Day 2 down at the 10th running of the SCCA Dixie Championship Tour started with cooler weather, but not a single rain cloud in sight. The conditions were ripe for competition, and the 282 drivers had their work cut out for them. In STR, Ricky Crow extended his lead from yesterday, finishing a blistering 1.933 seconds ahead of Kerry Coughlin. Crow set down a 46.3 second time right off the bat, but coned. He cleaned it up and dropped down to a 46.294 on his final run, the only driver in the 46’s in class. S2000s made up the bulk of the trophies, with the exception of Geoff Walker, bringing his 2016 Mazda MX-5 up to 4th place. Nikki Edwards kept up her pace from yesterday, to finish 1.2 seconds ahead of Laura Johnson in BSL. In STU, Michael Lawson, came back from 5th place yesterday, to take the win over Nelson Antunes, in the only car in class on BFGoodrich tires. Jinx Jordan continues his multi-year Dixie winning streak in SMF, with an almost 3 second margin over second place. In SSM, Randall Wilcox, taking FTD, stands 6 seconds over his codriver Eric Anderson (who has been working endlessly to get the car back together and tuned in preparation for Dixie; apparently the tune works).
CS brought the action at the start of Heat 2. Jumping into the lead on the strength of his second run, John Wolf took the win in class over Chris Harp, with Clay McCool a scant .029 behind in third. Matt Leach had a raw time to take the win, as the only CS driver in the 48’s, but cones and traction control kept him from claiming the top step. Coming from behind also in SS, Charlie Thompson moved up from 3rd into 1st, ahead of Bryan Carbon, who had a cone on his fastest scratch time. Not content with being skirted by his codriver/wife, Keath Marx took the win in SSP, with a day 2 time a full 1.1 seconds faster than 2nd place Chad Langley, with Donna Marx rounding out the podium.
Holding onto his insurmountable lead, Ian Stewart took the STX win. His win was by much less than his .36 second lead yesterday, as David Marcus put down a smoking fast third run, the only STX car in the 46’s. At the end of the heat, Marcus was .064 out of the win, with Darrin Disimo rounding out the podium. Tim White held onto his day 1 lead, taking the win over his codriver Matthew Glagola by .439 seconds, and just losing out on top PAX for the event by one cone on his fastest raw time.
Sam Strano extended his win margin by an additional second over his codriver Michael Snyder. Taking top PAX for the event on the strength of his second run (the third, while faster, had cone trouble), Strano finished 2.6 seconds ahead of Snyder, with Cory Dreyfus taking third. Justin Barbry wins in BS over Edward Fisher, as he adapts well to the totally different style of driving a Corvette on street tires, coming from a race tire shod Mazda 323. Linda Duncan held onto her day 1 lead, winning over Eileen Blando in a tight CSL class. Danny Kao wasn’t able to get a clean first run, and never felt his head was in this course, and relinquished his lead in CSP to his codriver Mike Kline, with John Waight hot on their heels.
ES showed some of the toughest competition of the weekend, as Jonathan Roberts took the win on the strength of his second run. Eric Peterson had the time on his third to take the win, but a late cone call kept him in second place. STS was the John Brown show, putting it down on Kumho tires and staying 1.2 seconds in the lead over Lee Chhit. Coming from behind, Robert Lewis showed us just how to wheel that gorgeous Mustang fastback around, holding off his codriver Tommy Pulliam by 7/10ths. Pulliam fought cone trouble on his fast runs, while Lewis put together a third run to secure a dominant victory. Jadrice Toussaint remained on top in ESP over codriver Jeff Cox, after a little cone carnage on Toussaint’s second run.
From one of the smoothest running Dixie tours ever, the caravan moves over to California for the San Diego Match Tour: Oceanside Showdown, and then the ever popular El Toro Pro. To all those who braved the threat of rain and made it down, congratulations on the new hardware, commiserations on the cones, and thank you for the kickoff on the 2016 Road to Lincoln and the Solo National Championship.
