Final Event Results
Having crowned class champions under a brilliant moon and with the roar of dragsters echoing off the mountains, the focus shifts towards the Sunday shootouts. Each driver has three additional runs, scored totally independently of Saturday, to compete with everyone else in their heat based on index times. The top eight drivers from each heat advance to the Top Dog Shootout, with the next eight in the Underdog Shootout, with a lucky eight from all heats together in the appropriately named Lucky Dog Shootout.
Justin Barbry drew first blood, but Randy Adkins dispatched him to go against Jason Rucker to decide the winner of heat 1 of the Top Dog Shootout. In heat 2, Robert Carpenter, fresh off the fastest CS time of the whole event in the morning dial in, keeps up his win streak to face off against John Wolf, who took the win over Lee Chhit, Wolf and Carpenter both in CS FR-S's. Heat 3 has the super Rabbit of Geoff Zimmer, having knocked out Kristo Kukk and Gregg Henderson, to face off against Todd Kunze in the lone FWD car in STX, his Integra Type R. Randall Wilcox storms to the front to face off with Jinx Jordan to determine the heat 4 winner. With the final heat runs, the shootout was set with Jason Rucker, John Wolf, Todd Kunze, and Randall Wilcox, all having one run to get it done. With the last run done, Randall Wilcox is your 2016 Thunder Valley Match Tour Top Dog.
Over to the Lucky Dog shootout, Brian Katz in his Z06 Corvette took the win over Rob Leslie and Zumkehr. He faced off against Tyler Detota, having beaten out Oscar Judd and Johan Bradwell. After a quick cooldown and last runs, Brian Katz jumped into the top spot in the Lucky Dog Shootout. The Underdogs kicked off with four more heats of knockouts. Heat 1 saw Steve Rife knocking out Charles Kramper and Chett Wohlgamut, to face up against Eric Stahl, himself bumping Brian Nixon and Karl Schultz. Heath Maxey, driving the Wolf FR-S, lead the first half in heat 2, having bumped out Bowie Gray and Chris Sparks. Cindy Duncan, keeping things super consistent despite some early cone trouble rounds out that match, taking out both Johnny Rose and Clay McCool. Wesley Herron outran Michael Lawson and Joeseph Price, to face Curt Bogemann, who bumped out Phil Bedard after a free first round. Heat 4 had Michael Bright in the not-XP 350Z, beating out Andrew Harrison for the top half of the heat, with Dewitt Payne also having a bye on his first round, and bumping Joey Richardson. After final bracket runs, the four in the one run showdown were Rife, Duncan, Bogemann, and Payne. Throwing it all down on his final run, Dewitt Payne ends up as the Underdog winner!
With the sun setting over Bristol Motor speedway, having hosted 187 drivers and countless runs, the Thunder Valley Match Tour comes to a final close. A huge thanks to the East Tennessee Region and all their volunteers for putting together a phenomenally run event. From here, the Match Tour series moves onto Grenada, MS, for the third installment this year, and then off to Pittsburgh for the final showdown. As always, keep your eyes open to SoloMatters online and on Facebook for the latest event updates and autocross happenings!
