The time's almost here folks! In less than a week the West Coast national level competition kicks off with the Oceanside Showdown at Qualcomm Stadium. Registration took a little while to gain momentum, but as of right now the event has a solid 144 registered entrants. A look at the weather forecast shows things to be perfect for racing: high of 71 on Saturday and 72 degrees on Sunday (can't blame the conditions for that botched run this weekend).

We have a few classes that have single entrants, so this Tune-In will focus on the more filled classes (as they are quite a few). As they say though ladies first, so why mess with tradition?

Barbara Leroy-Boehme in her C5 Corvette is a favorite in BSL, but, if it's a momentum course, don't count out Judy Murray in the MSR Miata. In STRL, we see a great battle forming between the three ladies all driving NC Miatas: Shanua Rios, Terri Mayo, and Sherri Savage. The cars Mayo and Savage are driving have great pedigree, so expect these ladies to definitely put on a great show in their little roadsters. Prediction is lots of position changes throughout Day One.

Let's talk open!

Stock classes are alive and well at this event so let's get right down to it.

A-Street is showing a co-drive between Brian Peters and John Hogan. These names should be somewhat familiar to those that follow Solo as Brian Peters was named the 2015 SCCA Driver of Eminence and he was driving John’s car. Only fitting that they both now pilot Peters' Z06. The battle here should definitely be interesting.

B-Street seems to be missing some local names that we're used to seeing here in San Diego, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of excitement. Co-drive duo Jeff Israel and Ben Clement from Arizona however may be looking to swoop the class, but we can't count out Dana Lucas in the MSR Miata, Ron Chapman in the Boehme C5 Corvette. It will be interesting to watch how the STI driven by Tyler Bandy fares in stock class. We'll be sure to follow up with his thoughts going up against the Corvettes and S2k's.

As expected we're seeing a strong C-Street field with 12 drivers. Although all eyes will be on Ron Bauer and codriver Charly Spyksma campaigning the Mazda Motorsports ND Miata in class, the car is still under development and may have some "growing pains." If the course is slated to be high-speed, the ND will have a potential gearing disadvantage leaving the door open for local talent in CS to steal the prize, so Bauer / Spyksma will find a good battle on their hands. Scott Lewis, a multi-time San Diego C-Street Champ is one of the favorites here, but we can't factor out the RX-8 Drivers: Arvind Govindaraj has proven countless times he's got the speed to keep pace with Lewis if he can keep it clean, and Adam Tarnoff seems to be on a mission to prove that his winning blue RX-8 on Kumho's has the ability to get the job done against what is likely a heavily Bridgestone-clad field. Mark Wolfe and Rich Park are also noteworthy drivers that jump out in this class to make a bid for it in their TRD-clad FRS's. Park has shown tremendous speed but has been in hiatus this year, so he we may see him have a bit of a sluggish start. What we do know is this: CS is going to be one of the most hotly fought battles at this event.

D-Street is going to be fairly interesting and should be labeled "Spec WRX" as there are five drivers are all in the boosted sedans. 2015 Cal Club Region DS Champion, Scott Mullens, will be facing off against 2015 D-Street Ladies National Champion Kristen Acharya. Kristen will be attempting to make a bid in open class for a chance to skirt husband, codriver and 2016 San Diego region D-Street points leader to-date, Kaustav Acharya. Jonathan Wardlaw and Josh Fischer are also joining in on the fun. Wardlaw has extensive rallycross experience, so it will be interesting to see him adapt to a much higher grip driving mindset. Josh showed great promise at a couple of practice days and will be looking to pick up speed over the two days, while gaining more confidence in his car and driving. Tires will play a major factor here with the Bridgestone as the favorite in the class.

E-Street saw a shake up recently with the Mazdaspeed Miata bumped down to ES. Vernon Jolley from Utah is a favored to take the win here, but we'll see if Steve Coe, Rachel Yamfang, Jayson Woodruff can give him a run for his money. Rachel has been speeding up in her NA Miata over the last few events so this may prove to be a good shake up in class.

Switching things in favor of F-Street this year is 2015 G-Street Champion Mark Scroggs in a '15 Mustang. We're looking forward to seeing him take on San Diego FS expert Will Flores in a classic case of Camaro vs Mustang rivalry. Let’s not count the BMW’s out though, because Matt Ales from Cal Club Region did extremely well at Nationals in the '06 E46 Competition Package. We'll see how things progress in that class as we also see some drivers from the Arizona region, so this one is honestly too early to call.

Speaking of Mustangs, we're expecting Brett Madsen to lead the pack in his 99 Roush CAM-C, but the unknown here is Dennis Healy from Oregon Region in his 2015 GT, a car that ran ESP at Nationals this past year and was exceedingly quick. Will the suspension have been adjusted enough for street tires for both cars? What we do know it’s going to be old VS new and an amazing battle to watch between these two.

Aside from CS, STX is the deepest class where we see some really recognizable names in Solo including Max Hayter (2015 D-Street Champion), Jonathan Lugod (2013 STR National Champion who decided to shake things up and is campaigning his Focus ST this year), and Derek Punch. Those unfamiliar with Socal’s Solo drivers, might not recognize some names such as Adrian Cardenas, Dhiraj Jadhav, and Patrick Smith, Ryan Willson and new-comer Dzuy Cao. While the first three names may be your podium in STX, expect a really good show in this class. Jadhav in particular has been on a mission to up his game and has attended both the Evolution Phase I and Phase II programs in preparation for the Match Tour and El Toro Pro Solo.

STF is going to be a tough uphill for the Fit driven by Rocco Pedreria and Joe Austin's Mini Cooper as they face off against Michael Heinitz's RSX Type-S.

From Cal Club Region, Mike Yanase is one of the favorites in STR, but the field will not make it easy. Recently converted to STR trim, Jeff Cawthorne's ND Miata showed amazing potential on it's maiden voyage at El Toro a couple of weeks ago and blistered STR on guessed camber settings, spring rates, and shock adjustments. Jay Balducci from Arizona is also an incredibly fast driver in a well prepped and very well sorted NC. Gary Cameron and Robert Joe will mix things up a bit. It's simple really: STR will be a great one to watch.

A classic west coast STS Battle between Stephen Yeoh, Nicole and Jeff Wong, Craig Naylor, and Steve O'Blenes will also make for great viewing. With Stephen Yeoh's newly refreshed motor and loads of testing done, we expect to see a great back and forth amongst the drivers. Expect Warren Leach and Todd Cameron to keep these guys honest as they all duke it out pushing their sub two liter motors to their absolute limits.

Alden Rush, Hank Yamfang, Tim Schultz, and James Fitzpatrick (all San Diego region drivers) will be taking on the 2015 STU National Champion from Cal Club, Jeff Stewart. Jeff is no stranger to Qualcomm and has shown incredible speed and adaptability on all surface types. The local drivers will have definitely have their work cut out for them going into their competition runs.

With a recently rebuilt and upgraded motor and drivetrain, the SM field is going to look to the Peter and Diane Bollenbecker to set the pace in SM. Chad Harvey in a supercharged FR-S is one to watch though as he has shown great potential at local events. Jonathan Fudge's newly rebuilt GC8 makes a comeback with a fresh motor rebuild also and was a last minute sign up. We'll keep an eye on this class and see the level of prep these cars have and keep you posted!

In SMF, it's looking to be a Bret Norgaard/Bryon Goedecker Acura TL lockout, but Tom Armstrong has recently had a motor swap done on his Yaris and has been dialing the car in over the last few events. We will have to see if it's enough to take on the Goliath that is the YAWSPORT Acura TL.

SSM is going to be a Bill Schenker and William Wong Battle while the Carl Miller / Luis Ramos driven Lotus Exige finds its pace amongst the more developed cars. We will have to see if Jacey Cobb in the 2002 Miata LS can make a bid for the win too.

Switching to the Mod/Prepared Classes, EM is going to be a Kiesel spouse lockout, while DP might be a Pittman-Robinson 1-2 Lockout for the class in the Elan. Snare will have to find the time out there to catch up to the Lotus in DP, so we'll see how things look after Day One.

While young Zak may be the favorite in JA, we're looking to see what Bijan Yeoh and Kaila have to say about this. With the sibling rivalry strong between the two, the question is going to be can Kaila and Zak make it a 1-2 finish, or will Bijan take to stage and rocket past one of the biggest names in Solo?

As the work week commences, we know those signed up are begging for the week to already be over so that the racing commences. I leave you with the words any smart announcer would say: "The predictions here are of course unofficial until the audited results get posted!"

Have a great week everyone and I’ll see you in grid Saturday!