LINCOLN, Neb. (September 5, 2014) – Despite the threat of rain and the radar showing a large patch of green directly over the Lincoln Airpark, nothing in heat two on the East Course of Friday’s Tire Rack Solo National Championship was influenced by the weather.
Ron Bauer, of Seatac, Washington, won an absolutely thrilling D Prepared battle that could have gone either of three directions on the final runs. Steve Hoelscher set the mark in the No. 27 Race-Keeper/TerrieHoward.com Toyota MR2 with the fastest class time of the day on his final run, but could only watch as Bauer crossed the line to move 0.271-second in front. Just a few seconds later, the No. 196 K&K Racing/Tight-N-Tidy Racing/Jim's Detail/ChaseRace Mazda Miata of Keith Brown crossed, but didn’t improve his time and remained just 0.009-second behind Hoelscher to complete the podium.
“I feel awesome,” Bauer said. “Steve put it together on his first run today, and really made it work. I run against Keith all the time. We had four of us from the Northwest Region all in the top five at the end of yesterday. I’ve been running really fast at home but the cold temperatures today was not to our benefit. I won back in D Stock in 2004, but it was one of those issues where we had a dry day and the second day was wet. I was able to take the win this year, but it’s always a little tainted when you’re dealing with rain. To basically go out there today and have the wettest of all the runs be my fastest, it just meant a whole lot. And having my best buddies here in DP around to be able to share it with is fantastic.”
The fastest time of the day came, unsurprisingly, from the A Modified class, where Dan Wasdahl, of Massillon, Ohio, took his sixth A Mod National Championship. Wasdahl’s two-day time of 97.725 was 3.635-second ahead of his closest competition.
“My confidence was at quite an ebb this year. I bought a new car this year, and had been working on it to get it to where I wanted to be. I wasn’t quite there, so I switched late in the season back to this. I was hitting cones and doing kind of a messed up jobs. Partially due to bad driving, and partially because this car turns in so early. I came out here early and made 10 runs on the practice course and got used to the car again. Then I over prepared the car, and reduced the number of things I had to think negatively about. I guess that tipped the balance, because the night before the first runs I started feeling the regular mojo.”
Eric Peterson, of Hillsborough, North Carolina, ran the best time on both courses to take a 0.884-second win in E Street behind the wheel of the No. 84 Solo Pro Driving/Atomic Empire Toyota MR2 Spyder. It the first National Championship for Peterson.
“This is fantastic,” Peterson said. “It still hasn’t sunk in yet. Especially after winning the ProSolo, I had never won a national championship. Everyone in E Street is especially nice, and it’s great to run against people you respect.”
Laura Harbour, of Stamping Ground, Kentucky, opened competition with the lead in G Street Ladies and held on through the second day of competition to take her second National Championship. Taylor Towns topped the class on Friday in the No. 115 Storybook Farms Toyota Celica, but fell 0.181-second short at the finish.
More information on the Tire Rack Solo National Championships can be found at SCCA.com/SoloNationals.
2014 Solo National Championship
