Let's be honest. It was hot this weekend in Crow's Landing. More than just the competition. We're talking temperatures of over 100 degrees F. These conditions can seperate the men from the boys; those who came to win and those who just came to play. Looking at the number of close classes and incredible talent that made it to the Super Shootout, it's easy to see that everyone brought thieir A game this weekend... and came to win. Let's start the rundown with the Street Classes...
B Street, which has been the domain of Lane Borg and his Corvette, was taken by Michael Heinitz this weekend, running Dunlop tires on his 2007 Mazda MX5 MSR over his co-driver by over a second. C Street was dominated by the combination of Jeff Stuart (know for running in STX in recent years - but making the switch this year) and Paul Brown, both in Nissan 370Zs. However, Jeff ended up taking the win by 3/10ths in his Berry Family Racing, www.racetraceapp.com 2012 version of the Z. SF was taken by Mark Scroggs in his stranoparts.com 2013 Ford Focus ST by almost 2 seconds over Des Toupes in his 2014 Ford Fiesta ST. Some said that this course favored cars with power and this is certainly one place where that might have been the case. Lastly, SR was taken by Ryan Otis in his AS 2003 Chevrolet Corvette on Hankook tires over Steven Hui running a FS 2006 BMW M3 on BFGoodrich tires.
Moving onto the Street Touring classes, we see some of the largest classes of the event. STF was won by almost 7/10ths of a second by Christopher Miller in his TCKline Racing, 425 Motorsports 2011 Mini Cooper. The Mini Cooper took the top 3 spots in STF, further solidifying the Mini's STF dominance this year. STC was won by Will Kalman in his Teal 1991 Honda Civic, taking the win by 2/10ths over Stephen Yeoh and the current reighning National Champion, Jeff Wong. In one of the most watched classes of the weekend, Ricky Crow finally dethrones Max Hayter in a borrowed 2013 Scion FR-S (sponsored by Drift Office, ChaseRace, Stranoparts.com) from Annie Gill. The 1998 Integra Type-R of Alex Muresan was constantly biting at Ricky's heels all weekend, only being around 2/10ths back from the winner. Mack Tsang in his 1995 BMW 325is made a nice jump from day 1, leapping over 3 drivers to put himself on the final podium spot. It's worth noting the top 5 were within a second of one another and the top 11 were within 2 seconds of each other. It's also worth noting the top 9 cars in STX were all on Hankooks, many of them on the much anticipated "Version 2" tires. Geoff Clark was a surprise winner in STU, knocking Brian Peters out of first by 1/10th of a second in his MAPerformance/CiroDesign/TacoTime 2006 Mitsubishi Evo running Yokohama AD08Rs. This marks Peter's first loss in a National event since winning STR in his car last year. The other epic battle came in STR with Ken Motonishi winning in his OS Giken/ARE/Winmax/bjoinfilms.com 2008 Honda S2000 over Jonathan Lugod in his Toyo Tires, OS Giken, A.R.E, Winmax 2006 Honda S2000. Despite the top 5 cars all being S2000s, Ken distanced himself from the class by almost 6/10ths of a second.
Greg McCance took ESP in his 2002 Subaru STi, giving further credance to moving this car out of a class otherwise dominated by Pony cars. At the very least, this car has shown the Mustangs and Camaros can't hold a candle to it in Pro Solos. Eric Hyman takes Street Modified GT-R and Duke Langly wins SSM in his 2012 Chevy Corvette.
Ladies Classes were taken by Laurie Hyman (L1) in her 2012 Nissan GT-R, Meredith Brown (L2) in her 2009 Nissan 370Z and Annie Gill (L3) in her 2013 Scion FR-S. Each class was won by around a second, showing the top ladies were really giving their classes a clinic in Pro driving.
Race Tire Index 1 was taken by Jeff Kiesel by well over a second and Andy McKee took Race Tire Index 2 by Andy McKee. Maybe there's something to this rotary thing, huh? SPA was won by the Berry Family Racing Mitsubishi Evo IX and SPB was taken by Andy Hollis in his One Lap of America 1989 Honda CRX.
Dennis Healy in his 2013 Shelby GT500 Super Snake on Hankook tires took the Bonus Challenge over Tom McDaniel's SSR Corvette. It's worth noting that SR and SF were both taken by cars running Hanook tires.
With the winners of the Super Challenge set, a who's who of the top West Coast (and a few middle America / East Coastes) were ready to duke it out. One of the biggest upsets of the Challenge's first round was Joe Austin's epic David vs. Goliath takedown of Eric Hyman in his Cobb Surgeline/ GT-RR. Joe continued his wins until the 3rd round when he was knocked out by the first final four winner, Jeff Wong in his Toyo Tires / ProParts USA STC Honda Civic Si. The rest of the final four were a grop of epic names in Solo: Paul Russell, Gary Thomason and Jeff Kiesel - all have at least three National Championship in their resume. However, as they say, there can only be one and today it was Jeff Kiesel in his Avon Tire / Roger Kraus Racing / Carvin Guitars 2014 KFR Turbo Sprite on Avon tires. Jeff had to make his way through names like Mogran Trotter (STC), Will Kalman (STC), Ken Motonishi (STR), Gary Thomason (SSR) and Paul Russell (KM) to take the 2014 Crow's Landing Super Challenge. In a stroke of luck, after the Pro, Jeff found that every bolt in his driveshaft and differential flange were loose with an 1/8" gap between the two. One more launch and it's possible Russell would have taken the win!
Are you on the West coast and want a great site to prepare for the ProSolo Finale? You need to make Crow's Landing in 2015. 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.
The next round of the Tire Rack® SCCA® Championship Tour at Crows Landing on June 13th-14th near Modesto, CA.
