MOULTRIE, Ga. (June 9, 2015) – Lee Chhit, of Huntsville, Alabama, was the Tire Rack Georgia Match Tour Super Shootout victor this past weekend. The event, which took place June 6-7, was the second of four scheduled Match Tours to take place in 2015. Brian Flanagan, of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, was the Club Shootout champion while Ed Moulton, of Marietta, Georgia, won the Bonus Shootout in his first National Solo event.
For each Tire Rack Match Tour event, Saturday is a full day of traditional class-based competition. Sunday morning’s three runs then set the field for the Super Shootout brackets. From each heat, the top eight indexed times are placed into a Super Shootout bracket. The next eight qualifiers were seeded in the Club Shootout, while the remaining competitors are eligible for the Bonus Shootout.
In both the Super and Club Shootouts, the bracket competition whittles the field down to one driver from each heat. In the final round of both the Super and Club Shootouts, each driver takes one run to determine the bracket winner. The winner is the driver that is closest to their dial-in time.
The focus of this program is to give regional Soloists a chance to get their feet wet in national-level Solo competition before jumping into the deep end of Tire Rack Championship Tour or ProSolo competition. The format rewards consistently fast runs as opposed to being able to pull off a single blindingly fast, but unrepeatable, run.
Extremely hot, dry conditions predominated the race weekend in southwestern quadrant of Georgia. Regardless, the enthusiasm showed by the 134 competitors did not wilt away under the searing heat.
In Heat One of the Super Shootout, Chhit (D Street, Subaru WRX) had an opening round meeting with Rick Cone (Street Touring Sport, Bridgestone/Mazda Mazda Miata). Chhit was able to better his dial-in time which allowed him to move to the next round against Justin Harbour.
Harbour (Street Touring Sport, Bigger Better Bandaid Mazda Miata) was the top finisher in class, but Chhit was able to get the win by running the smaller delta to his dial-in time. That allowed Chhit to earn a spot in the final one-on-one battle in the bracket.
In the last traditional bracket-style meeting, Chhit met and conquered Ian Stewart (D Street, Maitland Importers Inc. Subaru WRX) by getting within 0.1-second of his dial-in.
In the resulting two-way battle for the Super Shootout final, Chhit faced Matthew Glagola (Super Street Modified, Lotus Elise). Chhit, once again, showed off his consistency by getting within 0.03-second of his dial-in time. That small margin allowed Chhit to take the title.
“I’m still a bit shocked that I won the Super Shootout at the Georgia Match Tour,” Chhit said. “Being that it was only my second time driving the WRX, I really didn’t think I had a chance to win with so many fast drivers such as Glagola and DiSimo qualifying. A big thank you goes out to Laura Campbell for letting me co-drive her WRX.
“The biggest challenges I dealt with throughout the weekend included catching D Street class winner Ian Stewart all weekend and making alignment and tire pressure changes to get the WRX to rotate better through the sweepers. While my racing plans are pretty open for the remainder of the season, I will probably continue to do a few more events with Campbell in her WRX to make it competitive for the D Street Ladies and Ladies Class 2 groups. I will then probably switch back to my 89 Street Touring Sport Civic or Street Touring FWD Mini for the remainder of the year.”
Flanagan (Street Touring Ultra, Baconspeed Racing Enterprises Nissan 350Z), a winner during the class-based portion of the competition, met Marko Horn (E Prepared, Honda CRX) in the opening round of the Club Shootout. Flanagan moved to the second round after putting down two clean runs within one second of his dial-in.
Flanagan’s next match was against Laura Campbell (D Street Ladies, Subaru WRX). In an extremely close match, Flanagan came up the winner as he was just about 0.1-second slower than this dial-in.
In the Heat Two bracket final, Flanagan met, and bested, David Lineberry (Street Touring Xtreme, Subaru BRZ) by running just 0.05-second faster than his dial-in.
Flanagan took the Club Shootout win over Gregory Shumaker (C Street, Subaru BRZ) with another consistent run. This time, Flanagan was within 0.15-second of his dial-in. That proved enough to secure the win.
“I’m ecstatic!” Flanagan said. “I've won national events in the past, but never before had I survived any sort of elimination rounds to the end. I am still on an emotional high!
“The gnats proved to be the biggest hurdle we, and everyone else, overcame throughout the weekend. In all seriousness, I've had to miss a lot of national events this year due to some family medical issues. Things seem to be improving, and now I am doubly motivated to make as many events as possible for the remainder of the year. My goal is to hit the Wilmington Champ Tour, for sure, and, hopefully, Nationals.”
Moulton (A Street, Porsche 911), in his first national Tire Rack Solo meet, began his march to the Bonus Shootout final with an opening-round win over Steve Seymore (E Street, Mazda Miata). His penultimate win came against Kristen Rosenthal (Street Touring Xtreme Ladies, Galt Ocean Garage Subaru BRZ) in the bracket semi-finals.
In the final round, Moulton took home the Bonus Shootout title after beating Charles Krampert (B Street, Nissan 370Z).
“The shootout was fun,” Moulton said. “I wound up competing against Charles , someone who I met at the event and worked with at corner three. Both of us were relatively new, so we joked about being in the final together. It really made my weekend since I felt I hadn’t improved much during the weekend. At one point I heard the announcer mention other drivers in the competition were ‘neat and tidy’, which made me think. Lo and behold, I improved my speed!
“The course was challenging. It felt a little too long to stay in first, but not long enough to really wind out second [gear]. I knew I was leaving speed on the course, and mentally I had to overcome an easy excuse that my tires - Michelin PSS - weren’t as competitive as others in my class. This was my first SCCA National Solo event, so I really focused on learning as much as I could about National competitions. I probably won’t be competing in other National events this year; however I’ll definitely talk the experience up back at our local events!”
For more information on the Tire Rack SCCA Match Tour from Georgia, including full results, click here.
Facts on the Tire Rack SCCA National Solo Program can be found at SCCA.com.
Image: Lee Chhit took home the Tire Rack Match Tour Super Shootout win in Georgia.
Credit: Laura Campbell
