A Tire Rack SCCA® ProSolo® Series weekend in Washington DC? The last time that happened was 11 years ago, and while that might not seem so long ago to some people, think about this: The number one song in the country back then was Pharrell Williams’s Happy, Taylor Swift released 1989 and began a feud with Katy Perry, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, and Stephen Colbert ended the Colbert Report to take over for David Letterman on the Late Show. As a data point for SCCA insiders, Heyward Wagner became part of the fulltime SCCA staff, mostly serving coffee and developing the #ThanksHeywood bumper sticker.
But over the May 16-18, 2025, weekend, ProSolo competition was back at Northwest Stadium, the home of the Washington Commanders (neither of which were called that the last time the event happened). Lee Piccone designed the courses, making great use of an at-times challenging site. The mix of sealed and unsealed (and maybe a little bit loose) asphalt with huge elevation gains and surface camber challenged drivers throughout the weekend.
Mother Nature tried – but couldn’t defeat – the course walks and Welcome Party hosted by the Washington DC Region. Yes, lightning canceled the afternoon practice starts and pushed back the walks and party on Friday afternoon, but all was clear after that.
Gwendolyn Holzer was the SCCA Women on Track Driver Development recipient for the DC weekend, earning coaching from Donour Sizemore.
Let’s get to the action!
Class Action
Some of Saturday’s runs got pushed to Sunday morning following course breakup and repair, but hardly slowed the competition. For example…
How about Kate Fisher ripping off a Ladies Class 3 win in her SSC-prepped Scion FR-S, sneaking ahead of Jordyn Paul by 0.326sec. Or Alex Piehl conquering D Street and some aliens, finishing 0.155sec ahead of DJ Alessandrini, who was 0.464sec clear of Mark Daddio in third.
Matt Jones went coast-to-coast from San Diego to compete in a 14-car F Street class, falling just 0.506sec short of winner Sam Strano. Taylour Wargo put down his phone and took a break from posting on the official Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Facebook page to win Solo Spec Coupe in a Scion FR-S.
Just 0.104sec separated Marcus Pyne from Will Teller in A Street Touring in a battle of ND MX-5s. The Street 3 index had just 0.085sec separating the top two, where Brian Karwan’s SST Toyota Supra was the winner over Josh Luster and his CST-prepared Toyota GR86.
That wasn’t all the action. Class results can be found here:
Challenging Times
The Bonus Challenge was cancelled in DC due to time and course preservation, but the Ladies Challenge and Super Challenge were as intense as expected.
Chris Peterson moved past Stephanie Wells in the opening round of the Ladies Challenge to meet Jennifer Bedell in Round 2. Bedell had topped Peterson in Ladies 2 class competition, but the co-drivers-turned-friendly-rivals flipped the script in the Challenge and Peterson advanced. In the finals, Peterson took down Kendra Mabie and earned the Ladies Challenge victory, along with the SCCA Women on Track “Pay It Forward” award for later in the season. With it, she can award a free entry to a woman from her Region to enter a National Solo event.
DJ Alessandrini stored some podcast topics in his Lizard Brain as he marched through the Super Challenge field in DC. Second in D Street, he and his Toyota GR86 bettered Jeff Jacobs in the opener and topped Andrew Aul in Round 2 to move to the finals against Will Teller. A red light for Teller in the final run locked in victory for Alessandrini.
Up Next – Making Memories in Lincoln
The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Series moves quickly, heading to Lincoln for the always popular Spring Nationals at Lincoln Airpark in Nebraska. The Memorial Day weekend extravaganza is part of a doubleheader with the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour and a showdown of the ProSolo Finale in September.
Photos by Taylour Wargo
