IRVINE, Calif. (April 22, 2010) The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo National Series kicked off at the El Toro Air Force Base, just south of Los Angeles, on April 17-18. An event-record 216 participants entered the season opener, with Lorin Mueller walking away with the weekends top prize in the Gumout Super Challenge.Tom Berry took advantage of the facility at the El Toro Air Force Base to design the first ProSolo courses of the season. The fast, flowing, technical courses allowed competitors enough room to choose their own line to discover the fastest way around the course. In class racing, Street Touring® R had the closest margin of victory for the weekend. Ken Motonishi, of Chino Hills, Calif., drove his No. 191 Team Toyo 2009 Mazda MX-5 to a 0.124-second win over San Diegos Jeffrey Cawthorne in the No. 6 2006 Mazda MX-5. Two other classes were covered by less than two-tenths of a second in the final margin of victory. Mike Wood, of Alamo, Calif., drove his No. 7 Custom Alignment/Stranoparts.com 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby to a 0.178-second win in F Stock over Kevin Youngers, of Greely, Colo., in a 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby.Street Touring was not only the largest open class, but among the most competitive. Jeff Wong, of Moorpark, Calif, finished on top in his ProParts USA/Stoptech/Toyo 1991 Honda Civic Si by 0.186-second, but 0.885-second covered the top four places in class. Jonathan Lugod, of Oceanside, Calif., was the runner-up in the PHP Costa Mesa/Rally Innovations 1991 Honda Civic Si, followed by Stephen Yeoh (1989 Honda Civic Si) of Oak Park, Calif., and Kyle Williams (1989 Honda Civic Si) of Ontario, Calif.As always, the class competition gave way to elimination runs at the end of the weekend.In the Ladies Challenge, competition was fierce with six of eight finalists former national champions. In the final four, Barbara Leroy-Boehme, of San Diego, eliminated 2009 Rookie of the Year Katy Nicholls of San Diego in one semi-final, while Christine Berry of Alta Loma, Calif., edged Phoenix, Arizonas Dawn Maxwell after Maxwell turned a quicker time, but clipped a cone.Berrys precision paid off again in the final, running a slower time than Leroy-Boehme but earning the win after Boehme suffered a cone penalty. The Gumout Super Challenge paired Wong vs. D Street Prepared winner Brian Peters (2003 BMW 330i) in one semi-final, and F Street Prepared champ Mueller (2003 Ford Focus) and Super Stock winner and venerable ProSoloist Gary Thomason (2004 Porsche GT3) in the second semi-final.Mueller edged Thomason in the first semi, and would face Peters in the final after an anxious Wong jumped the start to red light the win away. In the finals, Mueller edged Peters to the stripe in the first round by 0.3-second on time. Peters clipped a series of cones at the finish gate, however, to add an additional 12 seconds to the lead. The large gap essentially allowed Mueller to take his first Gumout Super Challenge win with a victory lap on his final run. The next round of the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Series takes place May 1-2 in Lincoln, Neb., at the Lincoln Airpark. For full results from the El Toro ProSolo and more information on the Lincoln ProSolo, visit www.scca.com/solo.Results from El Toro are available directly at http://www.scca.com/documents/resultfiles/results19.pdf.Attached: STR winner Ken Motonishi (right) advises co-driver Henry Bjoin before a run at El Toro. (Stephen Yeoh Image)
