews setting the pace on his first run to stay in the hunt. He’d finish in the fourth and final trophy position. Ron fell to third as Bartek Borowski nearly matched Mathews on his second run. It was Waldbaum who stayed at the top of the leaderboard by 0.337 second to take his first Tire Rack SCCA Championship Tour win.

It was a quick turnaround between Championship Tours for competitors from the east coast coming from the Tire Rack Finger Lakes Championship Tour in Seneca, NY the previous weekend. Maybe that freshness contributed to their strength in Street Touring Roadster. Mark Dudek led after day one by 0.345 second over Mark Shrivastava. That’s how they’d finish day two as well, despite Shrivastava finding time and closing the gap to 0.122 second. William Koscielny set the fastest time on day two to secure his position in third and David Marcus claimed the fourth and final trophy position.

In many parts of the country, F Prepared would be a small class at a Champ Tour. That’s not the case in Ohio and Indiana though as some of the class’ best cars and drivers call the area home. Alex Jones led after day one in his Pontiac Solstice GXP, just 0.093 second over David Montgomery in the Porsche 914/6. On day two, the cards flipped, and it was Montgomery who found the time, enough to take the win by 0.084 second over Jones. Adam Norton claimed the third and final trophy in the Mazda Miata.

Street Touring Hatch may be a new class this year, but it’s gaining traction as a home for the hot hatches and sedans based on the same platforms. This weekend, we saw Brian Flanagan premier his new Volkswagen GTI on a national level. Flanagan came out of the gate swinging, setting his fastest time of Saturday on his first run. It was enough to lead by 0.146 second heading into day two. On Sunday, that speed continued as Flanagan stretched his lead to 0.819 second over Alex Piehl who claimed the other trophy in his Subaru WRX Hatch.

Complete Results from the 2018 Tire Rack Peru Championship Tour can be found here.

Top 10 Drivers in PAX:

  1. Tom O’Gorman (SM)
  2. Sam Strano (SSR)
  3. Clint Griest (ESP)
  4. Devin Taylor (ESP)
  5. Andrew Blasiman (FSP)
  6. Mark Dudek (STR)
  7. David Montgomery (FP)
  8. Mark Shrivastava (STR)
  9. Alex Jones (FP)
  10. Jeff Cox (ESP)

Top 3 Drivers in Ladies PAX:

  1. Andrea Albin (FML)
  2. Krystal Lavender (FML)
  3. Sharianne Ziola (SSL)

 

Photo by Perry Bennett/Autoxpix