TOPEKA, Kan. (August 9, 2017) – The last Tire Rack ProSolo® on the schedule before next month’s Finale has come to an end in Oscoda, Michigan. The Detroit Region hosted the event in its usual fine fashion by providing an absolutely killer Friday night Welcome Party sponsored by GearHeadHomes.com. Cooked on site were fried fish, fried pickles and hush puppies, along with other fixins. For old-times, this resurrected a long-time tradition. But for many drivers, this was something new as ProSolo had not visited Oscoda in six years.
Entries for this event were 60 percent higher than any previous Oscoda ProSolo due to fantastic support from Great Lakes Division members. Dave Feighner had the tall task of making two symmetrical courses on the concrete pad, but managed to nail the design and his course was met with very positive feedback all weekend. Weather cooperated until Challenge rounds as competitors saw dry runs in every heat for competition runs Saturday and Sunday.
It was anticipated that competition would be tight in C Street, but unexpected was the entire field to all be within a second of each other, with Mark Shrivastava taking the win and David Alessandrini settling for second place by .059 second after cone trouble. Brian Garfield came in just .016 second behind in third, with Julian Garfield taking the fourth and final trophy spot in the all ND Mazda Miata class.
B Street saw Rachel Baker taking the win in her Porsche Cayman S by 0.166 second over Ken Houseal in second. It was almost a half-second back to Yury Kholondyrev in third, and Jim Perrin slotted into fourth as four very different cars took trophy spots in the 12-driver class.
In Super Street R it was Josh Luster coming up victorious by 0.817 second over Matthew Braun. Tony Savini was third and Mark Labbancz fourth. Street Touring Ultra had a flare for the dramatic as Norman Rawls took the win on his final run, knocking Wojtek Hajduczek back to second. David Colletti in third rounded out the top three spots in STU, which were all separated by less than a tenth.
However, the real drama was in D Street Prepared as Sam Strano, in the Vitamvas E46 3 Series BMW, took the win over Jeff Hurt’s Mazda RX-8 on the final run by just 0.001 second. John Vitamvas took the final trophy spot in third, roughly a quarter second behind. Also coming down to final runs was Lee Piccione taking the win over co-driver Michael Snyder in B Street Prepared.
All the way from Fort Worth, Texas, it was David Whitener taking the win in Street Touring Sport, 0.884 second over Todd Kunze. Barely missing the runner-up position, Gerry Terranova was 0.006 second back in third, and Kevin Donavan claimed the final trophy spot. David’s wife, Kim, was also victorious in Ladies Class 1 over Shelly Monfort in second, Tamra Hunt in third, Heather Mann-Everett in fourth, and Stephanie Reeve in fifth in the 14-driver class.
In Ladies Class 2, it was Julie Heaton taking the win over Laura Harbour, with Denise Cashmore rounding out the final trophy spot in third place. However, it would be Harbour getting redemption in the wet conditions, moving past Julie Heaton and Tamara Hunt to win the Ladies Challenge. Hunt finished second and Whitener won the third-place runoff against Heaton.
The Bonus Challenge saw Randall Tardif climb through the ranks in his G Street Ford Focus with an eventual win over Michael Jeffries from C Street.
The Super Challenge saw the all-wheel drive cars of David Colletti and Ken Houseal meet head to head in the finals with some help from wet conditions. The deficit was less than a hundredth of a second after the first run. But after the final run, it was Houseal crowned as the Super Challenge Winner.
The final stop on the Tire Rack ProSolo Tour is the Finale in Lincoln, Nebraska September 1-3.
Story by Sean Grogan
Photo by Andrew Wong
