For the first time this season, heat became a concern at a Tire Rack ProSolo® as record temperatures pushed 100 degrees in Lincoln, Nebraska. Drivers did their best to manage not only their driving, but the temperatures of themselves, their cars and their tires.
The Solo Spec Coupe class has been causing a stir all season and Lincoln was no different. Teddie Alexandrova took an early lead in L4 over Jennifer Bedell. While Bedell continued to find time through the event, it wasn’t enough to overcome Alexandrova who took the win by 0.093 second. She then went on to climb the Ladies Challenge ladder and claim the win, her first, over Andie Albin from L1. On the Open Class side, red lights and cones plagued many of the leaders, leaving the final results far from settled until the dust settled. After Friday, James Yom had a comfortable lead, but in a spec class, you can’t take anything for granted. Chris Hammond found time on both sides in his final runs, but it wasn’t quite enough, and he settled for second, 0.244 second back from Yom. Chris Levitz found time on one run, finishing in third, 0.081 second back from Hammond. Stephen Rife claimed the fourth and final trophy.
John Hunter is back in a Mazda Miata this season with a C Street ND MX-5. Hunter took an early lead in C Street, holding on until the bitter end when Tyler Kvetko cleaned up a slew of dirty left-side runs to take the lead by 0.109 second. Hunter held onto the second position despite standing on his first runs on Friday morning. Dave Ogburn III and Kenneth Baker took home the remaining trophies in third and fourth respectively.
In the largest class of the weekend, Street Touring Roadster drew 22 drivers to the concrete beach. Brian Karwan led through the first two sessions, but it was Daniel McCelvey who cleaned up his string of dirty left side runs and found time on the right in his last pair of runs to take the win by 0.266 second. Karwan stood on runs from the first session in second. David Marcus, Mark Shrivastava, Ricky Crow, Marcus Pyne and Jacob Ronald claimed the remaining trophies. The difference between Marcus and Shrivastava in third and fourth respectively was just 0.001 second!
While Classic American Muscle cars are divided into Traditional, Contemporary and Sport at most events, at ProSolos, they run together. This weekend, the battle was between John Laughlin in a 2015 Ford Mustang, Joey Green in a 1965 Shelby Cobra and Mike “Junior” Johnson in a 2018 Chevrolet Corvette. Green took the early lead but struggled with DNFs and sound limits. Laughlin found the time he needed in the second session and didn’t look back, taking the win by 0.866 second over Green. Johnson slotted into third, 0.430 second back.
The Modified cars came out in force for the weekend with 16 entries in Race Index 1. Of those, 10 drivers represented F Modified. After Friday morning, Zak Keisel led narrowly in his F Modified Raptor over his father, Jeff Kiesel, in his E Modifed Sprite. In the afternoon, Jason Hobbs found a load of time to jump into the lead, but Zak came right back to lead into day two. The competitors came back swinging on Saturday morning, While Zak couldn’t improve on his afternoon times, Hobbs found a few thousandths, small potatoes with the half-second lead Zak held. The younger Kiesel claimed the win by 0.435 over Hobbs. The elder Kiesel was another 0.106 back in third. Matt Murphy and Dan Wheeler slotted into fourth and fifth respectively.
The Tire Rack ProSolo season continues this weekend in Mineral Wells, Texas.
Full results from the 2018 Tire Rack Lincoln ProSolo can be found here.
Challenge winners:
Super Challenge: Kyle Herbst, STX
Ladies Challenge: Teddie Alexandrova, L4
Bonus Challenge: Kerry Emmert, BS
