Credit for all photos: Perry Bennett, autoxpix.com

It’s a good year for autocrossers in the east. While the DC ProSolo was sadly missed from the schedule in 2015, a New Jersey Pro found it’s way into the schedule, as did a Devens Tour. But even better than that is a whopping five events across two of the very best concrete sites in the country – Toledo and Wilmington. The Wilmington Pro back in May was merely an appetizer for the best kind of grippy concrete goodness this side of Lincoln, and we return back to Ohio in June and July for two different types of Toledo events. The first of which is the Toledo ProSolo, which you can read about here. All the skinny on what you need to know about the site and its amenities are explained there.

For the second go around, the Northwestern Ohio Region’s halo site will be used to its full potential, utilizing the entire extent of the pad for a single big course. That’s right, it’s Match Tour time again, and that means two things are typically guaranteed – lots of runs and Brian Harmer’s 70’s rock playlists. These guarantees have clearly been a huge draw, as this is the first ever Match Tour to waitlist – and why wouldn’t it? There is little better in the world than hitting your rev limiter to the sounds of Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling”. This is assuming that the “better two-thirds” of the Match Tour team (Tracy and Carmen) don’t hijack it for the sake of 80’s one-hit-wonder pop. But that’s not so bad, either.

With so many runs on tap and 200+ entrants, expect a fast course, and of course, a good time. As stated in the previous article, the pavement is big, flat, and relatively featureless (which is a good thing), but don’t count out course designers Johnny Rose and Alex Jones to throw a few curveballs in the mix. For those making the second trip out following the Pro, you’ll definitely want to take what you learned about the surface into account and adjust accordingly.

Be sure to point your browsers back to Solomatters the week of July 13 to go over the classes you need to be watching. With such a full event and lots of fast people showing up, there’s bound to be a lot of exciting action at this Match Tour!

This past weekend, the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour had two stops on the schedule. One of those events took place at the Devens Airfield, a site with a long history of hosting National Solo meets.

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. Competitors had three attempts on Saturday’s course, then the layout was changed for Sunday’s three remaining runs. Fortunately, unlike many of the events so far this season, weather was not an issue as sunshine shown down each day.

Fierce competition was the name of the game this past weekend. There was no better representation of that than in the Street Touring R class. Joseph Ottofaro (Autosportlabs.com/Hamfist Racing Mazda MX-5), of Merrick, New York, was the class leader following the first day of competition. On Sunday William Koscielny (PROJECT Devens Honda S2000) threatened Ottofaro’s lead by setting the fastest lap on the course, but ended up 0.039-second short.

The winner of C Street took home the title with an identical margin of victory. Brent Vander Werf (Mazda MX-5), of Lowell, Massachusetts, went into the overnight break in second, a whole second off the pace of then leader Brian Doherty (Mazda Motorsports, Mazda RX-8). On his final run, Werf hit a homerun. He completed that run just over one second faster than Doherty. When the final tabulations were made, the win went to Werf by 0.039-second.

Street Modified featured another close battle for the win. Eventual winner Brian Kuehl (Big Budget Racing/G-Fab/Karcepts Honda CRX), of Durham, New Hampshire, finished Saturday’s three runs in second. However, he came roaring back on Sunday to score the win 0.093-second ahead of Rachel Baker (Thanks PJ Nissan 240sx). In order to take home the victory, Kuehl made a monster run on his last pass at Sunday’s course by running 1.188 seconds faster than Baker.

In an interesting side note, both of these cars — the Honda CRX and Nissan 240sx — ran in two other classes. The Honda also ran, and won, Street Modified FWD with Don Kuehl, of Windham, New Hampshire, behind the wheel. In addition, the CRX placed third in X Prepared, with Bob Day at the controls.

The Nissan — nicknamed ‘Panda’ — was driven to victory in Super Street Modified by Todd Kean, of Wallingford, Connecticut, and was the winning car in X Prepared, with David White, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, in the driver’s seat.

In G Street, Matt Jones (Ford Focus ST), of Arlington, Virginia, took home the class title over Charlie Thompson (Mini Cooper). Following Saturday’s runs, Thompson was the leader. On Sunday, Jones staged a comeback by setting the fastest lap of the day on Sunday. After his second run, which proved to be the winning one, Jones finished with a 0.205-second margin of victory.

H Street also provided a tight battle for the class win, this time between Patrick Huxley (I”9 Racing Honda Civic), of Cheshire, Connecticut, and George Modlin (Ford FiST). Huxley was the day one leader and was able to stave off the quicker day-two run from Modlin, to capture the victory by 0.206-second.

Tamara Hunt (Mazda Miata), of Shelton, Connecticut, and Heidi K. Ellison (Tatis Racing/Karcepts Tuned Honda S2000) provided a good battle for a class win in Street Touring R Ladies. Hunt staked her claim on the class title by running the quickest lap time on Saturday. On day-two, Ellison was the quickest driver, but Hunt had built up enough of a cushion to absorb the blow and take the win by 0.237-second.

Additional information on the Tire Rack Devens Championship Tour, including full results, can be found here. The next stop for the Tire Rack Championship Tour is scheduled for July 10-12 at the scenic Hampton Mills competition site, in Packwood, Washington.