PACKWOOD, Wash. (July 16, 2009) Teaming up with one of your own was the ticket for the most recent Tire Rack® SCCA Solo National Tour event. Nestled in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, Hampton Mills played host to the Packwood National Tour, July 11 12.Always a crowd pleaser, the lumber yard at Hampton Mills provides an ideal location for a Solo Tour event, not to mention a view worthy of a tourism brochure. The spacious surroundings and local hospitality must have been deemed a perfect family vacation for numerous Solo enthusiasts, as husband and wife, and father and son teams found great success in Packwood.In F Stock for example, it was Stacey Molleker, of Granite Falls, Wash., taking the open class win, while wife Laura captured the F Stock Ladies win in the couples Air Testing & Design Ford Shelby GT. Similarly, in Super Street Modified, Duke Langley, of Umatilla, Ore., earned the open class victory, sharing a Dukes Auto Chevrolet Corvette with wife Tonya, who was the Super Street Modified Ladies winner. Jerry Jenkins, of Vancouver, Wash., may have taken E Stock handily in an FCM/Americas Tire Vancouver Mazda Miata, but wife Kyra had to really work for her E Stock Ladies win. Trailing Gretchen Everett, of Kent, Wash., and the Fordahl Motorsports/Taco Time Porsche 944 after day one, Kyra pushed a little too hard on day two. After coning her first two runs, Kyra got it right on her final attempt, earning her ESL win by 0.583-second.The story was reversed for Drew and Kim Hanft, of Renton, Wash., in Street Touring® Sport. While Kim cruised to the STSL win in the couples Mazda Miata, Drew struggled to catch his co-driver, and day one STS leader, Peter Umino, of Newcastle, Wash. It ended in heartbreak for Umino, who spun after the finish on his final run, collecting three cones and handing the win to Drew by 0.012-second.Not every wife stuck to Ladies Class competition. Sharing a Lotus Elan in D Modified, Karen Babb, of Renton, Wash., snuck past husband Ronald on day two to take the win by 0.294-second.E Prepared pit two families against each other, as father and son Tom and Matthew Ellam, of Livermore, Calif., shared an Altamont Tech/Ankeny Racing Mazda RX3 and faced off against Perry Keller, of Vancouver, Wash., his son James and wife Andrea, in a Bob Brown Tires Honda Civic. In the final tally, the elder Ellam prevailed over his son by more than two seconds, followed by Perry, James and Andrea Keller, respectively. Family ties werent a requirement for a good show, however. In H Stock, Jack Yeung, of Coquitlam, B.C., came from behind on Sunday in his VCMC.CA MINI Cooper to overtake Saturday leader Tim Stake, of Everett, Wash., in a Honda Civic Si by a slim 0.330-second.Closer still was the Street Touring Xtreme contest between Ron Bauer, of Renton, Wash., and Jon Pomrenke, of Salt Lake City, Utah. Driving a cobbtuning.com/vorshlag.com Subaru STi, Pomrenke made a charge on Sunday after ending Saturday in third. He fell just short of catching Bauer and his Bauerspeed Racing/Tight n Tidy Subaru WRX, who held onto the win by only 0.088-second.The cones are not being cleared from Hampton Mills just yet, as a Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo event is set to take place this weekend, July 18 19. The Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour next heads to Eagle Airport for the Vail Valley Colorado National Tour. The event, held Aug. 1 2, is designated as the Western States Championship and counts as one part of the Solo Triad Award. For more information on the Vail Valley Colorado National Tour, or any other Solo events click on the orange Solo tab at the top of the page.
