Brian Conners, of Voorhees, New Jersey, took home the win in the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Super Challenge, June 27-28, at the Toledo Express Airport. The event was the eighth of 11 ProSolo events scheduled in 2015. Jocelin Huang, of Edina, Minnesota, was the Ladies Challenge Champion.

ProSolo is one part autocross and one part drag racing, resulting in a truly unique and exciting Solo experience. The event is run utilizing a pair of mirror-image courses arranged so that drivers start side-by-side. A ‘Christmas Tree’ borrowed from the drag racing world directs drivers when to leave the line, with staggered starts to equalize different classes of cars.

Competition on Saturday and Sunday morning utilizes the tree, but the driver with the fastest lap on each course is deemed the winner much like a normal autocross. On Sunday afternoon, drivers are seeded into a 64-car bracket based on margin of victory during the class-based competition. Once seeded, the drivers go head-to-head with one run on each course to determine the winner of each matchup. The last driver standing in each bracket is the winner.

Rain, and lots of it, was the main concern shared by all drivers throughout the weekend. On Saturday, about three inches of water fell on, and around, the competition site resulting in flash flood watches and the cancellation of afternoon runs. On Sunday, the Bonus Challenge was scratched from the schedule in exchange for completing six runs of class-based competition.

Conners (Bump Class 1, Porsche GT3) finished fourth in his class during the first stage of competition. That was enough to allow him to qualify for the Super Challenge, however in the lower half of the field. Conners pitted against Joe Tharpe (Bump Class 2, R&S Racing/Loctite Chevrolet Corvette) in the opening round of bracket competition.

Conners scored the opening-round win over Tharpe, and did not lose momentum from that point. Conners’ next match came against Mark McKnight (Street Touring Sport, Honda CRX). Conners bested McKnight, which advanced him to the quarter-final round.

In the quarters, Conners met, and defeated, Sam Strano (Super Street R, Stranoparts.com Chevrolet Corvette). That pushed Conners one step closer to the final.

In the penultimate round, Conners took down Don Slevin (Street Touring Xtreme, SJFPerformance.com/Stranoparts.com Scion FR-S). Slevin made it easier for Conners as he racked up a couple cone penalties on course. The round win moved Conners into the final matchup against Mike Johnson (Bump Class 1, Evolution/BFGoodrich Tires/MCS Chevrolet Corvette).

Johnson got to the final via a first-round win over Martin Kriz (Bump Class 1, IAG Performance/OSGiken/MCS/ISTU Subaru WRX). Johnson’s next win came against Billy Davis (C Street Prepared, MiataRoadster.com/Evoschool.com Mazda Miata) when Davis’ car broke. Johnson then moved on to take wins over Eric Simmons (Street Touring Xtreme, Moto-East/Hamfist/Thanks Mike Subaru BRZ) and Adam Deffenbaugh (Street Touring FWD, Neal Tire Automotive Mazda3).

In the final, Conners drove to victory with a pair of clean runs as Johnson held the time advantage by 0.6-second, but took out a cone on course. The result was a two-second penalty for Johnson, handing the win to Conners. In the third-place runoff, Slevin took the win and completed the podium positions.

“My first Challenge win was very exciting,” Conners said. “The first few rounds move slower than the final ones. I wasn’t prepared how quickly it started to move. You cross the finish line on the last, and final, run and you start looking for the other car, looking at the reaction of crowd, turning the radio up (not off). Which way were they looking? Wait…it’s me!!!

“This is my first year on street tires, and every event has been a different setup. We didn’t get dry Saturday runs, so Sunday morning was the only chance I had. Any changes I was about to make had to be right. Once I got to the Challenge I knew a win was about managing my mistakes and a whole lot of luck. It was a lucky day!”

In the Ladies Challenge, Huang (Ladies Class 2, Porsche GT3) began her run to the title from the No. 4 seed. That meant her first meeting came against Simi Ritch (Ladies Class 1, Ritch Residential Design Porsche GT3).

Huang was the benefactor of a red light by Ritch. That moved her forward to a meeting with Learic Cramer (Ladies Class 1, Porsche GT3), which resulted in another red light win for Huang.

Huang moved to the semi-finals, where she met Heidi K. Ellison (Ladies Class 3, Tatis Racing/Karcepts Tuned Honda S2000). Huang beat Ellison in a straight-up battle, moving Huang to the final where she was paired against Laura Campbell.

Campbell (Ladies Class 2, Subaru WRX) was the class winner, and the No. 3 seed in the bracket. Campbell beat Kandy Johnson (Ladies Class 2, Evolution/BFGoodrich Tires/MCS Chevrolet Corvette) in the opening round, then went on to notch wins over Holly Schwedler (Ladies Class 3, Stranoparts.com/Thanks Don! Scion FR-S) and Laura Campbell (Ladies Class 2, Subaru WRX) before finding herself in the final.

In the final of the Ladies bracket, Huang finished her undefeated run. Monfort completed the podium positions after she defeated Ellison in the third-place runoff.

Additional information on the Tire Rack SCCA Lincoln ProSolo, including full results, can be found here.

Image: Brian Conners, left, and Jocelin Huang celebrate following their respective Challenge victories.
Credit: Andrew Pallotta

Credit for all photos: autoxpix.com/

Much like LeMans, it always rains in Toledo. This year, however, the mere term of “rain” didn’t quite describe the situation accurately.

It was, in fact, a complete washout.

On Saturday morning, the rains rolled in early – around 6am – and flood watches were populating the forecast. The radar was showing gigantic rain clouds over the site, and they were circling. It was evident very early on that there was no chance for this to be a dry day, despite some competitors hopes that it could be – when you’re potentially staring at standing outside in a rainstorm for hours on end, sometimes hope is what you need.

Unfortunately, that hope would end up being misplaced, as the colossal downpours would end the event early on Saturday. During fourth heat, Howard Duncan announced that the afternoon runs would be cancelled due to the weather conditions, as they were not friendly to cars, workers, or timing equipment. Some complained about this – and they had a right to, as plenty of folks came from far away to run this event – but it was a judgement call that ultimately worked out for the best in the end.

Therefore, competitors from all classes left the site around 3:00pm on Saturday and retired to the hotels, restaurants, and bars in the area, safe in their warm beds and deep in their beers.

Sunday morning, the forecast looked to be clear. The massive rains had dissipated and moved on, and the 250 folks on site would finally get the dry runs they hoped for. To sweeten the deal, it was announced in the morning that competitors would actually get *six* runs in the morning to make up for some of the runs they lost due to weather from Saturday, at the cost of the Bonus Challenge. Cheers and claps erupted from all across the paddock – a sure sign of confidence that the SCCA staff had made the right decision. With Saturday’s washout now a quickly fading memory, it was time to get down to business.

Here are some of the Sunday competition highlights:

L1 – Shelly Monfort jumps to the top of the standings early on – being among the first to get dry runs – but begins to fall back as Rachel Baker and Learic Cramer start getting runs in. Shelly explained that the car was suffering from being suddenly quite loose on entry, and it was difficult to drive compared to usual – tsk tsk, John Vitamvas.

B1 – Mike “Junior” Johnson and Mark Daddio steam back to the top in the dry conditions, safe from the likelihood of their cars becoming pontoon boats. Martin Kriz and Brian Conners also improve for an extremely close B1 finish; five participants in the class would go on to the Super Challenge.

CS – Otherwise known as “Chris Street”, powerhouse drivers and all-around nice guys Chris Harvey and Chris Fenter would take the top spots in the black NC MX5 they share. In somewhat of a departure from the status quo, however, it would end up being Harvey over his co-driver for the win by just under three tenths.

SSR – Never ever a class where one can afford to leave anything out on course, Sam Strano and Josh Luster left nothing to chance in their fight for the top spot. Strano – with a fresh diff in his C6 Z06 – would walk away the winner, but Luster, Grant Reeve, Larry Casey, and Brandon Davis would barely be separated by a second across the trophies. Peculiarly missing from this line-up is Matthew Braun, finishing a staggering 18th in class after red-lighting all of his dry right side runs. But that is often how the pieces fall in SSR; in order to find that last tenth to win, you have to be willing to risk it all.

DSP – Eric Campbell employed some clever strategy here, as he and co-driver Mike Eckert completely opted out of any runs in the wet on Saturday – this isn’t the worst idea in the world as it was clearly evident that nothing learned from day 1 would carry over into Sunday. Still, Campbell would come out to be just 0.048 over John Vitamvas for the class lead after just his first two runs, prompting some yet additional clever strategy to start sandbagging, per “team orders” from Eckert.

STR – Much like SSR, STR is another class that is stacked with talent and well-prepped cars, and the results reflect this. The usual suspects on the East Coast would populate the top spots, including Brian Karwan, Jon Caserta, and Chris Lin in the “underdog” MR2 Spyder, but Alex Kang – on his last two runs – would rocket from nearly last to first place in class. James Yom, typically a pick to win in any class he competes in, was unfortunately stricken with launch control issues in his car, and therefore finished out of the trophies.

CSP – Billy Davis has often proven to be one of the best drivers in the sport, and this weekend was no different. Billy threw down an unbelievable 24.8-second run on his second look at the left side, a raw time that would not only propel him to the top of the PAX chart, but also good enough to raw-time just about everything with fenders, including SM, SSM, and most of R1 and R2.

SM – At an obvious disadvantage in the rain on Saturday, Panda came back with a vengeance as both PJ Corrales and David White were able to eclipse Aaron Shoe to take a 1-2 finish in class, continuing the trend of Panda either winning or trophy-ing in every class it seems to participate in.

ESP – It’s a stick-axle fiesta as Ryan Finch takes the win the class, fresh off a stellar performance in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge. This win did not come without a little drama, however, as second-place Jeremiah McClintock would put in his best runs on his last attempt on each side, finishing a mere 0.019 behind Finch – all while Finch watched it happen from the staging area.

SSM – A rare weekend where the class is devoid of rotaries, it was definitely a party for the Miata folks, as Randall Wilcox slots in another win. Jonathan Leith would follow in second and Eric Anderson in third, with the shared MR2 of Martin Valent and Mark Andy resorting to fourth and fifth, respectively. The Valent MR2 was noticeably stricken with some breakup under throttle and a mechanical issue sidelined the car temporarily, but an extraordinary result nonetheless for the Valent/Andy duo despite the drawbacks.

KM – The padawan becomes the master as Jackson MacLeod beats dear old Dad Larry MacLeod to take the class win, even after only a mere handful of times in the shifter. Carter Thompson would take a break from SSM and round out third place in the former James Newman kart.

With the Bonus Challenge omitted from the lineup, it was time to jump from there into the Ladies and Super Challenges. Jocelin Huang would take victory over Laura Campbell for the Ladies Challenge win, while Brian Conners would beat Mike “Junior” Johnson for the Super Challenge. The Super Challenge final was particularly exciting, with Junior leading off with a .6 advantage on the left, only to have his car get loose and hit a cone on the right, taking him out of the race.

Congrats again to Jocelin and Brian on their wins! Tune back in in a couple weeks for the Packwood Pro, and in August for the final round of the regular ProSolo season, the Wilmington Summer Pro.