TOPEKA, Kan. (March 22, 2016) – The 10th running of the Tire Rack SCCA Dixie Championship Tour saw more than 280 competitors come out March 18-20 to South Georgia Motorsports Park in Adel, Georgia, to launch the 2016 SCCA National Solo season.
Full results are available online at the Dixie Championship Tour webpage, but a few highlights include the Street Touring Roadster Class where Ricky Crow extended his lead Sunday, finishing a blistering 1.933 seconds ahead of Kerry Coughlin. Crow set down a 46.3-second time right off the bat, but coned. He cleaned up his lap and dropped the time down to a 46.294 on his final run and was the only driver in the 46s in the class.
E Street showed some of the toughest competition of the weekend as Jonathan Roberts took the win on the strength of his second run. Eric Peterson had the time on his third to take the win, but a late cone call kept him in second place. In B Street Ladies, Nikki Edwards -- driving a new car for the year owned by Justin Barbrey -- kept up her pace throughout the weekend to finish 1.2-seconds ahead of Laura Johnson. And in Street Touring Ultra, Michael Lawson -- who ran the only car on BFGoodrich tires in the class -- came back from fifth place Saturday to take the win over Nelson Antunes.
Street Touring Sport became the John Brown show when he put it down on Kumho tires and stayed 1.2-seconds ahead of Lee Chhit. Coming from behind in C Prepared, Robert Lewis -- who was the event Chair and course designer for Dixie -- also showed just how to wheel a Mustang fastback, holding off co-driver Tommy Pulliam by 7/10ths. Pulliam fought cone trouble on his fast runs, while Lewis put together a third run to secure a dominant victory.
In C Street Prepared, Danny Kao in a car built during the off season and nicknamed “Oscar” for the Oscar the Grouch decal on the hood, wasn’t able to get a clean first run. Kao never felt like his head was in the course, and relinquished his lead to co-driver Mike Kline, with John Waight hot on their heels. C Street brought the action at the start of Heat 2 where John Wolf took the win over Chris Harp after jumping into the lead on the strength of his second run. Matt Leach actually had a raw time to take the win, as the only C Street driver in the 48s, but cones and traction control kept him from claiming the top step. And in C Street Ladies, Linda Duncan held her Day 1 lead, beating Eileen Blando in a tight race.
Coming from behind in Super Street, Charlie Thompson moved up from third to first and stayed ahead of Bryan Carbon who had a cone on his fastest scratch time. And Jadrice Toussaint remained on top in E Street Prepared over co-driver Jeff Cox after a little cone carnage on Toussaint’s second run.
Not content with being skirted by his co-driver/wife, Keath Marx took the win in Super Street Prepared with a Day 2 time a full 1.1 seconds faster than second place finisher Chad Langley. Donna Marx rounded out the Super Street Prepared podium. And continuing his multi-year Dixie Championship Tour winning streak, Jinx Jordan in Street Modified FWD emerged with a nearly 3-second margin of victory over second place.
Holding on to an insurmountable lead, Ian Stewart took the Street Touring Xtreme win. His margin of victory was much less than the .36-second lead from Saturday as David Marcus, the defending Class National Champion, put down a smoking third run to become the only Street Touring Xtreme car in the 46-second range. At the end of the heat, Marcus was .064-seconds out of the win, with Darrin Disimo rounding out the podium.
Sam Strano extended his win margin on Sunday by an additional second over co-driver Michael Snyder in A Street. He also took top Index for the event on the strength of his second run, finishing 2.6-seconds ahead of Snyder, with Cory Dreyfus taking third.
From one of the smoothest running Dixie events ever, next on the 2016 Championship Tour is the Tire Rack Crows Landing Championship Tour taking place April 22-24 at Crows Landing Air Facility in Crows Landing, California.
Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour events take place over three days on two separate courses. Friday consists of Test and Tune opportunities, as well as a social gathering. Then on Saturday, competitors each get three chances to drive one course, and on the second day get three runs on another course. Like any other Solo competition, runs are timed to 1/1000th of a second and knocking a cone down means a two-second penalty added to the time. The best times from each course are added together for the final class standings. For additional information on Tire Rack SCCA Solo, visit www.scca.com/solo.
Story: Aditya Madhavan/SoloMatters
Image: Sam Strano in a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette Z took the A Street and overall Index win during the 2016 Tire Rack SCCA Dixie Championship Tour at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
Photo Credit: SoloMatters
