This is it folks, the officially unofficial article we’ve all been waiting for: The TUNE IN!

San Diego’s Match Tour started off as a rather slow start registration wise, but as time drew closer to registration cutoff, classes started to fill up and some very interesting names started showing up to the list. (Updated 2/26 at 4:40PM PST).

A-Street (3 entrants)

It’s a battle of horsepower here with three signed up - Eric Trigg has shown great promise in his ‘03 Z06 at a local event paxing quite highly, but the question is will be enough to match the sheer grunt of Tim Schultz’s ‘17 1LE or Matt Jones’ 2010 Grand Sport (Stranoparts). Jury is out, here and the class remains to be an unknown.

B-Street (9 entrants)

This is posing to be an interesting mix. We see that Dana Lucas is signed up in his MSR Miata and Dave Devendof in his AP2 Honda S2000s - both are avid drivers in San Diego Region and have quite a bit of experience in the West Lot. Steve Fisher (borrowing his son’s car), Kaustav Acharya, and Tyson Williams are taking on these NA Roadsters in their 305hp STI’s. Based on some research we have some inside knowledge that Fisher will be going for the taller gearing help with a 255/40/18 Bridgestone, while Acharya is going to try and capitalize on the outright grip on some 265/35/18 Bridgestone takeoffs. We also see multi-time national champion Barbara Leroy Boehme has signed up to take on the field in her C5 Corvette on Bridgestones. Tony Rodriguez from San Jose Region is one to also watch out for in his AP2 S2000. Can the Boost Buggies hold their own against the more nimble roadsters and the Boehme’s Corvette? Or will it be Team S2000s leading the way with the STI’s in tow? Stick around folks, this battle is gonna be a good one.

C-Street (10 entrants)

C-Street is showing to be ten entrants deep and if you’ve driven in San Diego or in the sister region of Cal Club these names will seem familiar.

While the ND has definitely shown its advantages across a variety of courses across board, the anticipated higher speeds might cause cause the new roadster to run into gearing issues, which the NC drivers might be able to take advantage of. There are a few drivers that jump out as being top of field: Hayter, Ordonez, and Lewis, Frecentese with Govindaraj, Abrahim, and Tarnoff being the Wild Cards. CS is going to be a hot one to watch with a ton of talent.

D-Street (4 entrants)

Frankly we’re surprised we haven’t seen more Twins (FRS/BRZ) with the new rule adjustments, so we’ll see Ricardo Quinonez take on the two driver Camaro with Mark Scroggs and Des Toups behind the wheel.

Those who have been following the California banter have been hotly wanting to see Cal Club’s 2016 CAM Winner Brett Madsen take on Two-time Red Jacket Winner Scroggs in a classic Camaro-Mustang rivalry, but sadly Madsen’s Ecoboost won’t be ready with the fancy shocks from JRi, but they should be in for the Fontana Pro Solo. We see Todd Cameron joining the foray in a ‘16 Ecoboost so we hope to see a nice back and forth. We’ll also see how Ricardo fares against Mark, so this might be Scroggs-Toups 1-2 Lockout.

E-Street (10 entrants)

Local boys Michael Heinitz and Mark Wolfe seem high on the radar as names that stand out here, but we can’t forget David Barrish and Edward Tsui either. We’ll have to see how ES plays out here, but it’s too early to call as of yet.

F-Street (4 entrants)

Four signed up here (DeSantis/Hawrylkiw) a 2013 Boss Mustang and Jason Bucki/Taylor Davis in a E92 M3), so it’s ideally going to be a back and forth in an ideal battle between the four drivers. The Mustang’s have the torque, but the E92 M3 might have the overall advantage on the Q’s challenging surface as a car that negotiates bumpy and loose surfaces better yields a much better lap time.

G-Street (7 Entrants)

It’s Focus ST vs GTI with 7 very talented drivers going against each other for the prize. This is going to be an incredible battle to watch. The field is stacked with some pretty impressive talent:

• Michael Parker (2016 Cal Club GS Champion in his 2012 GTI)
• Michael Parker (2016 Cal Club GS Champion in his 2012 GTI) Hank
• Hank Yamfang (2016 San Diego Region GS Champion in a codriven MKVII GTI)
• Chris Bomberger (up and coming GS driver in San Diego Region)
• Kristen Acharya (2015 DSL SCCA National Champion)
• Derek Romero (2016 AZ Solo GS Ace)
• Wiggy Greacen (Veteran driver in the 2014/15 National Championship GS Winning Car previously owned by Mark Scroggs).

This is going to be a tough one to call honestly, but expect to do see the battle going on to very last runs going in the afternoon.

Street-Touring Sport (4 Entrants)

Young Cameron has shown promise in the recently built 1990 Miata and PAXed well enough locally, but the issue with Gary has been clean runs. If he can keep it tidy, STS will be a good battle for the young gun - Peter Loney’s consistency might see him pull ahead of Cameron this year in this class, but don’t count out Warren Leach and Craig Naylor.

Street Touring Xtreme (16 entrants)

STX has become one of the toughest classes in Solo and in the Match Tour we see some pretty talented names here - Both Wongs, Tescon, O’Blenes, Lugod (this time in Chang’s 2016 Twin). We expect a battle to ensue here. Tescon can be counted on as a serious candidate as one to possibly shake things up, but all eyes on both Wongs, Lugod, Punch, and O’Blenes . Local boys Jadhav and Smith have also been quiety building their cars in anticipation to this event, so we may see a bit of a shakeup here it being entirely a Spec FRS/BRZ class, but we do see a Focus ST and a couple of RX8’s to add some variety to the class. What we know is that STX is a seriously fast class, and based on this field, it’s going to be a hell of a show to watch!

Street Touring Ultra (2 entrants)

This is going to be a battle of Au-Yueng’s Evo vs a Mazdaspeed Miata (yeah that’s not a misprint). Given this is going to be a power course, I’m going to go team Evo here, but Steve’s been known to work all kinds of magic in his Miata. We’ll see what happens here.

Street Touring Roadster (8 entrants)

Normally dominated by AP2 S2000s and NC Miata’s, recent rule changes threw the E36 M3 into STR, which has proved to be interesting. Local boy Alden Rush has been taking local PAX by storm in his garage built and beautifully wrapped M3. On fresh Bridestones and on the hunt to prove that the old gal’s still got it, we expect to see a pretty impressive performance by the SDSU grad, but don’t expect Balducci and Rios to make it easy. Both are seasoned NC drivers and are no stranger to the Q’s challenging surface. The sure here though bet would be Multi Time National Champ James Yom with Jason Munchoff not being far behind, but we’ll see how this class play out.

Street Touring Roadster Ladies (2 entrants)

Both Catherine Tran and Shauna Rios are no strangers to a national level driving format, but Catherine seems to be helping test the Cusco ND Miata and Shauna’s in the tried and tested NC Miata that she and hubby dearest Sebastian been driving for years. Both ladies are very talented so it may go either way here.

A Street Prepared (2 entrants)

It’s a battle of the Boost Buggies with Bailey Ipock in a ‘07 WRX wagon, and Ric Senior in a ‘08 STI Hatch. Senior has the experience to make his car work on the tough surface and is better prepared for this class, so Senior is my pick for the win here.

B Street Prepared (5 entrants)

2016 BSP National Champion Anthony Porta will have to pedal hard with professional driver Tony Rivera and Katy Nichols potentially throwing a heavyweight 350z with huge Hoosiers onto the podium. Eiman Rejali’s 2017 Golf R may have the grip, but lacks the R-comps needed to shake things up in class, and Lauren has been picking up quite a lot of speed in the Turbo Miata so we wouldn’t count her out either. It is Qualcomm: strange things happen here!

C Street Prepared (5 entrants)

George Pollock usually leads the way in CSP in San Diego, so we expect to see him putting up a fight and defending his local jacket against the visitors from Arizona. We see that a 2007 Miata (NC) is signed up being piloted by Don Sattler and Mitzi Burrow. We hardly see any NC’s in anything more than STR form, so if the car is as dialed in as it is to be expected, Polluck will have have to pedal hard to overcome the power barrier and agility of the newer chassis.

Street Modified (7 entries)

Bollenbecker’s fully class specced STI (aptly named BEASTI) will be one to watch for with Fudge and the FRSport Turbo FRS piloted by DeShon and Stuart not far behind. Either Subaru launch? You’re in for a treat. Don’t forget the Greg McCance who keeps pace while putting on a smoke show (no that’s not just from the meat smoker coming from paddock) in his in the white Bug Eye WRX.

Street Modified Ladies (3 entrants)

Nursing a shoulder surgery back to health, hasn’t stopped Diane Bollenbecker from keeping pace with hubby dearest Peter, so we expect Diane to set the pace here. In a similar chassis (albeit with still daily driver ability), Sarah Leach and Lacie Ewing will be codriving Ewing’s Hawkeye STI with a Paul Walker Skyline Tribute vinyl done by Modern Image. It’s a case of David vs. Goliath vs the Bollenbecker BEAST(i), but we’ve seen both Leach and Ewing pick up the pace here. If the pair can get on a set of R-comps, the battle will become very interesting!

Super Street Modified (3 entries)

While Ramos’s ‘06 Exige works well when it’s running, electrical gremlins have kept the car from working optimally. Recently sorted, we can expect to see a great competition between Ramos and codriver Carl Miller. Jacey Cobb coming all the way from Goose Creek, SC isn’t one to be counted out either. Too early to call here. We’ll have to just wait and see.

Street Modified FWD (5 entries)

Edwin Liu joins the R-comp FWD fest with his forced induced 97 SI. Liu’s impressive driving technique and adaptability will prove to be a help as he’ll go up against the West Coast SMF Ace - Brett Norgaard and the Acura TL (aka the “Race Whip”) and Adrian Cardenas in Lugod’s Focus ST on Hoosiers. Top three you ask? Norgaard, Cardenas, Liu. Neil Alexander is a very likely *wild card* as a potential to shake things up.

X Prepared (5 entries)

So this is interesting because this class is filled with cars that are not actually X Prepared. Expect Brian Peters and John Hogan to lead the way in 2011 Grabber Blue Mustang GT by a big margin with third spot being fought out by Armstrong and Goen.

D Prepared (2 entrants)

Dynamic Duo codrivers Pittman and Robinson have been codriving for roughly about three years now and Darlene (Pittman) has been picking up a ton of speed in the Robinson 67 Elan. Expect a fun back and forth between the two.

F Prepared (3 Entrants)

Kowalski’s decked out Miata builds are very exciting to drive and go up against, but a host of mechanical failures have plagued the new FP 2000 Miata build. Even when running, it will be hard to catch the sheer speed of the Allegoren/Beier E30.

C Modified (5 entrants)

It’s Van Dieman vs Mondiale FF in CM, and we expect to see Mary and Eric Clements leading the way with Quinn/Swindle not far behind. Mervich has been very consistent and can be guaranteed to have a huge smile on his face - so don’t count out the ever happy CM driver either. This will be a good battle to watch!

Kart Modified (2 entries)

Battle of the Tony Karts, but Carl Lewis can be expected to pull slightly ahead in front of Michael Korody.

Don’t Miss this Event!

PHEW. That was a lot to cover. Here’re the only two things I do know going into this event: It’s going to be fast course and there will be plenty of excitement in plenty of classes. Don’t miss it. I’ll be covering the event and also heading my way to the announce booth to call the action on March 4th and 5th!

Save

Save