The fifth of nine events on the 2015 SCCA Tire Rack National Championship Tour calendar, the Tire Rack Lincoln Spring Nationals Championship Tour, was held at the Lincoln (Neb.) Airpark this past weekend. The two-day event, May 24-25, was held on the same site that will host the Tire Rack Solo National Championships, later in the year.
For several reasons, this is one of the most popular SCCA Tire Rack Championship Tour events. Chief among those reasons is many competitors use this as a measuring stick to prepare for the National Championships later in the year. A total of 292 drivers did battle across 52 classes on the expansive concrete surface in Lincoln.
The competition utilized the same competition format as the National Championships which allows each driver to take a total of six runs throughout the weekend. With the expansive real estate at the Lincoln Airpark, organizers were able to construct two completely separate courses much like what is done at the National Championship. Competitors were given three runs on the west course on Sunday, which was Lee Piccon’s 2014 Nationals course run in reverse. On Monday, the field transferred over to run the East Course designed by John Hunter.
Weather conditions were of paramount concern for each on Sunday. Wet conditions were present throughout the day, forcing drivers to slow down and take some different driving lines. The changing conditions throughout the day put a premium on being able to be flexible and make the best out of each run. Monday was a different story, although not less tricky. The proceedings started under overcast skies with one heat run during light sprinkles. But, sunny skies were present by the end of the day.
H Street featured a battle that came down to the wire between winner Greg Reno (MiniUSA/Baron Mini-BMW Mini Cooper), of Lawrence, Kansas, and Trevor Jones. Heading into the overnight break, Reno held the advantage by 0.009-second. On Monday, he came out of the box on fire by setting the fastest timed run by anyone in the class on his first lap. That would be the decider, which allowed him to take the win by 0.096-second.
Street Touring Ultra saw another close battle that included a Lawrence, Kansas resident. This time, however, it was Robert Pendergest (Grimmspeed/Racecomp Engineering Subaru STi), of Wichita, Kansas, that beat out Lawrencian Mark Hill. Pendergest had the advantage following the first day of competition, after opening the meet with his fastest lap. He then logged the best time of the class on Monday, resulting in a 0.180-second margin of victory.
Bob Bundy (949 Racing/MAZDASPEED Mazda Miata), of Anacortes, Washington, took home a narrow victory in Super Street Modified. Bundy progressively worked his way down to setting the fastest lap of the day in the class. On Monday Bundy did not capture the best time, but had built enough of a gap to take the win over Randall Wilcox by 0.178-second.
The battle for supremacy in Street Touring R was won by Ricky Crow (My Wallet Honda S2000), of Bulverde, Texas, but it was not looking like that would be the result following the first day of competition. David Whitener finished the first day as the top driver in the class, with a 1.3-second lead over Crow. On Monday, Crow came roaring out of the box by setting the fastest time posted in the class on his first run. It proved to be enough to change the tide of the competition resulting in a 0.321-second win for Crow.
Tom Harrington (Seventh-Gear.com Honda CRG), Austin, Texas, drove to victory after bouncing back from a slow lap on day one to take the Kart Modified class win. On Sunday night, Harrington was at a 0.5-second deficit to Ryan Windfeldt. However, on Monday, Harrington bounced back with a blistering lap that cleared Whindfeldt’s time by 0.9-second that resulted in a 0.465-second margin of victory.
In Street Touring FWD, Jeremy Salenius (Dare 2 Dream Motorsports Mini Cooper), of Bonner Springs, Kansas, went into the Sunday night break with the clear lead in the class. On Monday, he set the fast time in the class, but had built enough of a lead to ensure his win in the class by 0.499-second over Kim Whitener.
Additional information on the Lincoln Tire Rack Championship Tour, including full results, can be found at https://www.scca.com/events. The next stop for the Championship Tour is scheduled for June 13-14 at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colorado.
Additional information on the SCCA Tire Rack National Solo program can be found by visiting SCCA.com/Solo.
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2015 Tire Rack Lincoln Spring Nationals Champ Tour
The East Coast ProSolo season has cleared its throat and is about to start singing for real. The 2015 Tire Rack Wilmington Spring ProSolo is this weekend, the first of three ProSolos in Ohio this year. The series will be in Toledo the following month, with the final regular season event back at the awesome Wilmington site a month after that. Sometimes its good to be an Ohioan.
East coast battles are already starting to shape up. In New Jersey Evan Schickel dominated B Street and went on to finish 2nd in the challenge. He’s looking to back up that performance at Wilmington this weekend to carry a perfect 40 class points to the finale at Lincoln later this year, but long time fast ‘guys’ Paul and Lynne Rothney Kozlak are looking for redemption as well.
C Street is about to get serious. Chris Harvey is back in his 2009 MX-5, coming off a 2nd place at the the Spring Nats Pro. However his regular co-driver and Spring Nats winner Chris Fenter doesn’t show up on the entry list… A casualty to the entry cap or a planned absence? Either way, C Street competitors will be trying to take advantage of his absence. One of those folks will be last year’s STX national champ Andrew Pallotta, coming out for his first national event in his new RX-8. A long battle with grounding issues is finally over and he’s got power steering… Expect him to be quick!
E Street sees a rematch between surprise NJ winner John Ryan and the always fast Eric Peterson. Peterson was forced to settle for 2nd again at Spring Nats this past weekend and he’s only got two events left to gather up class points for the Finale, a position he’s not used to. Ryan meanwhile is looking to show that NJ wasn’t a fluke and that after a long break from autocross he’s back with a new car this year having found his national competition stride.
Skipping down the entry list a bit we hit Super Street R, our biggest class this weekend. The east coast bastion of Corvette and R-Tire love is in full swing with eighteen competitors. Sam Strano is coming off a dominating performance at Spring Nats, but Grant Reeve is looking to show that he’s the man to beat despite being in a relatively underpowered C5. Meanwhile Matthew Braun has found himself a C6Z06 Corvette as well. And let’s not forget Josh Luster, our NJ SSR winner. Sam was slumming with STU that weekend and Luster will be out to prove that he can beat the SSR patriarch too.
Street Touring Sport is no slouch on the entry list either, with 15 entries. The class is a mix of the longtime stalwart Miata and CRX’s, with the former STC Civics now thrown in. Results so far this year aren’t showing a dominant platform and its anyone’s guess what the final results will look like. Our NJ podium STS finishers (Wagstaff, Lee, and Roleira) aren’t at this event, so its a whole new ballgame.
In New Jersey, the rest of the Street Touring Ultra class could only watch Martin Kriz’s taillights as he left them all gasping at the tree. He ended up with a decisive win over Nick Barbato and the afore-mentioned Sam Strano and comes to Wilmington as the clear favorite. Barbato is back in his 350Z however, looking for vindication and don’t count out Kriz’s codriver David Wampler either!
You can’t talk about Street Prepared in Ohio without talking about FSP. There’s only six people registered for this class, but every driver has a name you recognize and all of them are out for blood. There was only one driver in FSP at New Jersey, so this weekend starts the real FSP ProSolo season on the East Coast. ESP also looks to be a battle with eleven entries. Longtime class competitors like Jennifer and Marcus Merideth are joined by KM graduate Jeremiah McClintock. Can McClintock adapt his considerable shifter kart skills to work with a Mustang that weighs ten times as much? We’ll find out.
The Street Modified category looks to have some good action as well. The ubiquitous Panda is in SM, this time with PJ Corrales and David White driving it. Todd Keen, our NJ SM winner, apparently is not making the trip. Watch Aaron Shoe and Tim White to try and use their AWD launch advantage to knock the Panda off it’s tree however. Meanwhile in SSM, a dominating win in NJ by Jake Namer was soured when he exploded his rear differential in spectacular fashion on his last run of class competition. He’s listed for Wilmington, but so far there’s no word if his car has been repaired. Randall Wilcox may not care either way… He’s fresh from a strong showing of back to back 2nd places at Spring Nats and will be hungry to step up to the top step of the podium. Let’s not forget SMF either… Brian Kuehl completely dominated at New Jersey, taking the win there by over four seconds and taking the top qualifier spot. Will Haydu, Janusz, or Tipple have an answer to him?
In the slick tire camp, R1 will see Ver Mulm and his completely awesome ‘Camaro’. He’s on his 2nd year with the car, but will he have it dialed enough to go after folks like Clemens Burger or Paul Magee? R2 matches SSR’s 18 entries, albeit across the entire Prepared category. The calculators will make it all work out though and we’ll see big names like Allen Kugler in his limited prep EP CRX going up against Raglin and Jones in their FP Solstice. Don’t count out Darrin DiSimo either, but with no car listed on the entry sheet you have to wonder if he’s really going to end up here or if he’ll be stuck in the trailer working on SoloLive instead.
Ladies is last on the entry sheet but first in our hearts. Unfortunately for them they’re usually in the first heat as well. L1 was drama filled at New Jersey with Stephanie Reeve ending up with the class win along with the Ladies Challenge top spot. She had to come from behind on Sunday to do that however, with Saturday’s leader Shelly Monfort sidelined by food poisoning. Monfort is riding a high from a Spring Nationals L1 win and its anyone’s guess as to who will come out on top this coming weekend. Watch for Kugler, Lavender, Baker, and Weaver in L1 as well. In L3 watch for Laura Campbell to face off against Kim Whitener. Whitener’s new STF Civic has been doing well this year and may have the edge in the battle of the indexes.
Tune in to Sololive and our Ustream broadcast to see how it all shakes out. With a 60% chance of scattered thunderstorms predicted for both Saturday and Sunday, this one may come down to who can put it together the best when the course conditions allow. No pressure!
Credit for all photos: Perry Bennett, autoxpix.com
Every year, it’s the same thing.
Two months prior to competitors taking their first runs at the Toledo ProSolo, autocrossers within 500 miles of Toledo crack their knuckles and warm up their F5 keys in preparation for the *real* race of the event – getting registered quickly enough to claim dibs on one of the precious few spots available on the entry list. There is no handicap, nor dial-in, nor PAX index to help you, and the penalty for not rising to the challenge is the dreaded waitlist notification. This year, the race continued to show no mercy – the Toledo ProSolo sold out in all of about seven minutes. Indeed, you often have more time to get to the guitar solo in “Free Bird” than you do to be a participant in this event.
It’s important to understand that people are not just trying to fill up the entry list to make people’s lives difficult – this is a legitimately desirable site and event, and there really is that much demand. But why?
For anyone that hasn’t been to the site before, Toledo Express Airport is the home of one of the country’s best slabs of autocross pavement – it’s a big ol’ slab of concrete that also happens to be extremely flat and smooth. Whereas the concrete at Wilmington and Lincoln have plenty of minor elevation changes and bumps across the blocks, Toledo has very little variation and is easy on the car. Those of you still kissing your Hoosiers before you go to bed at night will love the grip that’s available, especially once it gets rubbered in. You will be amazed at the kind of stupid tricks you’ll be able to pull. Bringing street tires? No problem for you, either, but the increase in grip can tighten your car up, so be prepared to adapt.
And when you’re walking the course, pay particular attention to the “grain” of the concrete. The car will have a touch more grip with the grain going against it than with it – not a big deal most of the time, but this can be noticeable when you cross the middle at speed and the grain changes.
When the day is done, you have plenty of options for a little R&R in the area as well. The Days Inn is the predominant hotel that’s closest to the site (and likely sold out by now because of it), but the majority of hotels and restaurants will be further up Airport Highway. Your typical chain fare exists along with the odd Mexican place or three. In fact, there are *two* Don Juan Mexican places in the area – you have been warned. You’ll also find some nicer fare off of Dussel Dr., just a bit south of Airport Highway.
Looking for something else to do? Toledo itself is not a far drive from the airport, and there is a karting place as part of an amusement park on the eastern side of 475. This isn’t a “real” karting place, mind you, but it’s another way to show your co-driver that you mean business if day 1 just didn’t go that well for you.
No matter what you decide to do on site or off, it should be a fantastic event with a lot of stacked classes. Check back in later for the Tune-In to get the list of the classes you should definitely make time to watch – and there will be many of them!
