Image Courtesy of David Cosseboom
LINCOLN, Neb. (May 27, 2014) – Matthew Braun, of Northville, Michigan, went home the Super Challenge winner following Friday and Saturday’s Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo® event from Lincoln Airpark. Jocelin Huang, of Edina, Minnesota, scored her second consecutive Ladies Challenge win of the year.
With the SCCA Solo Championship tour also taking place on Sunday and Monday of the holiday weekend, the 202 drivers in attendance made up a field chock full of talent. While the Super Challenge winner came from the top half of 32 drivers seeded in the bracket, the head-to-head nature of the competition led to some very compelling drama.
Braun (Street Touring R, PowerPlug Honda S2000) finished his class-competition qualifying portion in first. Based on his indexed times from those runs, he was the 15th seed in the Super Challenge bracket.
In the opening round, Braun took down Vivek Goel (Automotive Speacialist/Eagle Transmission Chevrolet Corvette). To earn a position in the quarter-finals, Braun beat Mike Forsythe (SP/SM Index B, 3R Racing/A&LS Sheet Metal/S.S.H.R. Honda Civic Si).
Braun’s next hurdle was defending National Champion and current Pirelli World Challenge GT competitor Robert Thorne (SP/SM Index A, 3RAuto.com/CorksportUSA.com/EAPW.com Honda S2000) in the quarter-final round. Braun ended up the winner over Thorne, and then earned a semi-final victory over Lane Borg (B Street, StranoParts.com Chevrolet Corvette). That led him to a final matchup with Erik Strelnieks.
Strelnieks (Super Street Modified, Hoosier/OS Giken/Jungle Cat Racing Mazda RX-7), fresh off his Super Challenge win in Mineral Wells, started his march to the final bracket with an opening-round win over Andrew Pallotta (Super Street R, Stranoparts/Newmans 200TW/Tire Depot Chevrolet Corvette). Strelnieks then took out Kinch Reindl (Super Touring Compact, RiptideHosting.com/RDP Hosting Honda Civic Si) in the second round.
Strelnieks won his round-three matchup against Greg McCance (E Street Prepared, Fastndrunk Subaru WRX), givnig him a chance to face Eric Peterson in the semis. McCance downed Peterson (Street Index RWD, SoloPro & Atomic Empire Toyota Spyder) putting him through to the final bracket.
Braun emerged at the overall winner after defeating Strelnieks in the final pairing. Borg was able to capture the final podium spot after beating Peterson in the third-place runoff.
Jocelin Huang (Ladies 2, The Alignment Guy Porsche GT3) has been on a tear, following her Ladies Challenge win in Mineral Wells with another strong performance. She started her repeat win by beating Jackie Mutschler (Ladies 2, Chevrolet Camaro SS) in the opening round. Huang then felled Linda Duncan (Ladies 2, MiniUSA Mini Cooper) in the quarter-finals. In the semis, Huang was matched up with Annie Gill (Ladies 3, Thanks Danny!/Chickzilla Scion FRS) and emerged as the victor.
That win earned Huang the opportunity to continue to the final, where she met Kim Whitener (Ladies 3, Black Armor Helmets/Texas Track Works Honda Civic).
Whitener scored an opening-round win over Denise Cashmore (Ladies 3, Thank you Wild Bill Cook! Subaru BRZ). Laura Campbell (Ladies 3, Honda S2000) was the next to fall victim to Whitener’s fast pace. In her penultimate pairing, Whitener took the win over Christy Carlson (Ladies 3, Nameless Performance/Bad Panda Motorsports Subaru BRZ).
In the final, Huang racked up her second consecutive Ladies Challenge win after beating Whitener.
Mark McKnight (Street Touring Sport, Honda CRX), of Sullivan, Wisconsin, was the final driver standing in the Bonus Challenge.
Additional information, including full results, of The Tire Rack SCCA Lincoln ProSolo can be found here. More information on the entire Tire Rack SCCA Solo program is available at www.scca.com/Solo. Follow SCCA on Twitter @SCCAOfficial and like the Club on Facebook at Facebook.com/SCCAOfficial.
