The 2019 Tire Rack SCCA Championship Tour season concluded this past weekend in Peru, Indiana with the ninth event of the coast-to-coast traveling series. Competitors faced dry and pleasantly breezy conditions all weekend while tackling the fast and technical course designed by Raleigh Boreen.

Street Modified became an entertaining home for misfits with ASP and ESP drivers bumping up for competition. Clint Griest piloted his ESP-prepared Mazdaspeed 6 to the win in a pretty convincing fashion, leading from the fist run on. His margin of victory over Jay Bullington, in the only true Street Modified car in the class, in the Audi S4 was 0.442 second. Bullington offered his car to five other drivers in SM, SSM and XP, earning second-place trophies in both SM and XP. Devin Taylor, also bumping from ESP, piloted his Chevrolet Camaro to the third and final trophy position, 0.315 second behind Bullington.

The five-driver F Street Prepared class featured some of the most competitive cars in the class for a battle almost exactly one month before Solo Nationals. On day one, Greg Anthony came to grid with an issue with an alternator belt. Rather than changing it before the heat and risking missing his first run, he took one run and changed it before his second, without taking a mechanical. That second run was fast enough to take the lead heading into day two. Cones were problems for both Andrew Blasiman and Geoff Zimmer, each hitting one on their fastest runs one of the days. Clean times for either on those runs would have knocked Anthony out of the top spot, who took the win by 0.054 second over Blasiman in the second and final trophy spot. The top four drivers, including Buckie Maxey in third, were separated by just 0.367 second.

F Modified was well, and loudly, represented by seven drivers vying for three trophies. Will Lahee led after day one on the strength of his second run with Brad Smith in second, 0.264 second back. Josh Kikta was about a half second farther back in third, in a virtual tie with Dan Wheeler. During first runs on Sunday, Smith laid down a decisive run almost a full two seconds faster than any other drivers in their first runs. Smith would stand on that run, partially because he returned to grid after his second run with a front hub failure. Lahee offered his spare which happened to be the same style and the entire FMod grid banded together to get the hub changed during a mechanical in time for Wheeler’s third run, during which he knocked Lahee out of the second position by just 0.097 second. After, Lahee said, “it was the right thing to do.”

The final margin of victory came down to 0.003 second in Super Street where Joel Zeller led after day one competition. During the first runs on Sunday, Josh Lipman took over the lead and held onto it until Zeller went out and laid down the fastest time of the day on his last run. Lipman saw this before taking his final run, knowing exactly what he needed to win. The raw time was there, but he tagged the last apex cone on the course, handing the win to Zeller. James Yom and Dean Rindler claimed the third and fourth place trophies respectively.

In A Street, the top three drivers on day one were separated by just 0.078 second with Dan Simms leading over co-drivers John Wolf and Bill Bostic. With no dirty runs between the three of them, all three drivers saved their best for last and improved on their last runs both days. Bostic and Simms traded the lead back and forth on their second and third runs on day two with Bostic landing the top spot by 0.134 second. Wolf finished another 0.296 second behind Simms in third. Kristo Kukk and William Damhoff claimed the remaining trophies in fourth and fifth respectively.

If there was a question of the strength of the new Yokohama 200 tread wear tires, Street Touring Sport may have answered it as co-drivers Emanuel Martin and Adam Deffenbaugh took the win and second place respectively in a Mazda Miata clad in the new “Yokos.” Mark McKnight claimed the third and final trophy in his Honda CRX on Bridgestones, just 0.013 second behind Deffenbaugh. This was the first Tire Rack SCCA Solo® National Tour victory for Martin.

Complete results from the 2019 Tire Rack SCCA Peru Championship Tour can be found here.

The 2019 Tire Rack SCCA National Solo season culminates September 2-6 in Lincoln, Nebraska for the 47th annual Tire Rack Solo Nationals.

Words by Geoff Thomas

The 2019 DirtFish SCCA RallyCross® National Tour has concluded with the Mid-America Challenge taking place two weeks ago at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri. The weather was blistering hot with heat indexes of over 100° but a breeze throughout the day kept dust blowing off the track and made the heat bearable. 

The course was laid out in a grassy field next to the Speedway’s drag boat lake. Half of the course had gravel under the grass while the other half was compact dirt. It held up well throughout the day with just a couple adjustments being made to corners where competitors were really letting it hang out, sliding sideways and digging ruts. Traction was easy to find and consistent through the event unless you ended up in the soft loamy sections on the outside of the big sweeping corners where cars were getting sideways and throwing loose dirt.

The first course Saturday morning had a couple tight corners between some medium straights and broad sweeping corners. The afternoon course was a little longer and more open, allowing for faster speeds resulting in nearly the same lap times. Sunday’s course linked the fastest parts of Saturday’s courses, making it the fastest and longest course of the weekend.

David Williams and the rest of the organizers from the Kansas City Region SCCA did a great job getting the event started on time and keeping it flowing allowing for five morning and four afternoon runs on Saturday and four runs in on Sunday.

Competition was fierce in Stock Front class as Donald Carl suffered a DNF penalty on his first run for missing class inspections while Will Geyer hit five cones for a ten second penalty on the first run. Geyer got another cone on his third and seventh runs while Carl got one on his sixth. Carl clawing his way back from his first run DNF squeaking ahead of Geyer taking the first-place trophy by a mere 0.056 seconds on his final run.

Stock Rear had four competitors with Aaron Holstrom taking the win with a just over 13-second lead over Jan Gerber in the second and final trophy position. Out of the two competitors in Stock All, Josh Armantrout secured first place in commanding fashion with a 33.412 second gap over Noah Quick in second place. Robert Seelig took first in Prepared Front with Jim Rowland just 4.853 seconds behind in second place in the four-driver class.

There were five competitors in Prepared Rear with Austin Dowda taking first place by 8.097 seconds.  Howie Johnson claimed the second and final trophy position. An honorable mention in this class goes to Reuben Samuels who just 12 weeks ago got a lung transplant due to Cystic Fibrosis. He found out a mere four days before the event that he was cleared to compete. He was racing for two organizations that have made his journey possible, the Midwest Transplant Network and Donate for Life.

Mark Hill took first place in Prepared All by 13.112 second over Mark Macoubrie in second. Mike Coons took the third and final trophy in the class of seven. In Modified Front, Jason Lang ran away with first place with a 16.173-second lead over Bret Hunter in second. Modified Rear had five competitors with Vaugh Micciche taking first place by a commanding 40 seconds over Doug Leibman.  In Modified All, Jason Fuller had a whopping 54-second margin of victory over Collin Oelkers to take the win. Jorge Gonzalez only missed out on a trophy by 3.631 second, finishing third.

With the Mid-America Challenge in the books it’s time to prepare for the DirtFish SCCA RallyCross National Championship in Indianola, Iowa at the National Balloon Classic Memorial Balloon Field on September 20-22nd. Registration opens this Thursday, August 1st. The event is expected to sell out, so remember to register early!