Perfect weather and beautiful scenery set the stage at the Hampton Mills lot in Packwood, WA for the Northwest Region Championship Tour. The Karen Babb designed course, which had a technical mix of fast sections, challenging transitions and off-camber turns, was very well liked. From all accounts, the Saturday chicken feed, which was back at the local fire station this year, was once again awesome and the Northwest Region’s raffle set the standard by which all raffles should be judged.
Only four drivers showed in A/Street, in two C5 Z06s, but that didn’t prevent a hot battle for the top spot. Glen Hernandez held the lead on Saturday with his first run all the way up to Ryan Otis’ third run, when Otis squeaked into the lead by 0.094. Otis extended his lead on Sunday, winning by 0.570 over Hernandez.
Fifteen drivers contested B/S for five trophies, with David de Regt’s Honda S2000 leading the way on every Saturday run. Ricky Bang was determined to break up a Honda sweep in his Mazda MX-5, and he ended up only 0.080 behind de Regt on Saturday. The remaining trophy spots were all close enough to challenge on Sunday, in the Hondas of Owen Kirby, Richard Arienzale and Murray Peterson. De Regt and Bang led off dirty, allowing Kirby and Arienzale to lead after first runs. Bang’s 58.6 took the lead from de Regt’s 59.0 on second runs, with Kirby at 59.0 in third. When Bang tagged a cone on his third run, de Regt, a second driver, knew he needed to trim just about 0.3 for the win. A slower run was no help and he stayed in second, Bang breathing a sigh of relief. Of the trophy positions, only Arienzale would improve, to move ahead of Kirby (by only 0.026) and Peterson.
Street Touring FWD had eight entrants, and it looked like you could throw a blanket over the top three for much of Saturday. Bill Zerr’s SVT Focus had less than a tenth over Joe Austin and Chris Miller in MINIs after first runs, then Miller went into the lead by 0.025 on his second run. Failure to improve cost Austin and Zerr when Miller improved again on number three, going into Sunday with a 0.249 lead. Michelle Miller was only 0.214 out of the trophies and one to watch on Sunday. Sunday’s first runs started out the same, but with a different cast of characters. It was Stephen Hui, Zerr, and Michelle Miller flexing their muscle. Chris Miller waded into their midst on run two, taking back the lead with a 60.4, slightly ahead of Zerr. Norman Hayton’s Mazda 2 was threatening, now only 0.3 out, with a 60.0. Zerr and Hayton sealed their fates by failing to improve, then Michelle took the top time in the class for Sunday on run three, at 59.8, and into the lead. Could anyone challenge? Hui only came close to Hayton with his own 60.0. Chris used his day one lead and a solid 60.1 to take the lead back from Michelle by 0.171, and only Austin, with a pair of dirty 60.0s left to run. He would need a 59.8 to win, but could only manage a 60.0 to move into the third and final trophy, 0.004 behind Michelle. Who knew STF would be this exciting!
At the end of Saturday, it looked like the twelve car STC field was led by Nigel Koit’s only clean run, a very fast 57.6. Jim Harnish, in second, was over 0.7 out! Brent Glad was 0.314 back in the final trophy position with Shane Jensen 0.118 out of the trophies in his borrowed Tim Stake car. Birthday boy Don Wooten was not happy! His fast run was spoiled by the nasty cone #401. He lodged his protest and even had the on-site shirt vendor make a shirt proclaiming his innocence. When the checking was done, Wooten was exonerated, and his leading time of 58.1 was restored. In addition, it was found that Koit had hit the cone on his 57.6 and had no clean runs on the day. Harnish was fastest from the start on day two, and led all the way into third runs. It was Harnish, Wooten, Glad and Jensen for the trophies. The last car in the class would be Wooten. His 58.450 would take the win back from Harnish by 0.130. It’s pretty safe to say that Don’s 40th birthday was memorable, and there is no present he would appreciate more!
The legend of cone #401 grows...
STR was 16 drivers deep, but it was all the S2000 of Kevin Dietz on Saturday. His 56.6 on run number two was 0.540 ahead of Adam Ruff. It got tighter after that, with Ruff’s MX-5 only 0.014 ahead of Piotr Szarkowicz’ S2000, and then another 0.017 back to Tim Weidemann’s S2000 in fourth. Dietz posted an opening run of 56.9 to lead on Sunday, with Ruff next fastest at 57.6. Dietz then clocked in with a 56.7, but it was plus one, and Ruff served notice with a 56.6, now trailing by just under 0.2. Weidemann was stuck in the 58s, and fell out of the trophies, leaving Szarkowicz, Mark Ayers and Dennis Healy to fight over the remaining three trophies. They would remain in that order. Dietz could only knock 0.013 off his first run, leaving the door open for Ruff, near the end of the run order. Ruff knocked off 0.3 on his final run, his 56.3 sealing the win by 0.114 over Dietz.
Joey Sim threw down a 56.8 on his first run in the STX Scion FRS, and it would stand all assaults for the remainder of Saturday, not to mention it would have been second in STR. Ricky Crow and Annie Gill were next in Gill’s FRS, 0.573 and .606 back, respectively. Crow was fastest on Sunday, but could only pull to within 0.422 of the flying Sim, with Gill and Karl Coleman in the final two trophy positions.
The podium in C/Prepared was set to be an all Ford affair, with Frank Stagnaro’s Shelby GT350 leading the way with a 55.411. Frederick Pascual was 0.348 back, with Oliver Taylor only another 0.014 back. Stagnaro extended his lead on Sunday, winning by 0.667 over Pascual. Taylor and Clark remained in third and fourth.
Street Mod FWD was the tightest podium battle on Saturday, with Adam McCausland’s Mazda 323 at 56.835, leading Quinn Campbell’s Scirocco by 0.020. McCausland’s co-driver, Robert Green was only another .027 back for the final trophy. On Sunday McCausland had the fast first run at 57.3, while Campbell’s 58.6 was dirty. McCausland failed to improve on run number two, allowing Campbell’s 57.5 to pull within 0.3 of the lead. Again failing to improve left McCausland vulnerable and Campbell responded with a 57.2 to pull out a slim 0.042 second victory for the weekend. Green was slightly off the pace and finished 0.462 back in third.
More full results from the Packwood Championship Tour, please click here.
The Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour Series next heads to the Wilmington Airpark, in Wilmington, Ohio, Aug. 2-3. More information on The Tire Rack SCCA Solo Program is available at www.scca.com/solo.
