Packwood saw one of the warmest weekends of the year for the Pro Solo, with Saturday’s high in the 90s and a bit of cloud cover cooling things on Sunday. Rain? Usually a component of a weekend in Packwood, it waited until Sunday afternoon’s awards presentation this time!
As with any event the Hymans choose to compete in, a margarita party is sure to ensue competition runs.
Kinch Reindl flew out to co-drive the Wiggle Way STC Civic Si of Steve Ekstrand and came from second behind Jim Harnish on Saturday to win by 0.287 Sunday morning. Shane Jensen was only 0.132 behind Harnish for third. All three would qualify for the Super Challenge.
Be sure to check out Kinch Reindl's course overview video from this weekend.
Steve O'Blenes extended a Saturday lead in STX of 0.051 over Ricky Crow to 0.403 on Sunday morning, followed by O'Blenes' co-driver Mike Nakata in third. STX would trophy six deep, with the remaining trophies going to Karl Coleman, Charly Spyksma and Mack Tsang’s BMW 325i. All except Tsang were in “Twins” (aka Subaru BRZ or Scion FRS.) Only O'Blenes, Crow and Nakata would go to the Super Challenge.
Glen Hernandez and Ryan Otis had a battle for the only two trophies in Street Index RWD, both driving A/S C5 Z06s. Otis closed a Saturday gap of 0.435 down to 0.327 on Sunday morning, with Jerry Jenkins another 0.168 back. All three would go to the Super Challenge.
Cam Withell had a slim 0.140 win in SP/SM Index B in his CSP Miata. Second was Lorin Mueller’s FSP Focus. Third and final trophy position, 0.796 back was Quinn Campbell’s FSP Scirocco. Only Withell and Mueller would go to the Challenge.
Final four in the Super Challenge were Withell vs. Otis and O'Blenes vs. Reindl. Withell started on the faster right course (generally believed to be around 0.8 faster) with a 1.3 second lead. Otis could only get 0.7 of it back, and Withell went to the final round with a new dial-in.
Reindl came back ahead by 1.5 on the right, plus a cone by O'Blenes. On the second half of the round, it looked like Reindl was being overly cautious, and O'Blenes came back 2.4 ahead, but couldn’t erase the defecit caused by the pylon.
O'Blenes and Otis, racing for third, left no extra time on the tree, starting the round with .532 and .584 lights. O'Blenes ended up taking third place with a one second win. Withell and Reindl were a bit more conservative at the tree, both starting with 0.6 lights. Reindl was back first on the right by 1 second, and Withell came back first on his right side run, but fell short by 0.1 second, giving Reindl the Super Challenge win. I’m not sure whether Reindl or car owner Ekstrand was more ecstatic at the win.
Laurie Hyman’s L1 win in the Nissan GT-R, affectionately known as Godzilla, was over 0.6, keeping second place Tami Daniels’ Miata out of the Ladies Challenge.
L2 brought three to the Challenge, winner Lacey Otis in the family Z06, Connie Smith in her D/S Subaru WRX, who was only 0.112 in arrears. Third place Brianne Green would also go to the Challenge.
Although there were only three trophies in L3, the top four would go to the Ladies Challenge. Winner Annie Gill, STX FR-S, Tasha Mikko and Gretchen Everett in STU Evos, and Catherine Tran in an STX BRZ.
The final four would see Hyman vs. Mikko and Gill vs. Otis. Mikko started on the right and came back 0.664 ahead of Hyman. Laurie then red lit on the right by .046, sending Tasha to the final round. Otis came back toward the finish on the right with the rear end hung out and only a 0.419 lead going to the slower left. Gill capitalized on this and won the round by 0.757.
Godzilla decided to eat a cone on Laurie’s right side run for third, and despite Laurie turning a faster total scratch time, Lacey took third place with a 0.060 margin. Annie lined up on the right and came back over 1.3 ahead. Tasha got back some of the margin, but not enough, as Annie “broke out” with her Ladies Challenge win.
Bonus Challenge final four was Tamara Kwak in Glenn Austin’s 350Z vs. Dick Willy’s RX-8 and Walter Dixon vs. Ewalina Szarkowicz in Honda S2000s. A red light by Willy put Kwak in the final round, and Dixon defeated Szarkowicz to move on. Kwak’s karma at the lights held in the final round as well and she defeated Dixon when he red lit as well.
What makes ASP cars so far? Flying squirrels.
