with contributions from Corey Ridgick, Mike Johnson, Matt Murray and Howard Duncan
In D-Stock, the Integra Type R has been the standard for some time. Various Subaru products have been strong from time to time, but the effort in Oscoda by Eric Simmons may suggest that, at least for ProSolo, the WRX might be the car for the class. Simmons was an impressive 1.4 ahead of his co-driver, Dan Shalkowski and together the duo separated themselves from past D-Stock ProSolo Champion James Feinberg’s Type R by an additional 6 tenths.
Street Touring's Jeff Mabrey cruised to a 2.4 second win, and top qualifier for the Gumout Super Challenge. What was more remarkable, however, was the diversity in the class which included both an Integra and a Honda Fit. While this is promising for the future of the category, it was still a Civic show up front with Richard Grunenwald and Stephanie Mabrey claiming second and third.
In Ladies 2 Denise Kugler took the win, with Elena La Rosa running very well to take second. Lorien Feighner was able to hold on to third despite having to jump to the Miller’s BSP Evo, as the Alex Jones owned Solstice lost a clutch. Feighner had lead the morning session in the Solstice but was unable to improve times when switching to AWD.
BSP had Cy Lee ruling first place until the Sunday morning runs when he and Aaron Miller duked it out for the top spot. Miller was plagued with dirty runs and ended up with only one left side run clean. Meanwhile, Alex Jones had red light and pylon problems too, but by virtue of three clean runs ended up in second place with Miller one out of the trophies.
F125 was Brian Garfield’s show with veryone else singing back up. Alan Sheidler came up strong on his last runs, despite an errant empty juice bottle getting caught in the cart and causing a distracting. Alan was awarded a re-run, and went two tenths faster. Also of note, the class had four perfect .500 lights in the qualifying rounds, and Deric Frisch’s last run on Saturday and last on Sunday morning were two of those .500 reaction time lights (both left side courses)
Connecticut’s PJ Corrales in the G-Fab Nissan 240SX Panda, co-driven with David White, held court in Street Modified. Corrales was speediest on the right course, but it was Corey Ridgick in a Mitsubiishi Evo who took top time on the left to split Corrales and White an claim the 2nd spot. Of note, four of the five competitors in Street Modified went on to the Gumout Super Challenge with Corrales ending up in fourth and third place SM finisher, Jerrod Hoops in Second place losing to Sam Strano on a red light.
John McKiver made a return to ProSolo in Oscoda after nearly a decade off. John made the most of the opportunity, driving his Factory Five Cobra to the win in the Bonus Challenge. For the win, McKiver received a free entry into a future ProSolo event. SCCA officials are hopeful that John will not wait as long for his next event as he did for this one, though it was unconfirmed if his voucher had an expiration date.
Howard Duncan had high praise for the Alex Jones designed course, stating that it “was a perfect match of technical and “hang on” elements.” It all started with a 200 foot straight leading into fast off set gates, followed by a quick slalom that lead into a deceptive sweeper, then two “soft” versions of a Chicago Box, and then a somewhat tight three cone slalom just before the 45 degree bend to the finish. Course times were about 5 seconds shorter than ideal, which could have been achieved by tightening up some of the more brisk elements, but the entertainment value or “yee haw factor” as Duncan put it, would have suffered..
There may have been some home field advantage, as this event was just a few hours north of Detroit and the Challenges were all won with Ford power; the Gumout Super Challenge and the Ladies Challenge with Mustangs and the Bonus Challenge with a Mustang powered Cobra replicar. Additionally Sam Strano, the Gumout Challenge winner, commented on winning at the same event as Heather Everett. “It's always nice to win Challenges when you get to stand there with your friends. Heather and I have known each other for a long time now.” It also did not hurt Sam that Heather had a few Strano Performance Parts on her Mustang.
On the social side, the Detroit Region had the local Boy Scout troop provide food and beverage for Friday afternoon’s Welcome Party and then on Saturday night the event Chairmen, Marcus and Jennifer Meredith, hosted the now traditional Oscoda Catfish Fry, featuring cooked on location hush puppies, fried pickles, and of course fresh catfish with their special breading, along with side dishes. A good time was had by all.
