PACKWOOD, Wash. (July 14, 2015) – This past weekend, the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour moved west to compete at the scenic Hampton Mills competition site, July 11-12.

The competition utilized the same 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, and then the layout was changed for Sunday’s three remaining runs. With the mountains in the background, the venue is a favorite of many national-level solo competitors.

As this series of events utilizes the same general format of the Tire Rack Solo National Championships, the competition was just a tough as will be on display in Lincoln (Neb.) later in the year. In the popular Street Touring Xtreme class, Karl Coleman, of Renton, Washington, was the class winner in his Tight-n-Tidy Racing/Strano Performance Subaru BRZ. Coleman entered Sunday’s competition in second, but was able to put down a run that got him in front of Charly Spyksma by 0.104-second once all was said and done.

In F Street, it was another close battle at the top of the class standings. Piotr Szarkowicz, of Federal Way, Washington, was the only driver in his class to break the 55-second barrier in his Polonez Automotive BMW M3 on the first day of competition. He rode the resulting lead to a 0.166-second win over Kit Gauthier after withstanding Gauthier’s best efforts to unseat Szarkowicz.

Hal Dorton, of Pleasant Hill, California, took home top honors in B Street Prepared. Dorton was the leader heading into the overnight break, but second place Ivan Rauzanov was not going to go down without a fight. Rauzanov bested Dorton on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to unseat the class leader. In his EDGE Motorworks BMW M3, Dorton finished as the winner by 0.204-second.

In X Prepared, Andy McKee, of Livermore, California, took home the class win at the controls of his Mike Maier, Inc./Ankeny Racing Mazda RX7. McKee had the chance to be the class of the field on Saturday, but three runs in which he took out a cone meant he would need to rest on the least dirty of those runs. On Sunday, McKee made up for Saturday’s miscues. As the only car in the 49-second timeframe, McKee showed why he deserved the class title. That lap cleared the time of his next closest competitor, Kyriacos Panayiotou, by more than 1.5 seconds resulting in a 0.237-second margin of victory.

Heather Howe, of Silverton, Oregon, took home the winner’s hardware in C Modified Ladies. While her class had four drivers, Howe was able to stave off a second-day challenge from Rebecca Zacharda to take the win. In her Reynard Formula Ford, Howe finished 0.244-second ahead of Zacharda.

Super Street R was won by Ryan Clark, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in his Chevrolet Corvette. He trailed Zach Morgan after the opening three runs, but was able to storm back to a 0.293-second win on Sunday.

Additional information on the Packwood Tire Rack Championship Tour, including full results, can be found at http://www.scca.com/events/1967592-2015-tire-rack-packwood-champ-tour. The next stop for the Championship Tour is scheduled for Aug. 15-16 at the Wilmington (Ohio) airport.

Additional information on the SCCA Tire Rack National Solo program can be found by visiting SCCA.com.

Image: An example of the scenic views at the Packwood Championship Tour.
Credit: Mike Brausen