Perfect weather, a few upsets and come-from-behind wins, and cheeseburgers the size of kart tires all in the shadow of Pikes Peak made for an exceptional Tire Rack Colorado Championship Tour at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colorado.
As expected, the Chris Mayfield designed courses were fast and technical, and rewarded those that managed the high speeds best. However, high average speed doesn’t mean that the courses were short. Each course required about 55 to 60 seconds to complete, which delighted many drivers.
One of the more exciting clashes of the weekend was found in C Street, where the top five positions were claimed by four different car models. Jeffery Bandes, in the ND MX-5, was able to stay ahead of hard chargers Jeff Hugo, in a RX-8, and Ezra Kelderman, in the E36 BMW M3, on both days to take the overall win.
E Street is typically packed with close battles. The weekend’s fast courses were Mazdaspeed Miata friendly and the duo of Jonathan Kuo and Brian Kelly soared to a quick one-two over multi-time national champion Paul Brown, in the Toyota Spyder, after day one. Moving to day two, Brown had his sights set decisively on the top spot and recorded a time on his first run that neither Kuo, nor Kelly would match all day, putting Brown in the lead. But while all eyes were on Brown, Kuo and Kelly; Jim Garton, in another Mazdaspeed Miata, was quietly shaving over two seconds off his first run time. When the dust finally settled, Garton scored a come-from-behind E Street victory to best Brown by just 0.02 seconds.
F Street had a bit of an altered appearance in Colorado. Sure, there were a couple of Mustangs and Kevin Youngers, but the preeminent Mustang was a Boss 302 to Youngers’ BMW M3. Additionally, it was difficult to overlook the Japanese muscle of Jeff Morgan’s Lexus IS-F. During day one competition, Youngers and Chris Kirkland, in the Boss 302, were tied to the thousandth of a second after their second runs. Kirkland was able to improve on his third run while Youngers coned away a slightly quicker time, giving Kirkland a 0.147 second lead. On day two, Kirkland set a time with his first run that nobody else would touch. Youngers did everything he could in the M3 but came up short, giving the win to Kirkland by 0.877 seconds.
There was no Van, no Kinch and no LaFonda in Street Touring Sport, which left the door wide open for somebody else to take home the victory. Kirk Dunlap, Cassidy Coghlin and Jeff Tattershall all logged respectable times in Honda Civics, but Tom Johnston in his ’91 Toyota MR-2 was simply untouchable all weekend.
Colorado attracted a few Street Touring Xtreme national contenders, most notably Dave Santel in the FR-S. However, while most challengers were working on improving their times, Santel was simply trying to get a clean run. The raw times were there, but his third run came and went, and no clean runs were logged, putting Santel out of the running in a very competitive STX class. This cleared the way for Andrew McGibbon in a BR-Z, and Justin Metz and Greg Paine in the FR-S to battle for the top spot. McGibbon and Paine made the most of their runs, finding time on every run over both days, while Metz struggled to improve. When the final STX car crossed the lights Sunday, McGibbon was the only driver with a cumulative time in the 111 seconds range, giving him the STX win.
With the fast courses in Colorado, the S2000 positively had the advantage in Street Touring R. However, Tom Reynolds was on a mission to cap off his productive season with a win in the new MX-5. After day one, Reynolds had a small lead over Jim Reyenga and Michael Carpenter in Hondas, but all three were covered by just 0.4 second. During day two competition, Carpenter had the fastest time on his second run, which moved him into second place. But it wasn’t enough to take the win from Reynolds, which gives him momentum and even greater confidence in his quest for a National Championship crown in September.
CAM-C was full of local talent and heavy metal. Mike Trenkle has dominated this Class locally the previous two years. However, newcomer Roger Kroog, in the former ESP Camaro of James Darden, has been challenging Trenkle on a regular basis. This weekend it all came together for Kroog as he bested Trenkle both days for a 1.313-second victory. Kroog did make it difficult for himself in the wide Camaro by hammering cones on his first and second runs both days, but clean runs on his third is all that mattered.
Full results can be found at the Tire Rack Colorado Championship Tour webpage. This wraps up the 2016 Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour season. But next up for on the competition calendar is September’s Tire Rack Solo Nationals, presented by Garmin VIRB. For additional information on Tire Rack SCCA Solo, visit http://www.scca.com/solo.
Story: Christopher Dorsey
Image: Super Street Modified winner Robert Thorne.
The gang at Grassroots Motorsports have been fans of Track Night in America since the start and we appreciate their support. Last year they brought out a BMW M235i and had a good time. This year they’ve brought out a new toy, their MINI John Cooper Works project car.
They kept it simple. Check tire pressures and fluids, torque the lugs, grab a helmet, and head to the track. Oh, and have fun. Mostly, we care that everybody had fun.
“These are less competitive than other non-competitive track days, too, meaning that it’s not an automotive arms race. Lower-horsepower cars seem to fit in nicely here. People go out, have fun, and then repeat. Plus the weekday schedule preserves those all-important weekends.”
To read more, head over to GrassrootsMotorsports.com.
Event Results
There’s possibly only one site that has sold out every single event ever held there, and for good reason, Wilmington is the best place to autocross. It’s for that reason that Solo Nationals tends to be the only time you gather as much talent from the autocross community around the country!
Sunday runs for L1 was packed with excitement, as Tamra Hunt coned her first two runs. This left the door open for Hunt to become the hunted as Shelly Monfort aimed to close the gap, eventually cutting it down to a scant 5 hundredths of a second. Hunt red lit her final runs, leaving her vulnerable as Monfort took to the left course. Monfort put in everything she had, but in the process tagged a cone negating a run that would have given her a 0.019 second lead had it been clean.
In L2 it was another close race, with Saturday leader Rachel Baker managing to drop some time as she became more comfortable with her borrowed C6 Corvette after her Porsche suffered an engine failure on Saturday. Jordan Towns, however, was able to drop even more time, vaulting her from 4th to first by just under 2 tenths of a second. Cindy Duncan managed to close the gap to Baker, but fell less than a tenth short, with Jennifer Bedell and Julie Heaton also close behind to round out trophies.
The A in A Street must surely stand for “Alien”, as the battle of aliens continued with Tom O’Gorman defending his lead over Mark Daddio. Daddio started off Sunday runs with a red light and a dirty 33.2 that would have matched O’Gorman’s best right side run. Unfortunately, on his final right side run, Daddio wasn’t able to match it and came in 4 tenths slower while staying off the cones. While it was an improvement in overall time, it wasn’t enough to catch O’Gorman, who took the win by 3 tenths. Behind Daddio in a relatively close third was Lawrence Casey, with Jeff Cashmore and Mark Sarcevicz rounding out trophies.
Yet more epic battles ensued in 3rd heat with Super Street R, a class so unmatched that you won’t see this class running at lesser venues. Matthew Braun set out to defend his lead, but Sam Strano started off quick, with the time he needed on the left side to lead, but still having problems with cones. This left him just one final run to catch Braun for the lead, as he was unable to improve on his final right side run. Not only was Strano able to clean up the left side run, but he improved on time and took a 3 tenths lead over Braun, who could only improve slightly to stay in 2nd. Josh Luster gained time but came up a tenth short of Braun and settled for 3rd as Grant Reeve was set back to 4th, with Tony Savini and Mike Snyder rounding out the trophies.
The excitement in 4th heat was in E Street Prepared, as an all Mustang battle ensued with class leader Bryan Mancuso trying to stay ahead of David Heinrich. Mancuso’s 2 tenths lead was holding going into the final 2 runs, as both drivers improved by about 2 tenths. It was in those final runs that Heinrich made his move, picking up just enough time to nip the lead from Mancuso, as Mancuso coned away the improvement he needed to stay in the lead. In the final run, Mancuso red lit, as Heinrich was unable to improve. This left Heinrich with a slim 0.058 second lead, as Mancuso held 2nd with just 0.047 over Ron Bistrais. An even slimmer margin to 4th was Mark Stevens, just 0.004 back. 4 or the 6 drivers in this class sat within a tenth of each other, all qualifying for the Super Challenge!
Despite the hectic competition within ESP, Mancuso was able match his dial in enough through the challenge rounds to advance past Jen Wong (GS winner) to face Daniel Gross. A downed cone on the first run of that round led to a re-run of the round, giving Mancuso a chance to advance as Gross red-lit his second attempt at the light. In the next round, Mancuso faced David Spratte of HS, and advanced from there to the semi-finals. Here he faced Scott Wright, who had defeated ESP class winner David Heinrich in the first round, Danny Popp in the second, and Sam Strano in the third, earning him the title of a V8 killer at the time. His streak of defeating American iron ended against Mancuso, as a cone on Wright’s first run gave Mancuso the advantage to head into the final against Jed Peterson of STR. Into the final runs, Mancuso held just enough of a lead to even out the disparity in times between sides. On the opening slalom, Peterson was the first to cone, but this was offset as Mancuso coned almost immediately after that, but was able to pull enough time on course to take his first Super Challenge win! Joining Bryan Mancuso as challenge winners was Jordan Towns from L2, who won the Ladies Challenge, and Kim Whitener from STF, winner of the Bonus Challenge.
The Wilmington Summer ProSolo is only the second to last Pro event before the Pro Finale, but will probably stand as the ultimate preview for the Finale, and also possibly for Solo Nationals to come. The Cincinnati Region hosted a great event with a well-balanced course set by Gordon Maciulewicz. One can only hope the Pro Finale course can match it!
