2015 Tire Rack Packwood Champ Tour Event Recap

Photo Credit: Mike Brausen

SoloLive Results

As Sunday afternoon of the Packwood Championship Tour came a close, it ended a weekend of beautiful weather, great local hospitality, and one of the smoothly running events one could expect. Saturdays overcast didn't prevent warm dry runs all day, with a break for some sunshine during heats 3 and 4. After a day of racing, there was a hardy banquet at the Packwood Fire Station thanks to the local regions. A fantastic raffle was hosted by Kevin Dietz featuring prizes ranging from gift certificates for Packwood business, to tire mounting, and even included 2 data loggers. This is one of the local touches that makes these events so much fun. Sunday weather brought about hours of sunshine, 80 degree weather and clearer skies to warm the pavement for the fierce final battles.

In exact opposite ways, both SS winner Chad Langley and SSL winner Carol Leuty each won their class by 1 second. Langley in the beautiful white 2015 Corvette Z06 ended day 1 with a 1.1 second lead over Mike Leuty, who was quicker day 2 but unable to close the gap. Carol Leuty however started off day 2 with a 1.1 deficit behind fellow Porsche driver Valerie Ball. Leuty pulled it out and was able to leap frog to the win with an untouchable 60.718 that was 2.1 seconds better than Ball could manage. The theme of Corvettes continues into A Street with Ryan Otis putting an early 8/10 lead on Glen Hernandez day 1, only to double it up for a 1.6 second victory on day 2 that also claimed top PAX for the entire event. In our third installment of "Classes for Corvettes", B street once again boasted the most diverse Street class, but it was the day of Corvettes with Brian Coulson taking an early lead over co-driver Cal Craner and never looking back. He ended day 2 with a 2.3 second win with Scott Dixon and Annie Gill rounding out the trophies.

In non-Corvette news, C Street started out day 1 with the BFG clad FRS of James Paulson putting in the top time on his 3rd run of 55.593, followed closely by Ahren Renner, Ben Neale and Quentin Osborne. The 2nd-4th positions, all sporting Bridgestones, were just 4/10 off of the lead going into day 2. Paulson wasn’t a fan of that, so day 2 he solidified his win by being the only person to touch the 55’s and end the day 1.3 ahead of Renner.

F Street may be showing signs of a changing of the guard with Piotr Szarkowicz driving his 2008 BMW M3 to a slim .166 victory over the 4cyl turbo Mustang driven by Kit Gauthier and car owner Des Toups. F Street Ladies continued the 4cyl turbo fun with hired gun Tasha Mikko muscling the pony car to a 1 second win over co-driver Jessica Gauthier.

STX had one of the most fantastic battles of the weekend, with co-drivers Charly Spyksma and Karl Coleman ending day 1 just .016 apart with a 1 second gap on the rest of the field. Day 2 came down to final runs where Spyksma had the scratch time for the win, but left the door open by carrying a +1 across the line. Car owner Karl Coleman took full advantage of it and came through with a 54.807, giving him a thrilling .104 victory. You could hear the excitement of Eric Hyman announcing all the way in paddock as Karl came across the line... Winning must be a family trait, as Amy Coleman, in the same BRZ, took a 2 second win in STXL to give the car 2 first place trophies for the weekend. Somewhere between announcing, selling raffle tickets, and being the MC of the Saturday night banquet, Kevin Dietz managed to hop in his 2006 Honda S2000 and take a 1.1 second win over Mike Wood in STR proving Jack of all Trades includes driving.

E Street Prepared prove to be one of the most ear pleasing classes of the weekend. The WRX may be gone from ESP, but AWD lives on in the form of the 4.2L V8 RS4 driven by Evan Willis and Ron Cridland. Before you condemn this car as being an overweight pig, you need to hear the German built high revving V8 sing through a set of dual exhaust. The verdict in paddock after day 1 is that this car should just drive WOT across the lot over and over. When it came to class runs, the pony cars were still on top. After 3rd runs on day 1, Dennis Healy had a small .4 lead over co-driver Adam Ruff. On day 2, both drivers started off aggressive, and ended up with some early cones. It came down to 3rd runs where co-driver Ruff came in at a class leading 52.429. Knowing he had one last shot to pull it out, Healy went out and put that V8 to work, ripping across the line with a 52.372 to edge his co-driver for the win in an exciting finish.

In XP, we have a story of day 2 redemption. Once again it shows, you need 2 good days to win. Andy Mckee had a very difficult first day carrying cones on all 3 runs. His third run carried only a single cone, which put him 1.3 second behind the first generation Elise of Kyriacos Panayio heading toward day 2. Knowing he had to push hard to make up the gap, Mckee came out aggressive right off the bat, resulting in 7 cones on his 1st and 2nd runs. With only his 3rd run left, he wheeled that beautiful blue RX7 like no one else could, coming in at a screaming fast 49.786. No other car with doors would even see the 49’s that day, and even off the ones without them Mckee was the 3rd fastest time overall of day. That time would take over the lead and give him a .237 victory over the tiny Lotus. Once again, he proves why he has multiple National Championships under his belt.

With the best weather an autocrosser could ask for, the most beautiful backdrop anywhere in the country, this is truly an autocross paradise. If you haven’t been to a Packwood event before, add this to your bucket list! This is a MUST DO event, and you will not be disappointed. The Packwood Tour is wrapped up for 2015, but tune in next week where we are back here with the SCCA ProSolo Series.