SoloLive Results

As Sunday afternoon of the Packwood Championship Tour came a close, it ended a weekend of beautiful weather, great local hospitality, and one of the smoothly running events one could expect. Saturdays overcast didn’t prevent warm dry runs all day, with a break for some sunshine during heats 3 and 4. After a day of racing, there was a hardy banquet at the Packwood Fire Station thanks to the local regions. A fantastic raffle was hosted by Kevin Dietz featuring prizes ranging from gift certificates for Packwood business, to tire mounting, and even included 2 data loggers. This is one of the local touches that makes these events so much fun. Sunday weather brought about hours of sunshine, 80 degree weather and clearer skies to warm the pavement for the fierce final battles.

In exact opposite ways, both SS winner Chad Langley and SSL winner Carol Leuty each won their class by 1 second. Langley in the beautiful white 2015 Corvette Z06 ended day 1 with a 1.1 second lead over Mike Leuty, who was quicker day 2 but unable to close the gap. Carol Leuty however started off day 2 with a 1.1 deficit behind fellow Porsche driver Valerie Ball. Leuty pulled it out and was able to leap frog to the win with an untouchable 60.718 that was 2.1 seconds better than Ball could manage. The theme of Corvettes continues into A Street with Ryan Otis putting an early 8/10 lead on Glen Hernandez day 1, only to double it up for a 1.6 second victory on day 2 that also claimed top PAX for the entire event. In our third installment of “Classes for Corvettes”, B street once again boasted the most diverse Street class, but it was the day of Corvettes with Brian Coulson taking an early lead over co-driver Cal Craner and never looking back. He ended day 2 with a 2.3 second win with Scott Dixon and Annie Gill rounding out the trophies.

In non-Corvette news, C Street started out day 1 with the BFG clad FRS of James Paulson putting in the top time on his 3rd run of 55.593, followed closely by Ahren Renner, Ben Neale and Quentin Osborne. The 2nd-4th positions, all sporting Bridgestones, were just 4/10 off of the lead going into day 2. Paulson wasn’t a fan of that, so day 2 he solidified his win by being the only person to touch the 55’s and end the day 1.3 ahead of Renner.

F Street may be showing signs of a changing of the guard with Piotr Szarkowicz driving his 2008 BMW M3 to a slim .166 victory over the 4cyl turbo Mustang driven by Kit Gauthier and car owner Des Toups. F Street Ladies continued the 4cyl turbo fun with hired gun Tasha Mikko muscling the pony car to a 1 second win over co-driver Jessica Gauthier.

STX had one of the most fantastic battles of the weekend, with co-drivers Charly Spyksma and Karl Coleman ending day 1 just .016 apart with a 1 second gap on the rest of the field. Day 2 came down to final runs where Spyksma had the scratch time for the win, but left the door open by carrying a +1 across the line. Car owner Karl Coleman took full advantage of it and came through with a 54.807, giving him a thrilling .104 victory. You could hear the excitement of Eric Hyman announcing all the way in paddock as Karl came across the line… Winning must be a family trait, as Amy Coleman, in the same BRZ, took a 2 second win in STXL to give the car 2 first place trophies for the weekend. Somewhere between announcing, selling raffle tickets, and being the MC of the Saturday night banquet, Kevin Dietz managed to hop in his 2006 Honda S2000 and take a 1.1 second win over Mike Wood in STR proving Jack of all Trades includes driving.

E Street Prepared prove to be one of the most ear pleasing classes of the weekend. The WRX may be gone from ESP, but AWD lives on in the form of the 4.2L V8 RS4 driven by Evan Willis and Ron Cridland. Before you condemn this car as being an overweight pig, you need to hear the German built high revving V8 sing through a set of dual exhaust. The verdict in paddock after day 1 is that this car should just drive WOT across the lot over and over. When it came to class runs, the pony cars were still on top. After 3rd runs on day 1, Dennis Healy had a small .4 lead over co-driver Adam Ruff. On day 2, both drivers started off aggressive, and ended up with some early cones. It came down to 3rd runs where co-driver Ruff came in at a class leading 52.429. Knowing he had one last shot to pull it out, Healy went out and put that V8 to work, ripping across the line with a 52.372 to edge his co-driver for the win in an exciting finish.

In XP, we have a story of day 2 redemption. Once again it shows, you need 2 good days to win. Andy Mckee had a very difficult first day carrying cones on all 3 runs. His third run carried only a single cone, which put him 1.3 second behind the first generation Elise of Kyriacos Panayio heading toward day 2. Knowing he had to push hard to make up the gap, Mckee came out aggressive right off the bat, resulting in 7 cones on his 1st and 2nd runs. With only his 3rd run left, he wheeled that beautiful blue RX7 like no one else could, coming in at a screaming fast 49.786. No other car with doors would even see the 49’s that day, and even off the ones without them Mckee was the 3rd fastest time overall of day. That time would take over the lead and give him a .237 victory over the tiny Lotus. Once again, he proves why he has multiple National Championships under his belt.

With the best weather an autocrosser could ask for, the most beautiful backdrop anywhere in the country, this is truly an autocross paradise. If you haven’t been to a Packwood event before, add this to your bucket list! This is a MUST DO event, and you will not be disappointed. The Packwood Tour is wrapped up for 2015, but tune in next week where we are back here with the SCCA ProSolo Series.

Credit for all photos: autoxpix.com/

Following the deluge that was Hurricane Toledo Pro, we once again return to Toledo Express Airport, but this time in a slightly lower-key fashion. Toledo will be the fourth round of the Match Tour series this year, which is a series that fully intends to give you as many runs as you can handle. This event is evidence to the growing popularity of the Match Tour, as this is the first one in the history of the program to waitlist – and waitlist fairly deeply.

This particular Match Tour, however, is largely populated with folks local to the Toledo area – some are newer to the sport, some are not – but it’s showing that the Match Tour is fulfilling its purpose. It’s getting those who would otherwise be put off by a Pro or a Champ Tour out to have fun, get a lot of seat time on a good surface with friendly competition, and do it all in a more laid-back atmosphere.

With that said, let’s take a look at the class line-ups this weekend:

CS – This is often the most popular and most interesting Street class, and for the Toledo Match, that observation still applies. Look for Randy Pearson to be strong in a TRD-equipped Scion FRS, but he will be challenged by Johnny Rose (in either an FRS, or this particular writer’s former RX8…) and Dax Bushmeyer, also in a Twin.

SSR – Most of the East Coast regulars appear to be taking the weekend off, as Strano, Reeve, Burns, and Braun all are missing from the entry list. However, this hasn’t stopped Josh Luster and Mark Labbancz from dropping in to try to take a few free tires home. Relative local Aaron Ritch is often fast in a 996 GT3, and he should be battling it out for the top spots with Luster and Labbancz.

Credit for all photos: autoxpix.com/

STS – Speaking of locals, STS is full of them this weekend. Most, if not all participants in STS are well-versed in the surface and know what to expect. Toledo is Jeff Mabrey’s home turf and he is never slow here, but Southern interloper John Brown is never slow anywhere, so expect a fun battle between these two.

ESP – Much of the field from the Toledo Pro returns this weekend, fresh off of an extremely close win for Ryan Finch over Jeremiah McClintock – a mere 0.019. McClintock is going to be looking to get that margin back and then some this weekend, and Finch won’t be expected to sit there and take it. The folks running this class were all rooting for each other at the Pro and they will continue to push each other to be fast.

FSP – While Colorado has often been considered the “home” for FSP, you could really make an argument that it has migrated to the Great Lakes area in the past few years. Everyone in this class is extremely competitive and rarely gives anyone else an inch. Steve Mieritz, Scott Giles, and Nick Myers are all serious competitors and it will likely be a close match between all three to try to grab the top spot (and some sweet free Hoosiers).

FP – Another class that has become a local favorite, it’s likely you will see last year’s National Champion in the class, Dave Montgomery, continue to dominate in that beautiful Porsche 914. Alex Jones and Chris Raglin will give chase in the topless turbo Solstice, but with rain on the schedule, Jay Storm in an AWD Subaru be the one to surge to the top.

Credit for all photos: autoxpix.com/

CM – Much like FSP, the Great Lakes region is home to a majority of the veterans in CM. Brandon Lavender, Chris Pruett, and John Engstrom will all be in attendance, with all of them having a legitimate shot at taking the CM victory, in a quasi-mini-Nationals format.

KM – Michigan folk seem to love karts, but only a few of them seem to be coming out for this event. Of those, both Macleods will be competing, and it will be the younger of the two that you’ll want to keep your eye on. Dad Larry was beaten fairly handily by son Jackson at the Pro, and it will be exciting to watch the duo work at each other to improve.

As always, tune in to sololive and UStream starting on Saturday morning at 9am!