WILMINGTON, Ohio (Aug. 18, 2015) – This past weekend’s Tire Rack SCCA Wilmington Solo Championship Tour, held Aug. 15-16, was the final regular-season meet of the year and the final competition tune-up for the Tire Rack Solo National Championships Presented by Garmin VIRB.
The meet utilized a similar format as the National Championships, which allowed each driver to take a set number of runs throughout the weekend. Competitors had three attempts on Saturday’s course. The layout was then changed for Sunday’s three remaining runs.
In many classes, the class winners were decided by mere fractions of a second. However, none was closer than the finish in G Street. Andrew Pallotta (Bridgestone/Stranoparts.com Ford Focus ST), of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, took home the class win, but only by 0.049-second ahead of David Entz. Pallotta sat third after the first day of competition, but Sunday proved to be Pallotta’s day. He set the fastest lap of all other drivers in the class by a large margin, allowing him to overcome his day-one deficit and slide into the top position.
On the other extreme was Brian Kuehl (Street Modified FWD, Big Budget Racing Honda CRX), of Durham, New Hampshire, who drove away from the entire field of drivers. Kuehl finished more than one second ahead of his next quickest competitor in the entire competition, in indexed time, and also took the win in his class by more than four seconds.
C Street provided another very close finish as Chris Harvey (Tire Rack Mazda MX-5), of Granger, Indiana, brought home the win by 0.078-second. At the end of Saturday’s runs, Harvey sat second behind Sean Grogan. On Sunday, Harvey ran the second-quickest time of the class on his final run, putting him into the top spot. Chris Fenter set the fastest time on Sunday’s course, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the gap to the lead driver after day one.
Edward Fisher (B Street, Chevrolet Corvette), of Huntsville, Alabama, was the third class winner to score a victory by less than 0.1-second. Unlike the two previous battles for class wins, Fisher was the leader following both days of competition runs. On both days he was able to finish just hundredths-of-a-second ahead of his closest competition.
For Alex Jones (F Prepared, Avon Tyres/Westers Garage Pontiac Solstice GXP), of Grand Rapids, Ohio, it was the tale of two completely different days. On Saturday, Jones dominated his class with a run that cleared the rest of the field by 1.1 seconds. On Sunday, Jones struggled compared to the rest of the pack. He was only able to come within 0.8-second of Sunday’s quickest drivers, but was able to hold onto the win as a result of his day-one cushion.
Street Touring R was decided by less than one-third of a second. Shane Chinonn-Rhoden (Agile Auto Mazda MX-5) ended Saturday’s runs in second, by a comparatively large margin. On Sunday he made his comeback, and took the win by 0.278-second. The icing on the proverbial cake was that Chinonn-Rhoden celebrated his birthday over the weekend.
Steve Hoelscher (Race-Keeper/TerrieHoward.com Toyota MR2), of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, was the class of the D Prepared field on Saturday as he set the fastest time in class of 69.192 on his final run. Hoelscher could afford to dial things back on Sunday while still taking home the win by 0.352-second over Andrew Blasiman.
Tom O’Gorman, former National Champion, was also on hand for the event after competing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Pirelli World Challenge B-Spec competition. O’Gorman took the Super Street Modified class win by a resounding 1.6-second gap in Martin Valent’s Toyota MR-2.
Additional information on the Wilmington Tire Rack Championship Tour, including full results, can be found here. The final national-level Solo Competition of the season will be the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships Presented by Garmin VIRB, Sept. 8-11.
Additional information on the SCCA Tire Rack National Solo program can be found by visiting SCCA.com.
Image: A cone becomes a casualty of Adam George's CP Mustang GT at the Tire Rack SCCA Wilmington (Ohio) Championship Tour.
Credit: Perry Bennett / Autoxpix.com
