Blytheville, Ark. (June 1, 2010) Clear blue skies and powerful of Arkansas sunshine saw 301 Tire Rack® SCCA Solo National Tour competitors take to the concrete for the 2010 Southern States Championship at the Arkansas Aeroplex near Blytheville, Arkansas, May 29-30. The beautiful, but hot, weather made for excellent conditions on another of Doug Gill's typically fast, flowing courses. Average runs on each course ran in the 50-60 second range, with consistently warm concrete delivering high grip levels and similar conditions for all run groups. The Evo Advantage school and practice runs during the day on Friday were followed by burgers, dogs and brats into the evening to welcome a field of competitors 20 percent larger than a year ago. With the title of Southern States Champion on the line and multiple Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championship contenders on hand, the event felt like a predictor of things to come at Lincoln in September. Saturday saw the kickoff of timed runs, with B Modified's Clemens Berger, of Noblesville, Ind., setting the early benchmark at 46.362 seconds. Berger backed that time up with a 46.328-second run on Sunday, taking the class win and setting the fastest combined time of the weekend. A massive, talent-deep Super Stock class delivered excitement throughout the weekend, with perennially-fast Matthew Braun, of Northbrook, Mich., taking the class by 1.1 seconds over second place Jon Wagner, of North Richland Hills, Texas. Gregory Lloyd, Jeremy Foley, Michael Homes, Steve Wynveen and Bryan Schafer filled the remaining trophy spots in the 22-entry class. Street Touring® saw a close battle for the trophies, with the top five places covered by just 0.632-second. Andy Hollis, of Austin, Texas, led day one by 0.252-second in his 1989 Soulspeed/GRM/PowerCurveDyno Honda Civic Si, but lost a second to the fastest in class on day two. David O'Maley, of Greensboro, N.C., took the win in his1989 Race Technology/Koni/ASR Honda Civic Si, 0.478-second ahead of Tim Smith, of Tucker, Ga., in second place, followed by Wayne Atkins and Chris Cargill in the remaining trophy positions. The closest battle of the weekend was in the two-driver, one-car F Street Prepared class, with Kerry Emmert, of Sherwood, Ark., and Milan Rakich, of Hot Springs, Ark., trading places run-to-run behind the wheel of their 1984 autocrosstraining.com Race Keeper BMW 318i to finish the weekend just 0.001-second apart. Rakich took the win and the glory, as Emmert was unable to eke out the necessary time on his final run. In Super Stock Ladies, co-drivers Jean Schaadt, of Gladwater, Texas, and Michelle Dorman, of Avinger, Texas, each took the fast time for the class Saturday and Sunday, respectively, with Schaadt hanging on for the win. Carla Russo, Hazelwood, Mo., finished second with Dorman in third, with Dorman just 0.542-second behind Schaadt. Jadrice Toussaint, of Charlotte, N.C., backed up a B Stock win earlier in the season at the Texas National Tour with another at the Southern States Championship to establish himself as a legitimate National Title hopeful. The Blytheville run, behind the wheel of his 2008 Capital City OBGYN/Team FF Honda S2000, came over fellow S2000 competitor Marc Pfannenschmidt and past National Champion Greg Hahn. The 2010 Southern States Championship winners have now clinched one leg of the Solo Triad Award. The Triad recognizes those drivers that win championships at three levels of National Solo competition: a Divisional Championship, a States Championship National Tour, and a National Championship, all in the same class. The next round of the Tire Rack SCCA National Tour is the Peru National Tour and Northern States Championship at Grissom Aeroplex, July 3-4, 2010. For full results from the 2010 Southern States Championship/Blytheville National Tour, and complete information on the rest of the Tire Rack SCCA Solo events schedule, visit www.scca.com/solo. Full results are also available directly at http://scca.com/eventresults.aspx?event=15166&hub=3.
