Chen Wins Tire Rack Super Shootout Despite High Heat and Rain

TOLEDO, Ohio (July 21, 2015) – Allen Chen, of Dearborn, Michigan, was the Super Challenge winner at the Tire Rack SCCA Match Tour event held at the Toledo Express Airport this past weekend. Ray Thomas, of Cincinnati, Ohio, finished with the Club Shootout title as Christopher Bickford, of Perrysburg, Ohio, took the Bonus Shootout title.

For each Tire Rack Match Tour event, Saturday is a full day of traditional class-based competition. Sunday morning’s three runs set the field for the Super Shootout brackets. From each heat, the top eight indexed times were placed into a Super Shootout bracket. The next eight qualifiers were seeded in the Club Shootout, while the remaining competitors were eligible for the Bonus Shootout.

In both the Super and Club Shootouts, the bracket competition whittled the field down to one driver from each heat. In the final round of both the Super and Club Shootouts, each driver took one run to determine the bracket winner. The winner is the driver that was closest to their dial-in time, if both drivers are unable to better that time. However, if both drivers are quicker than their dial-in, the win goes to the drivers with the most time gained over their dial-in.

Extreme weather conditions were the order of the weekend in Ohio. High temperatures, with heat indexes over 100 degrees, prevailed on both days of competition. Rain during Saturday afternoon was the only thing that caused any issues throughout the competition.

In the Heat Two bracket, Chen (B Street, Chevrolet Corvette) had a first-round meeting with Justin Rest (B Street, Stranoparts/Dangerzone Chevrolet Corvette). Of the two drivers, Chen was the only one to run a lap better than his dial-in. That gave Chen the win and moved him forward in the competition.

In the second round, Chen took out Kenneth Tsang (B Street, Chevrolet Corvette) on account of Tsang forfeiting his run on which he hit a cone. That win allowed Chen to move forward in the competition. In the last round of the head-to-head bracket, Chen scored a narrow 0.011-second win over Jeff Mabrey (Street Touring Sport, Honda Civic).

When the dust settled in the four-way battle for the Super Shootout, Chen was deemed the winner as he was the only driver to run faster than his dial-in time.

“I felt, and still feel, really lucky,” Chen said. “I thought I'd be knocked out early as I broke out on the first run of the first bracket, but was not able to repeat the time. I kept slowing down, but good fortune was on my side, and I moved onto the final round. In the final bracket, the front tires had time to cool a bit and I broke out a little bit more for the win. I was really surprised. I'm not going to buy a lotto ticket this week, since I used up all my luck this weekend.

“I'd have to say dealing with the rain on Saturday afternoon was the biggest hurdle. I'm not a good swimmer, so all that water was nerve wracking. When they announced two runs only in the afternoon, the pressure was on. Justin Rest shot ahead with a solid first run in the wet that not only ate up a morning lead, but put a big gap on both Kenneth Tsang, my co-driver, and me. We were hoping to hold on to the top two positions from the morning, so we had to find some time. Kenneth dug deep and found enough time for a nice lead to first and I just barely hung on to second.”

In the opening round of the Heat Four bracket of the Club Shootout, Thomas (C Modified, Continental Motorsport Reynard Formula Ford) took down M. Losert (Super Street Prepared, Chevrolet Corvette). He then moved on to out-duel Chris Raglin (F Prepared, Westers Garage/Mode Racing Pontiac Solstice) in round two. That put Thomas into the Heat Four final. In the heat final, Thomas was paired up against Tim Routh (Kart Modified, Autobody Specialists Haase Kart). Thomas came out on top by 0.3-second to move to the Club Shootout Final.

In the one-run, winner-take-all Club Shootout Final, Thomas drove to the win by bettering his time by a greater margin than that of any of his three remaining competitors.

Bickford (A Street Prepared, Mitsubishi Evo) started his run to the Bonus Shootout win with a first round victory over Terry Dye (H Street, Honda Civic Si). Bickford took the win as he came within 0.2-second of his dial-in. In the second round, Bickford downed Brad Scott (D Street, Subaru WRX) by setting the bigger gap between his latest run and dial-in after both drivers broke out.

In the final round, Bickford improved his time again. That run gave Bickford the win over John Souder (C Street, JSRacing Subaru BRZ), as Souder was unable to improve over his dial-in.

The Tire Rack Toledo Match Tour serves as the final event of its kind for 2015. The program, which is meant to attract regional Solo driver to national-level autocross competition, should bring an influx of competitors at other national events in 2016 and beyond.

For more information on the Tire Rack SCCA Match Tour from Ohio, including full results, click here.

Image: Sweltering heat took sapped the energy from competitors on gird.
Credit: Perry Bennett