TOPEKA, Kan. (April 12, 2016) - The TireRack El Toro ProSolo kicked off the 2016 season with a bang as 24 competitors won their classes with three more winning the challenges to take home glory and contingency. The story at the El Toro Marine Base on Saturday was the changing weather conditions, which saw the threat of rain challenge all groups during the day. With rain on Saturday night, those who ran in the morning on Sunday had a damp surface to compete on, while those who participated in the middle and end had dry asphalt. The damp surface resulted in mostly slower times in the morning with many day-one leaders taking home the trophy.

Three of those who led after Saturday that went on to win their classes were all three ladies winners: Christine Grice in L1, Kristen Acharya in L2, and Nicole Wong in L3. Grice’s closest competitor, Diane Bollenbecker, did not compete on Sunday due to driveline issues, so Grice maintained her 1.2-second advantage to win the five-person class. Grice would also go on to win the Ladies Challenge at the end of the day, defeating Wong in the final pairing.

Wong, meanwhile, kept her seven-tenths lead in L3 from Saturday and defeated Mindi Cross, while Catherine Train, Kerry Gonzales, and Lisa Berry held on to their day-one spots to round out the trophies. Acharya likewise took advantage of the damp morning conditions, and, like Wong and Grice, maintained her lead in the 11-person L2 class to win. Shelly Monfort was 1.097 behind to claim second, while Deana Kelley and Jami Olerich found the final two trophy spots. Paul Brown won E-street as again the damp conditions prevented most racers from gaining time. Vernon Jolly finished 2.3 seconds back of Brown, while Steve Coe came in third. Brown would go on to finish second in the Super Challenge, falling to K-Modified winner Paul Russell.

Matthew Ales was one of those competitors who found time on Sunday, extending his lead over Mark Scroggs by half a second to win the seven-person F-Street Class. Scott McHugh in H-Street rocking his Honda Accord also found a bit more time on the second day, pushing his win over James Harnish by almost a second. McHugh also made it far into the Super Challenge competition, winning the third-place runoff against Jonathan Lugod.

Bump 1, which ran at the end of group two, saw some competitors put down faster runs as the course started to dry out. It didn’t make a difference to winner Michael Heinitz, however, as he held on against a surging Scott Mullens for the win. Mullens moved up with a pair of fast runs on Sunday, finishing just four-tenths behind for second place, while Michael Carpenter got third.

Brian Peters led the eight-person A-Street class following Saturday's runs, but Sam Strano retook the top spot using a lower left side run to defeat fellow Driver of Eminence Peters by two-tenths. Glen Hernandez claimed the final trophy spot just half a second behind.

In B-Street, Alex Muresan extended his day-one lead in the 10-driver class by gaining time on the right side. Tony Rodriguez took over second place using faster runs on both sides to pass Kyle Williams by a mere .025. Ben Clement finished in fourth for the last trophy spot.

Many C-Street drivers found time on Sunday as well, but it was Ron Bauer in his 2016 Mazda MX-5 that took home top honors. Bauer won by four-tenths over Jeffrey Bandes, who in turn leapfrogged Charly Spyksma for second place by only .182.

Going into Sunday's runs, Jeff Wong in STS had less than a tenth advantage over Steve O’Blenes, but capitalized with a pair of faster runs to extend his win to half a second. O’Blenes finished as runner-up after coning three of his four Sunday runs, but held off Stephen Yeoh in third who finished just .071 behind following a pair of better times.

Each of the five trophy winners in STX bettered their times on Sunday, but it wasn't enough to change the standings as Jonathan Lugod maintained his three-tenths lead to claim top honors. In a rarity, Karlton Lew and Justin Tsang both finished with identical times for second place, but Lew was awarded the runner-up spot due to the rules that state that ties are based on the second-best combined times. After Tsang, Richard Hayter was a tenth back for fourth place while Brandon Porambo got fifth only two-tenths back.

Many of the STR competitors gained time on Sunday with the pavement drying out, but the top spot went unchanged as James Yom held on to his initial-day lead. Second and third place shifted in the standings as Michael Yanase, previously half a second behind Kevin Dietz after Saturday, moved up to defeat Dietz by sixth-tenths. Jason Munchhof, Jeffrey Cawthorne, and Bob Endicott rounded out the trophy spots in the 20-person class.

In STU, Bryan Heitkotter bettered both his right and left side times on Sunday to grow his lead over Jeff Stuart by a second. Ken Motonishi cruised to a three-second win in Super Street with Keith Brown earning the second trophy spot. SMF saw Bret Norgaard in his Acura TL set down some impressive times to lead Mike Bradley in second place. Bradley overcame a broken axel on day one and was seen replacing it early Sunday morning.

In C-Street Prepared, Brock Palmer threatened winner George Doganis' first-day lead as he used a pair of faster Sunday runs, but could not get close enough as Doganis held on for the 1.1-second win. Along the way, though, Palmer passed Donald Sattler for second place, and also made it into the Bonus Challenge where he won the eight-person field.

Steve Lau stood on his Saturday morning runs to win SSP, with Ryan Johnson a second back for the remaining trophy spot. Tom Berry in the Mitsubishi Evo won Bump Class 4, comprised of 18 drivers from ASP, BSP, DSP, ESP, STP, SSR, and SM. Doug Rowse finished in second nearly sixth-tenths back with Tim Bergstrom, Anthony Porta, Tony Rivera, and Christopher Cox completing the trophy spots. Third through seventh place was all decided by less than eight-tenths, however, as the drivers shuffled around after finding more time out there on Sunday.

Despite a pair of faster runs for Dennis Healy on the second day, he could not catch CAM winner Brett Madsen who maintained his eight-tenths advantage from Saturday. David Howdyshell, Chris Darquea, and James Boller finished 3-4-5 respectively to take home the trophies.

In R1, KJ Christopher found time on both sides to grow his lead over Jeff Kiesel by only .275. Tom Ellam finished in third place with Eric Clements taking home the final trophy. In the nine-person R2 class, Nick Bjoin’s first day lead was cut by a few tenths after Andrew McKee found some time on the right side. McKee would pass Justin Moore for the runner-up spot, finishing nine-tenths back of the win.

Kart Modified winner Paul Russell had an enormous 2.6-second advantage after Saturday, but Kevin Jung applied the pressure and found time on both sides to cut the lead to just a half a second. Marc Segal moved up from the fourth spot to finish in third, taking home the final trophy spot. Russell also won the Super Challenge at the end of the day, defeating Paul Brown from E-Street to eke out the victory.

Finally, the junior cart standings stayed the same for both JA and JB as Johan Yost and Robert Ekstrand won their respective classes.

In the Super Challenge, there were a few situations that showed the exemplary sportsmanship offered at SCCA events. Jeff Wong offered to rerun against Brian Peters after a light error caused both of them to start late. Even though Jeff won his initial matchup, he lost in the rerun as Peters moved on. Additionally, Mark Scroggs forfeited his win in the second round to Steve O’Blenes due to a downed-cone confusion. Scroggs was called for the original win, but during the next pairing that went out on course, Matt Ales stopped for a down cone which was assumed to be hit by Scroggs because he had just ran previously, but no one had called it in.

For full results from the 2016 TireRack El Toro ProSolo, including 60-foot times and all three challenge brackets, visit scca.com/pages/prosolo.