Under an overcast sky, but with no rain falling, competition started at the 2016 Tire Rack Dixie Championship Tour with a damp course. Heat 1 kicked off the day with STR action and Kerry Coughlin set a benchmark time on run 2, which stood until Ricky Crow's last run. Crow, crediting the drying conditions, put down a time that launched him .583s into the lead. Over to STU... Christian Shipp, driving a relatively new to him '05 Subaru STI, dealt with cone issues for his first two runs. Putting a time together on his final run, he jumped up to the top spot, almost 3/10s ahead of 2nd place Christopher Hamm. In BSL, Tara Johns took the early lead, until Donna Littlejohn took over on her 2nd run. Nikki Edwards had the final say though, setting down a flyer on her last run and holding a commanding 1.1 second margin over the field.
In Heat 2 C Street was the dominant class, with 27 drivers. By first runs, the course was almost dry. Times started dropping like flies as the heat went up and when the dust settled, Chris Harp took a .3 second lead over Clay McCool. John Wolf and Mark Davis are in the hunt too with less than .1 second separating them from Clay. Over to Super Street! Bryan Carbon holds a .01 second lead over Greg Hahn, both in Lotus Elises, after Bryan finally sorted out his braking and turn in points on his last run. Showing the men how it's done, Donna Marx took the SSP lead on her last run, with a .445 second buffer going into tomorrow.
After the walk break, as Heat 3 kicked off, all eyes were on STX as defending national champion David Marcus set down a blazing first run time. Everyone was trying to catch him, with a few raw times going faster, but dirty (one of those instances where if we all had 6 runs, who knows what's possible!). Just as third runs were winding down though, Ian Stewart, in a car he has struggled with for much of the year, set a time almost a full second faster, all while Marcus was waiting at the start line. Knowing his target, he fell just short and Stewart holds a .365 second advantage into day two. Bringing the heat in SM was Tim White, with a .18 second advantage over his codriver Matthew Glagola, with Leroy Lowder in third. Rumor has it the real competition in SM is actually after dark, as the battleground shifts to margaritas, with White facing off against Godzilla, Eric Hyman.
Heat 4 brought out the heavy firepower, as right out of the gate, Sam Strano took the lead in AS and never looked back. Dropping time with each run, Strano stays 1.6 seconds ahead of his codriver Michael Snyder. Keeping the Corvettes at the top of the pack was Justin Barbry in BS, in a relatively new to him car. Top five in BS is separated by only .5 second, so it remains anyone's game as we go into tomorrow. Dennis Sparks holds the lead in DS over his codriver Jordan Towns, with Towns having some cone/DNF trouble keeping her from improving on her 2nd run. Danny Kao brought the 731st car he's owned, and together with Mike Kline, took the top two positions in CSP, with 3/10ths separating them. Hot on their heels is John Waight, less than 2/10ths back.
In Heat 5, ES came down to last runs, with Adam Norton, right at the end, taking the lead over Eric Peterson. Norton, coming off of a DNF on his first run and a sloppy second, came back and put a run together for an advantage of .228 seconds heading into Sunday. Event Chair Robert Lewis was the man to catch for much of the day, until right at the end. His codriver Tommy Pulliam, having DNF’d his first two runs, dropped the proverbial sledgehammer and put 7/10ths on the rest of the field. Over in STS, once again showing the field how it’s done, John Brown has a 1.2 second margin over Lee Chhit, with Brown being one of the only competitors on the field on the Kumho V720. Brown, having come to the event with both Bridgestone RE-71Rs and the V720s, ran them on the Test and Tune course and found the Kumhos were a half second faster on a 28ish second course.
The day ended under a bluing sky, and conditions look ripe and dry for Sunday runs. As always, keep your eyes on sololive.scca.com for live timing and uStream for color commentary from the best announce team in the business!
