AYERS, Mass. (June 15, 2015) – This past weekend, the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour had two stops on the schedule. One of those events took place at the Devens Airfield, a site with a long history of hosting National Solo meets.
The competition utilized the same competition format as the National Championships which allows each driver to take a total of six runs throughout the weekend. Competitors had three attempts on Saturday’s course, then the layout was changed for Sunday’s three remaining runs. Fortunately, unlike many of the events so far this season, weather was not an issue as sunshine shown down each day.
Fierce competition was the name of the game this past weekend. There was no better representation of that than in the Street Touring R class. Joseph Ottofaro (Autosportlabs.com/Hamfist Racing Mazda MX-5), of Merrick, New York, was the class leader following the first day of competition. On Sunday William Koscielny (PROJECT Devens Honda S2000) threatened Ottofaro’s lead by setting the fastest lap on the course, but ended up 0.039-second short.
The winner of C Street took home the title with an identical margin of victory. Brent Vander Werf (Mazda MX-5), of Lowell, Massachusetts, went into the overnight break in second, a whole second off the pace of then leader Brian Doherty (Mazda Motorsports, Mazda RX-8). On his final run, Werf hit a homerun. He completed that run just over one second faster than Doherty. When the final tabulations were made, the win went to Werf by 0.039-second.
Street Modified featured another close battle for the win. Eventual winner Brian Kuehl (Big Budget Racing/G-Fab/Karcepts Honda CRX), of Durham, New Hampshire, finished Saturday’s three runs in second. However, he came roaring back on Sunday to score the win 0.093-second ahead of Rachel Baker (Thanks PJ Nissan 240sx). In order to take home the victory, Kuehl made a monster run on his last pass at Sunday’s course by running 1.188 seconds faster than Baker.
In an interesting side note, both of these cars – the Honda CRX and Nissan 240sx – ran in two other classes. The Honda also ran, and won, Street Modified FWD with Don Kuehl, of Windham, New Hampshire, behind the wheel. In addition, the CRX placed third in X Prepared, with Bob Day at the controls.
The Nissan – nicknamed ‘Panda’ – was driven to victory in Super Street Modified by Todd Kean, of Wallingford, Connecticut, and was the winning car in X Prepared, with David White, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, in the driver’s seat.
In G Street, Matt Jones (Ford Focus ST), of Arlington, Virginia, took home the class title over Charlie Thompson (Mini Cooper). Following Saturday’s runs, Thompson was the leader. On Sunday, Jones staged a comeback by setting the fastest lap of the day on Sunday. After his second run, which proved to be the winning one, Jones finished with a 0.205-second margin of victory.
H Street also provided a tight battle for the class win, this time between Patrick Huxley (I”9 Racing Honda Civic), of Cheshire, Connecticut, and George Modlin (Ford FiST). Huxley was the day one leader and was able to stave off the quicker day-two run from Modlin, to capture the victory by 0.206-second.
Tamara Hunt (Mazda Miata), of Shelton, Connecticut, and Heidi K. Ellison (Tatis Racing/Karcepts Tuned Honda S2000) provided a good battle for a class win in Street Touring R Ladies. Hunt staked her claim on the class title by running the quickest lap time on Saturday. On day-two, Ellison was the quickest driver, but Hunt had built up enough of a cushion to absorb the blow and take the win by 0.237-second.
Additional information on the Tire Rack Devens Championship Tour, including full results, can be found here. The next stop for the Tire Rack Championship Tour is scheduled for July 10-12 at the scenic Hampton Mills competition site, in Packwood, Washington.
Image: Grant Reeve took home top honors in Super Street R.
Credit: Barbara Seeger
