National Solo in the Northeast is just days away, and the Pittsburgh Match Tour is on deck at 90% capacity with competitors making their way from as far as the Carolinas to Ottawa, Ontario.
90% capacity means plenty of competition in several classes, but the predicted forecast of 90% rain also means some classes might be in for a big shake up, and the current 2017 crop of street tires will be put to the test of their full wet abilities. One class likely not thrilled about the predicted precipitation is A Street, which is Spec-Vette this weekend featuring eleven competitors in C5 and C6 Corvettes. The 2016 Steel Cities Region Driver of the Year, John Laughlin, is expected to be one of the A Street drivers to keep an eye on. Steel Cities Region is out in full force, and another local expected to make a mark is Alex Artayet in his ’16 Subaru WRX. Alex took the B Street class by storm with a commanding win at this event last year with his Subaru STi, and won’t mind the wet conditions as he hopes to pilot his WRX to a victory this year in D Street, the largest class of the weekend featuring cars of AWD, RWD, and one quick Mini Copper S from the Detroit Region piloted by Matt Luckow, who will be hoping for dry skies.
Other driveline showdowns will be apparent in Street Modified, as Mike Aversa, travelling from Whitby, Ontario, will compete against Tim White of South Carolina for the rights of the fastest 2000 Subaru Impreza, hoping to keep the other AWD cars, RWD Nissan 240SX, and BMWs behind them. The FWD variety of Street Mod cars will duke it out in SMF, featuring 7 Hondas and a hopeful Volkwagen, with cars ranging in 15+ years of age. Expect Don and Brian Kuehl of New Hampshire to lead the way in their ’91 CRX.
Eleven drivers in Street Touring Roadster are expected to put on a great show, and Ido Waksman hopes to repeat his success from last year at this event in his Honda S2000, fighting off drivers of three different generations of Mazda Miatas, and an E36 BMW M3. Keep an eye out for Brian Karwan of the Washing DC region to make a dent in the STR results, at his first trip to Pittsburgh International Raceway in his 2016 ND Miata.
Regardless of if you’re praying for rain or sunshine, the Pittsburgh Match Tour promises to deliver with tight competition from several classes, likely testing skills and car control in the dry and wet from drivers all over the northeast United States and eastern Canada.
Words by Sean Grogan
It’s in the books, ladies and gents, and what an incredible weekend it was at the Tire Rack Crows Landing ProSolo® in California. Not only were there some incredible shakeups in class, but some “hero mechanics” emerged from amidst garages to prepare cars for Saturday morning competition. Steve O’Blenes burned the midnight oil and got his STX Mazda RX-8 all put together by 12:30 a.m. and drove in for check-in at 7 on Saturday Morning. Brett Norgaard’s Acura TL was all but apart early Friday, needing a full transmission adjustment and LSD install.
On course, there were some serious stories in class worthy of discussion. Four drivers got perfect lights this weekend: Erika McKee and Robert Ekstrand in JA both started the weekend off with great lights, although Ekstrand was pushing a bit which resulted in a lot red lights. Deana Kelly hit a perfted reaction time on her first attempt at the right course. Lisa Berry of L3 picked up the final .500 RT of the weekend. Berry’s STX E36 seemed to have some misfire issues which left Berry, Anthony Scopelli and Brandon Porambo needing drives for the rest of the weekend. In an act of true camaraderie, all of them found rides – Berry in the Chang BRZ, Scopelli in the Punch “McLaren” BRZ, and Porambo in the Tecson FRS. Ken Motonishi and Catherine Tran also had bad luck as the diff carrier broke on their STR Mazda MX-5, but they found alternates; Tran in the Bauer MX-5, and Motonishi in a Honda S2000. Dennis Healy in CAM also had to find an alternative ride on day two as there were rear-end issues in his Mustang.
Christine Grice rode her L1 win to a top seed in the Ladies Challenge. She was in route to her first Challenge win of the 2017 season before spinning in the final round, opening the door for Nicole Wong. Shelly Monfort defeated Barbara Leroy Boehme for third. Jessica Pao emerged from L3 for the Bonus Challenge victory.
James Yom and Mark Scroggs faced off in the Super Challenge finale. Scroggs picked up three cones on the right course. Meanwhile, Yom stayed clean to take the win. In the runoff for third, Bryan Heitkotter coned to give Ryan Otis third place honors.
In class action, Christine Grice shot up the leaderboards Sunday morning despite a couple red lights to take the L1 win. Mari Clements took the second and final trophy spot. Carmen Rowlands had mechanical issues on Saturday afternoon, but the car was back together for her to finish up weekend runs.
The L2 class is a who’s who minefield of National Champions, and Crows Landing was no exception. L2 saw a huge shakeup of the entire order as all the ladies found huge speed on Sunday morning. Shelly Monfort found close to a second on either side to claim victory, and Eileen Blando found close to two seconds per side, securing the second spot trophy. Barbara Leroy-Boehme was in fifth after Saturday, and bumped up to third to take the final trophy position.
With the Berry Family Racing E36 having misfire issues, Lisa Berry hopped into Terence Chang’s Subaru BRZ. Despite the car switch, Lisa was able to retain the final trophy position, finishing fourth in L2. Lacey Otis showed huge speed this weekend as she was leading the L3 at a point on Saturday, and managed to secure the third trophy position after finding a few tenths per side. Neelu Yeoh edged Lacey out as Yeoh managed to find close to a full second to take second. Nicole Wong showed early speed and improved on her final runs to take the L3 win in her Scion FRS.
It was a battle for the ages in A Street as Glen Hernandez, Matt Jones and Sam Strano battled in Chevrolet Corvettes, but at the end it was Strano who put down an absolute flyer pair of runs, getting into the 37s on both sides – something unseen in a stock class — save from SS. With that, Strano took a .309-second victory over Jones.
In B Street, Ryan Clark, Alex Muresan and Michael Heinitz ended up rounding up the trophies with Heinitz coming from behind to bump Navid Kahangi out of the hardware. It was all about Ryan Clark though, as he came through and made a huge comeback from dirty runs on Saturday to take the overall win.
C Street had 11 drivers in ND Mazda MX-5s. Brian Coulson took top honors with Jeff Bandes in second. Max Hayter was third, followed by car owner Maurice Velandia rounding out the trophies. Coulson took the class win on his last run on either side, improving by over a second on each side.
In Street Touring Roadster, not even a bum foot was going to stop James Yom from taking top honors. Ron Bauer would drop to third in his Mazda MX-5 as Kevin Schultz would edge him out by .002. Motonishi hopped into a Honda S2000 to take forth. Jason Munchhof took fifth, with Praneil Prasad taking sixth, and Matt Ales rounding out the trophies in seventh. Roughly 1.5 seconds separated the hardware recipients.
Many of the same participants will be returning to Crows Landing this weekend for the Tire Rack SCCA Crows Landing Championship Tour.
The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Season continues May 5th-7th in Blytheville, Arkansas.
Words by Kaustav Acharya
