LINCOLN, Neb. (September 3, 2014) - C Prepared, E Modified, G Prepared, F Street Prepared Ladies and Street Touring Roadster Ladies wrapped the day on the West course in a diverse group that was as entertaining as any.
Michael Maier, of Livermore, Calif., had to work for his seventh CP National Championship after the Mark Madarash, an eight time champion in E Street Prepared, shifted his No. 91 Janco Pontiac Trans-Am to the class for this season.
Maier’s No. 136 Maier/JRI Ford GT350 led the opening day, but Madarash came charging back on the West Course. Madarash set the class’s fastest time of the day on his final run, but Maier still held the slimmest 0.028-second advantage.
“I feel good,” Maier said. “It’s not the way you want to win, you want to smash both days. But a win is a win, and five years down the road, as much as you want to win by a second or two seconds, that’s pretty picky at Nationals. This is a typical Nationals when you’ve got pure, top talent and if you can beat the best of the best, you can go home feeling good. But I tell you, it’s going to be a great next couple of years.”
Steve Bollinger’s sixth career National Championship may have been the most unexpected. Bollinger, of Granger, Ind., took the top spot by 0.607-second in the No. 94 Austin Healey Sprite, but until recently hadn’t even expected to attend.
“It was a good week, moreso than most people are aware of,” Bollinger said. “Until two and a half weeks ago, I wasn’t planning on coming. We’ve had a very distracting year to keep us from being able to participate in events, and we kind of wrote it off that we weren’t going to be able to give it the effort we want to. That changed, and we were scrambling trying to get in practice events. We broke the car, and had to get it fixed, it was just a long sequence of events. But we tried to get it into a position where we could put our best foot forward and play our best game, and I think we did that. I’m just real thrilled, and glad we had some good competition, and that’s what’s important.”
What was expected, however, was Jeff Kiesel’s ninth straight National Championship, and eighth in a row in E Modified. Kiesel, of Poway, Calif., drove his No. 143 Avon Tire/Roger Kraus Racing KFR Turbo Sprite to a 4.882 second lead, with the biggest question just how much he might win by.
“I set a goal today of a 51.7, and I fell short of that with a 52.0,” Kiesel said. “But I’m happy, the car was good, there were no issues there, and I didn’t hit a cone all week so that’s great.”
Not even a cone could stop Laura Campbell, of Paducha, Ky., from taking the STRL National Championship. Campbell’s best run on Wednesday in the No. 98 Honda S2000 included a two-second penalty for hitting a cone, but still left her 4.896-seconds in front for her first National Championship.
“It’s amazing, I can’t believe it,” Campbell said. “This is my second Nationals, and I’m just so thrilled that it happened. It still hasn’t really hit me, but it will later, I’m sure. The car was awesome, it’s Jeff Walker’s car, and he set it up awesome. He and Matthew Braun and Randall Wilcox gave me so much great driving instruction, so I really owe it all to them.”
Lisa Krueger-Burgess, of Midland, Mich., was positive that her 10th National Championship (in a remarkable 15 tries) was out the window when she couldn’t improve on her final run in the No. 80 Mike’s Cat Ranch Volkswagen Rabbit. The run actually came on a re-run, but a cone penalty cost her a best time. With Jamie Yost’s No. RiptideHosting.com/BMW2002.com/PerformanceShock.com BMW 2002 just 0.196-second behind and getting faster, she may have been right. What she didn’t know is that Yost had hit a wall of cones, negating that run and leaving Krueger-Burgess to take the top spot.
“I was nervous, because is good,” Krueger-Burgess said. “She had me by three tenths on the first run.
“It [the re-run] was kind of a gift, but it was kind of a nightmare because I hit the cone. At that point, I didn’t know who was ahead of me and who wasn’t. I thought, ok, that was pretty stupid. But, it turned out all right. I didn’t know she had hit the wall, my husband never tells me any times. I went out running because I thought I had to go for it, and when I hit the cone, I thought I was done.”
The Tire Rack Solo Nationals continues through Friday. More information can be found at SCCA.com/SoloNationals.
2014 Solo National Championship
