Special thanks to Perry Bennett @ AutoXPix.com
People from all of the country infiltrated Toledo Express Airport for the Tire Rack® SCCA® ProSolo Series® over the weekend. Once again, Northwestern Ohio Region hosted a great event. This event sells out quick, holds a large waiting list, and ended up being the largest event of the year. Toledo Express Airport features a smooth uniform concrete surface that aside from the previous tire marks looks as good as the day it was laid down upon this earth. While there were threats of rain for most of the weekend, the sun continued to shine down and temperatures were in the eighties with humidity in the ninety percent range, sending the competitors looking for shade wherever they could find it.
Friday night was the welcoming party with cold cut sandwiches (thankfully) and some really soft & chewy cookies prepared by NWOR, but there was also a surprise party in the making by Rich Grunenwald for his wife, Kathy’s birthday. Rich was able to keep Kathy away long enough to decorate their paddock space, Brian Roberston helped with setup, Crissy Weaver provide some homemade cakes and they were delivered by Lisa Holdren. Word is that these cakes are the most sinful thing you can imagine, you skip right past the sugar buzz and head right to a sugar coma! They also let everyone know to come by and sign the Grunenwald STC Civic “Birthday Car-d”, the car could be seen all weekend with everyone’s birthday wishes on the car. What an awesome birthday present. A good time was had by all, and the party continued to town later in the evening.
While there was a record crowd of 263 registered competitors, you couldn't help but think of the competitor that wasn't there. Earlier in the week, the Solo community lost one of the great people in our family, James Feinberg. There were lots of heavy hearts, the majority of cars had some sort of tribute sticker to Jim, and on Saturday the event started off with a long moment of silence to remember the man who touched so many.
First away from the dueling tree were the Ladies Classes, there were several lead changes in all of the classes. Shelly Monfort took the early lead in Ladies 3 (L3) driving John Vitamvas’s DSP 2002 BMW 330ci despite some acceleration issues, Learic Cramer brought the fight during the Saturday afternoon session to take a 0.216 second lead into Sunday. After Saturday, Rachel Baker egged on Shelly to have them both wear dresses, and “bring some class to the Ladies class”; well, that seemed to work as Shelly came back to take the win in L3 and Rachel Baker jumped up into second place driving Tony Savini’s Corvette, Learic finished up in third after some clutch issues.
Chris Peterson in a 2003 Toyota Spyder on Toyo Tires came from behind to beat Jocelin Huang during the last session as Jocelin wasn’t able to stay clean on the right side course. Hilary Anderson lead after Saturday morning, but Holly Schwedler (Stranoparts.com/Thanks Don, 2013 Subaru FR-S on Hankook Tires) was able to best her during the last two sessions to take her first SCCA® ProSolo class win.
There wasn’t just tight battles in the Ladies classes, there were constant lead changes going in all of the sessions. The tightest battle of them all was between co-drivers Chris Fenter and Chris “Trent” Harvey (Tire Rack, 2009 Mazda MX5 on Hankook Tires) in C-Street, after Saturday morning runs Mr. Fenter held the slimmest margin, a 0.001 second lead. Chris Fenter was able to extend his lead to take a 0.263 second win over Harvey, Mark Andy finished in third just 0.046 seconds back.
Photo Courtesy of Perry Bennett @ AutoXPix.com
Once again, Greg McCance drove his E-Street Prepared 2002 Subaru WRX over half way across the country to compete. He held the lead in ESP after Saturday morning over Dave Ogburn III, who was co-driving Jeff Cox’s 2010 Ford Mustang GT500 on Hoosier Tires. Greg suffered a broken hub during the Saturday afternoon session, but still managed to hold onto the lead as Dave continued to work on the handling of the Mustang. McCance was able to get the car ready for the Sunday session, but suffered a broken differential on his first run of the day. Dave Ogburn III dialed in the car and was able to laid down times to win ESP by 0.111 seconds, Dave Heinrich finished third only 0.031 behind McCance.
Photo Courtesy of Perry Bennett @ AutoXPix.com
In Kart Modified (KM), Larry MacLeod (Because Left Handed, 1998 Honda Briel 125) snatched the win by posting the fastest right side time his last run, Mike Klein was second just 0.097 second back, Julian Garfield rounded out the podium only 0.027. Street Tour Compact featured the tightest podium positions. Chang Ho Kim held the lead after Saturday morning session, Stephen Yeoh made the trip from California and battled into the lead after Saturday afternoon, but it was Jeff Mabrey (1990 Honda Civic Si) who was able to improve the most on Sunday morning to take the victory in STC, just 0.022 over Alejandro Aviles who was dropping exhaust parts like hot potatoes, and Yeoh finished 0.067 second back in third for a total differential of 0.087 seconds for the podium!
Hmmmm, does this sounds familiar, the talent in the SSR field is setting this up to be a heavy weight battle! With only 5 trophy position available in SSR, some great names were headed home without hardware. Strano, Salerno, Reeve, Pallotta, Luster, Burns, and oh yeah, don’t forget Brian Conners! No one was forgetting Brian Conners (2011 Porsche GT3 on Hoosier Tires) once competition started, he lead SSR class from start to finish, Grant Reeve finished in second 0.694 seconds back, Conners’s co-driver Pat Salerno was third 0.208 behind, Andrew Pallotta was fourth, and the fifth and final trophy spot went to Josh Luster.
Street Prepared A (SPA) was a battle of the fast Street Prepared classes, James Cathers (2004 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 on Hoosiers) took a 0.122 second win over Joe Tharpe, Tom O’Gorman was another 0.122 back in third, and Eric Stemler finished in fourth place just 0.149 seconds back. Eric hasn’t been around for the last couple years, and built a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette 427 Limited Edition Z06 in just 5 weeks to prepare for the Toledo ProSolo. Not too bad for the first event in the car, it has more power, and seems like he’ll be pedaling it a little more than his past ASP Corvette Z06.
In Street Touring Sport (STS) they were giving the announcer’s voice a workout. Ian Baker led the first session by 0.037 over Dave Montgomery, in the afternoon session Dave Montgomery held a 0.074 second lead over Jason Frank going into Day 2, Ian Baker another 0.177 back in third. First drivers on Sunday were a back and forth battle with 4 lead changes between all three drivers with Jason Frank taking a 0.111 second lead on his last left side course run. And then second drivers of STS took to the course, this was also known as the Mike Snyder Show. Mike (SSC Tint & Graphics/Stranoparts.com, 1988 Honda CRX Si) started off the final session in sixth place and out of the trophies. With the rest of the top drivers in impound, his first right side run set fastest time for the class putting him just 0.085 second behind Frank. Move over to the right course, more of the same, fastest right side time and the lead in STS. Mike wasn’t done yet, he continued to extend the lead on his next two runs as he went even faster to take the win in STS by 0.197, Jason Frank in second, Ian Baker 0.111 seconds back in third, Dave Montgomery in fourth, and Mark McKnight in the final trophy position just 0.075 seconds back.
Shelly Monfort secured the top spot in the Ladies Challenge on the strength of her 0.509 second win in L1, but lost in the first round of the challenge. Hilary Anderson and Chris Peterson worked their way through the 8 lady field to meet in the finals. Chris Peterson laid down consistent reaction times and course drives to secure the win in the Ladies Challenge. All of the tight competition in STS prepared Ian Baker to take the win over Todd Freeman in the Mini Cooper in the finals of the Bonus Challenge.
All of the close class battles meant a low margin to get into the Super Challenge; you needed to be within 0.263 seconds of the class winner to qualify. There were lots of very close battles and very few red lights throughout the challenge rounds. The final four drivers in the Super Challenge featured Dave Ogburn III from ESP versus Jason Frank from STS, and Chris Harvey from CS versus John Vitamvas from SPB. In the first matchup, Jason Frank held a lead after first runs, but Dave Ogburn III laid down a smoking fast run beat Frank back with enough time; however, a cone awarded the win to Frank. Chris Harvey was able to defeat John Vitamvas to move into the finals. The final round didn’t disappoint, Jason Frank held a 0.124 second lead after the first run, they switched sides and Chris Harvey was first back on the second run, but not enough to make up the margin; Jason Frank took the Super Challenge win by 0.055 seconds.
For official results, click here. The next round of the Tire Rack® SCCA® ProSolo Series® will be held at picturesque Packwood, Washington on July 12th-13th. There is not a more beautiful site in Solo than Packwood, with constant views of Mount Rainer.
