The Tire Rack ProSolo Finale wants to know, have you ever seen the rain? They will assure you, you’ve never seen rain like this.
From the quickest machines through Paul Durr’s Kart Modified runs, the rain piled up all day Saturday on the opening day at the Lincoln airpark. Those lucky enough to get a couple of runs before it began tended to top the charts in a way that is often the luck of the draw in autocross – the conditions giveth and the conditions taketh away.
Of course, the massive amounts of rain meant the entire season was thunderstruck - the finale was also the final chance to earn points in the season long competition for classes as well as the Johnson Clarke-Johnson Cup (for open competition) and the Fletcher Cup (for Ladies classes).
At the end of the day, Billy Davis had the best season and did everything possible to secure the JCJ Cup for the first time. Kim Whitener earned a record eighth Fletcher Cup, and had to march all the way to an event win to pull it off.
Both titles were well earned and well deserved; as were each of the class winners. All class winners and full standings can be found here.
Lincoln Class Competition
Between the rain and a (most definitely related) surface repair on Sunday morning, tne drivers that made the most of their opportunities were the ones at the top of the charts.
Francois Langelier and Charles Krampert both fit that bill – unfortunately for Krampert, they both did it in B Street. The two Supra drivers essentially matched times, but at the end Langelier was 0.036-second quicker to take the class win.
D Street was a similar situation, with Alex Piehl trying to play “Man in Black” to Mark Daddio’s alien status. At the end of the runs, it was Daddio blasting off to a win in his Subaru BRZ, with Piehl’s Toyota GR86 just 0.034-second behind.
Daniel McCelvey entered the weekend as the closest to Davis in the season long JCJ Cup points, but his A Street Touring battle was even closer. In that class, Vivek Goel topped the charts by just 0.009 over McCelvey and 0.099 over Will Teller in third.
Challenges At Lincoln
In this case, we don’t mean the challenge behind the wheel with a full field of top level drivers – we mean the actual end of weekend bracket challenges that decided the winners.
We mentioned Whitener’s victory already, which helped her to the Fletcher Cup. She needed every bit of that win, including advancing over Laney Blume in the semi-finals in a match-up that ultimately clinched her point lead. In the finals, she went head-to-head with nearest rival (in points, not life!) Nicole Wong. With her victory over Wong, she also clinched the Cup by 20 points, with Wong second and Blume third – just as they ran on track.
In the Super Challenge, the focus changed to the event win once the top contenders for the JCJ Cup finished outside the top eight in qualifying. Instead, Matt Morhardt marched his way through a stout field, taking down Trevor Renson, Duston Grubbs, and finally Andrew Pallotta in the final to give the SSC-prepped machine victory and get the week of Lincoln underway.
Full ProSolo class and challenge results are here.
Shootout Invitational
Don’t forget, in addition to the ProSolo was the Tire Rack SCCA Lincoln Shootout invitational. In the same vein as the ProSolo, class runs help set the grid for a final shootout – this time with the focus on a few select classes.
Jonathan Griffith took home the Xtreme Street Shootout victory in Lincoln; top prizes also went to David Hedderick (Spec), Dennis Sparks (Street Touring), Emily Skoglund (Ladies), and Gregory Anthony (Race/Street).
The CAM Shootout took three rounds to decide a winner, but in the end it was Brandon Nelson in a CAM-C Ford Mustang that took the top spot, with Ryan Mathews in a CAM-S Corvette sitting second.
Full Shootout Results are here.
Still a Week To Go
Officially, the Monday holiday is a quiet day in Lincoln as more arrive ready for Tuesday/Wednesday runs at Lincoln for Tire Rack Solo Nationals. If you’re not there (and why not?), you can follow along at home by clicking here – all week – with audio and timing.
