For the second and final time this year, Toledo would be the final destination of many East Coast autocrossers’ semi-weekly pilgrimages. And unsurprisingly, it rained.

Saturday had started off well enough, but the weather was hot and muggy – a level of hot and muggy that made some realize they needed deodorant in places they never knew existed. Certainly, heat advisories were in effect and at times the heat indexes were well over 100; the surface temperatures even higher, measured at 113 degrees. Yet unsurprisingly, it rained.

Credit for all photos: autoxpix.com/

But let’s back up a little. Half of the day on Saturday was completely dry, which produced the levels of competition one would expect. Clearing the course in heat 1 would be the vast majority of the Street category classes. FS would come out swinging, with John Laughlin in an E92 M3 and Dave Feighner in his 2015 Mustang GT taking the top two PAX spots in the heat by a significant margin. Johnny Rose – driving this writer’s former RX8 – would take a somewhat distant 3rd, but a minor lead in CS over second-place Randy Pearson. ES would prove to be a bit of an upset, as George Schmitt would take the lead over Eric Peterson in the morning, and proving the 99 Sport still has what it takes.

Heat 2 would primarily feature Street Touring cars, and John Brown from STS would prove to be the fastest of them on index in the morning. Eric Kutil led the way for STX in an Integra Type-R, by less than a tenth over Kyle Herbst in the #cheatercar #cheatertires #woowoo BMW 128i, with Herbst unfortunately stuck sitting on his first run. David Santel in his FRS – affectionately called “Caitlyn” – would trail a few tenths behind Herbst to round out the top PAX spots in the heat for the morning.

Heat 3 would be a mostly FSP affair, with Nick Myers literally bicycling his way to the top of the class and the PAX charts – both for the heat and overall. His AE86 Corolla would meet its unfortunate end on Sunday morning, but on Saturday, it was “money” (Nick’s words). Co-driver and car owner Jason West would trail in 2nd, followed by Scott Giles, Steve Mieritz, and Renee Hines – all in FSP and all names that have certainly graced these pages before in mention of some sort of winning achievement. FSP brought their A-game to Toledo and as a result, five of the top fifteen in PAX for Saturday morning of the entire event were all FSP cars. ESP and CP would fill in many of those remaining gaps.

Lastly, in heat 4, the M and P cars would come out to play. Andrew Blasiman led the heat on index and second on overall index in a DP Miata, but would retire the car by Sunday after the car developed and unknown engine noise. Typical Mod category staples such as Clemens Burger and Dan Cyr from BM, and Brandon Lavender from CM, ended up very fast as well, and were not far behind Blasiman.

As heat 4 was finishing, rain began to develop on the radar. A front was moving in from the north and it was picking up steam. By the time heat 1 had taken to the course for Saturday afternoon, rain began to fall as GS was staged at the line. Lightning had come hand-in-hand with the rain, and the event was stopped for roughly an hour. With such a huge event, the staff had to make the difficult call of cutting everyone down to two runs for the afternoon to ensure the event would finish on time. For some who threw away their only dry run with a cone – or worse, got no dry runs, it would be an uphill battle for them in the now-wet conditions.

As the heats went back through their orders for second set of runs, the drying conditions after the rain stopped in heat 1 was taking its toll on drivers. Drying conditions can be one of the most frustrating aspects of autocross – it’s impossible to tell how fast the course will dry or where – and those who were unable to adapt struggled. It’s the one time where looking ahead sometimes works against you, as some of the faster drivers were reporting that they simply drove off the ends of their car, looked for the dry spots, and drove to them.

The event ended on Saturday mostly dry, but with the main event now complete, the clocks would all reset for Sunday morning as drivers completed their qualifying runs for the challenges.

Of course, the Sunday Match Tour results are never quite what they seem. Sandbagging was a common topic of conversation through the paddock, and everyone had a different take on strategy. Unlike a ProSolo, the Match Tour format is based only on your own dial-in (not a class dial-in) and there is little to no penalty for a breakout. That being said, the top qualifiers for each heat were as follows:

• Dave Feighner in heat 1 would top his deficit to Laughlin to take the top spot. Laughlin would cone a 63.9 to best his speed from Saturday, but would sit on the 63.9 – much like a ProSolo, raw times count for your dial-in.
• David Santel takes top spot in heat 2, putting his best foot forward and pretty much completely foregoing any sandbag strategy.
• Nick Myers would scream back to the top again, proving Saturday was no fluke in the mighty AE86, but it didn’t remain mighty for long – unfortunately, the bottom end decided to step out for fresh air on Jason West’s last run, ending any possibility of Myers moving on to a challenge.
• Dan Cyr, also not keen on sandbagging, would take a 1.3 second lead over the rest of heat 4 on his final run.

Moving on to the challenges, we start with the Pro Challenge, which was comprised of folks who were top 8 on index in their respective heats. Each heat winner would throw down one last run to take the win. This final round consisted of Danny Kao in the DS Cookie Monster, Allen Chen from BS, Ryan Finch from ESP (whose Camaro had earlier lost a hub while exiting the course, and had jumped into Jeff Cox’s GT500 at the last minute – top-notch sportsmanship there), and Brandon Lavender from CM. Most of the drivers had broken out significantly enough by then to still be chasing their new dial-ins, but Allen Chen would emerge the winner as the only driver of the four to improve.

The Bonus Challenge is smaller, consisting of people who had been drawn at random to compete, just like the ProSolo Bonus Challenge. This challenge came down to two number 35 cars – John Souder from CS and Christopher Bickford from ASP – and much like Thunderdome, only one of them would leave. This would turn out to be Bickford, coming in with a slight breakout to take the win.

Last for the event is the Club Shootout, which intends to highlight some of the faster regional drivers, focusing on the 8th-16th positions in each heat. Just like the Pro challenge, this whittled its way down to four competitors – local Tim Carritte from HS, Mark Stevens in STX, Michael Nienhuis from ESP, and Ray Thomas from CM. Thomas would go on to be the winner, again by virtue of a breakout. Mark Stevens had also broken out in this round, but it would not be by enough to top Thomas’ improvement.

That would conclude the 2015 Match Tour season. The format was greatly improved this year and has been an increasingly popular series of events. Look for more of them from Brian Harmer and crew next year!