’23 Beeville ProSolo Fast Notes

The 2023 Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Series got underway on Feb. 24-26 with its first point series event of the season at Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, TX, with 134 drivers recording runs in the competition. It was a beauty, with overcast conditions in the mid 70s on Saturday, and breezy but in the low 80s on Sunday.

As always, Houston Region’s experience and the grippy concrete and asphalt surface of Chase Field meant ample room to create asymmetrical, open, fast, and flowing ProSolo courses.

Michelle Garcia and Collins Brant got their first taste of ProSolo competition at the event with help from the Howard Duncan ProSolo Greenlight Fund. Recipients of this Fund receive free entry to their first ProSolo event, courtesy of the SCCA Foundation. Garcia jumped into the deep end through a very competitive D Street class, while Brant learned how to run with the tree in his Subaru WRX in Race Tire Index 2.

Donations made to the SCCA Foundation can be earmarked for the Greenlight Fund here.

A Super Update to the Super Challenge

This year’s South Texas ProSolo marked the debut of a new Super Challenge format, with the 32 qualifiers to the Super Challenge divided into two elimination groups of 16 each. From there, the top four in each heat advanced to the traditional bracket competition to decide the winner and the points. The resulting format increased the excitement and the pace of the Super Challenge.

"The new Super Challenge format takes ProSolo excitement to a new level,” said Dennis Sparks, who finished fifth in the Bump class, qualifying him for the Super Challenge. “Everyone, including those watching, experience non-stop action as the bar to qualify for the next round rises with each car to finish. SCCA has hit it out of the park with this new format.”

Before the Super Challenge could happen, however, competitors needed to compete in their individual classes.

Class Competition

The D Street class appears to have settled into a battle for supremacy, with the Hyundai Elantra N and the GR86/BRZ combo duking it out. At the end, Mark Scroggs’ Elantra N topped the field on his last run, taking the 0.291-second class win over a string of Toyota GR86 machines, led by Alex Piehl.

The Street Touring Roadster class should consider Vivek Goel’s opening salvo not a warning shot, but a signal that he means business in 2023. Already a contender when his name is on the entry list, his brand-new Mazda MX-5 build was a 0.202-second class winner out of the box over Daniel McCelvey, without a public hint of any teething issues.

Steve Eberlein won’t forget Beeville, as he drove his CSP Mazda Miata to his first-ever ProSolo win at Beeville in the Street 1 index. Eberlein was scored 0.317-second ahead of Ryan Unks in class competition.

Challenge Results

Bonus Challenge: The Bonus Challenge is set up to extend the event for a select few that may have just missed out on the top competition. Jackie Mutschler took advantage of that at Beeville, transforming her seventh-place finish in Ladies Class 2 into a Bonus Challenge win. It was an all-ladies class final, too, as Mutschler took the final run over Donna Marx in a tight battle.

Ladies Challenge: Name any competition, literally anywhere in the world, and if Jordan Towns is there then she’s coming to win. She followed through in the season opener at Beeville, taking the Ladies Challenge win in a C Street Mazda MX-5 run in Ladies Class 2.

Super Challenge: The new format of the Super Challenge seems to fit Tim Mason. Mason finished sixth of six in the Street 3 index, which only proved to be an indicator of how strong the competition was. After making his way through the elimination rounds, Mason and his GT350 Mustang found themselves locked in the final against Jeff Wong. In a dazzling finish by the slimmest of margins, Mason clinched victory by less than a tenth.

Amazingly, this was Mason’s first autocross victory. Not just in a ProSolo Super Challenge, but in anything. Not a Tire Rack National Tour event, not even a Regional event – Mason pulled out a memorable victory. The Mazza sparkling wine spray on the podium will undoubtedly be a lifetime memory for Mason.

Next up for the 2023 Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Series is March 24-26 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Photo by Kelsey Karanges