Big City Backdrop for Tire Rack SCCA New Jersey ProSolo

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 23, 2017) – Competitors were welcomed to East Rutherford, New Jersey with temperatures in the low 90s. As the 2017 Tire Rack SCCA New Jersey ProSolo® warmed up, temperatures fell.  Over 250 drivers took to the mirrored courses in the parking lots of MetLife Stadium.

Launching Sunday afternoon’s challenge rounds, Chris Peterson claimed Ladies Challenge Top Qualifier honors in the Peterson E Street Toyota MR2 Spyder. She defeated Sara Odioso in the first round, who coned trying to catch Peterson in the opening round. Peterson was knocked out by Michelle Knoll in an S Touring Roadster Honda S2000 in the round of four. Tamra Hunt, in a D Street Prepared Mazda RX-8, first squared off against Elisabeth Flannagan, in a H Street Honda Civic Si, winning against her, then Shelly Monfort, in a D Street Prepared BMW 330ci, and finally facing off against Michelle Knoll in the final to take the win in the Ladies Challenge.

The Bonus Challenge ended with Slavik Belmas, in a D Street Scion FRS, versus Adnan Kaiser, in a B Street Chevrolet Corvette, in the final. With Belmas breaking out in the prior round, he found even more pace to take down Kaiser for the win.

Billy Davis, after missing out on the C Street Prepared class win by a mere .023-second, took down Julian Garfield (CS), Alex Meramo (DS), Kevin Donovan (STS), James Tatad (STX), and Marcus Pyne (STX) on his path to victory. The Super Challenge wasn’t without extraneous highlights otherwise, with Nate Young (STR) and Mark Daddio (AS) both getting DNFs on their second runs of the first round. Since Daddio had DNFed earlier on the course than Young, Young took the round win.

In Ladies class competition, it was Tamra Hunt coming away with the win in L1 by a margin of over a second, having led all weekend.  A similar story with Chris Peterson in L2, taking the lead by 2.370-seconds. Michelle Knoll led L3 early on Saturday morning, but Jen Fox found time in the afternoon, taking the lead heading into Sunday in an STX Subaru BRZ. Both improved on Sunday morning, resulting in a .014-second margin of victory, with Fox taking the win. Both advanced to the Ladies Challenge.

Super Street gave a close battle for the trophies, ending with Pat Salerno taking the win in a Porsche 911 GT3. Just .122-second behind was co-driver Brian Conners. Perry Aidelbaum was just .155-second back in third in a Porsche 911 GT4. Joshua Lipman rounded out the trophies in fourth in another 911 GT3.

C Street was a Garfield show with son Julian and father Brian taking first and second respectively in their Mazda MX-5, with just .176-second separating the two. Mark Shrivastava claimed the final trophy position in third in his Mazda MX-5.

SSR displayed a battle for the ages, with James Yom coming out from the West Coast to hop into Josh Lipman’s Porsche 911 GT3 along with G.J. Dixon. Grant Reeve threw his hat into the ring with his Chevrolet Corvette Z06.  Josh Luster and Mark Labbancz also joined the fun in a Corvette. Luster proved all weekend he had the raw times to get it done, but couldn’t clean up that right side, bumping him out of the trophies. Yom struggled similarly, but ended up with a pair of clean right side runs on Sunday, moving him up to third. Reeve ended up second to Dixon by a margin of .815-second. Jason Burns claimed the fourth and final trophy position with improvements on both sides on Sunday in his Corvette.

Street Touring Roadster was by far the largest class of the weekend with 31 competitors. It featured a battle all weekend between Brian Karwan, in a Mazda MX-5, and Nate Young, in a Honda S2000, who found a lot of speed this weekend after struggling at the Tire Rack Pitt Race Match Tour. Karwan sat on times from Saturday morning all weekend, with three red lights between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Young coned away good runs Saturday afternoon, but was able to find enough time on one side Sunday morning to stay ahead of Shane Chinonn-Rhoden by just .025-second.

DSP showcased several long-time, top-tier autocrossers in the 14-driver class. Sam Strano jumped into John Vitamvas’ BMW 330Ci to claim the victory by .198-second after fixing a differential and axle on Saturday. Eric Campbell claimed a close second in another 200Ci. Vitamvas finished just .016-second back from Campbell with the fastest left side time of the weekend in DSP.

The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo season heads to the Concrete Beach next weekend, May 26-27, for the Tire Rack Spring Nationals ProSolo in Lincoln, Nebraska.

 

Words by Ryan Davies
Photo by Perry Aidelbaum