PACKWOOD, Wash. (July 15, 2014) – Kinch Reindl, of Denver, Colorado, emerged as the Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo® Super Challenge winner at Hampton Mills this past weekend. Annie Gill, of Renton, Washington, scored the ‘hometown’ victory by winning the Ladies Challenge bracket.
The Packwood competition site is becoming legendary among the Solo community, both for its covered grid area and location. Nestled in the Cascade Mountains, 144 competitors were greeted by breathtaking scenery with comfortable temperatures throughout the weekend.
Course designer Kevin Dietz added to the event by creating a pair of challenging courses. The courses were very technical, requiring intense concentration from each driver. However, many were up to the task as the number of hit cones was very small.
The Northwest Region SCCA played the role of host perfectly. Friday’s welcome party was enjoyed by all, while the region made sure the rest of the event was well-staffed.
Reindl (Street Touring Compact, RiptideHosting.com/RDP Hosting Honda Civic Si) had already claimed one trophy after winning the class-based portion of the competition. As a result of his margin of victory in that portion, Reindl started the Super Challenge from the 11th seed.
In his opening round, Reindl met, and defeated, Jonathan Clements (Race Tire Index 1, Honda Van Diemen). Reindl’s next pairing was against Maurice Velandia (C Street, Thanks Ben! Subaru BRZ). Again, Reindl was the first driver to the finish line.
In the quarter-final round, Reindl downed Jim Daniels (Race Tire Index 2, Mazda Miata) and earned the right to move forward in the single-elimination bracket competition. Reindl became a semi-final winner after taking a victory over Steve OBlenes (Street Touring X, FRSport.com/OSGiken/Sparco/RSR Subaru BRZ). In the final, Reindl matched up against Cam Withell.
Withell (SP/SM Index B, Carline/MacKay Contracting Mazda Miata) was a newcomer to ProSolo competition, but proved to be a quick study. Starting as the 13th seed, Withell took wins over Wayne Dyck (C Street, Nissan 350Z) and Richard Arienzale (Race Tire Index 1, Petrel Data Systems/VCMC Swift DB1) in the opening two rounds, in that order.
In the quarter-finals, the ProSolo rookie took down Alan Dahl (Bump Class, Ford Fiesta ST) in a head-to-head duel. Withell rolled to the final after he beat Ryan Otis (Street Index RWD, Chevrolet Corvette).
After a smooth run to the final, drama befell Reindl during the final pairing. In order to get to the airport on time to make his flight home, Reindl needed to leave the site at 2:45 p.m. The final runs against Withell finished at 2:47. When Reindl brought his machine a stop following his run, he hopped out and got into his rental car to get to the airport. He didn’t even have a spare minute to relish in his 0.177-second victory over Withell.
The podium was completed by OBlenes after winning the third-place runoff against Otis.
In the Ladies Challenge bracket, Gill (Ladies Class 3, Chase Cam/StranoParts/Drift Office Scion FR-S) started the head-to-head matchups as the No. 2 qualifier after winning her class by the second-widest margin.
Gill got past Brianne Green (Ladies 2, Autosport Labs Mazda MX-5), during the opening round. In the semis, Gill took down Lacey Otis (Ladies Class 2, Chevrolet Corvette).
In the ladies bracket final, Gill lined up against Tasha Mikko (Ladies Class 3, MAPerformance/English Racing/Autosport Labs/CIRO Design Mitsubishi Evo IX). Mikko became a finalist after beating Connie Smith (Ladies Class 2, SPE-ED.com/Smarkamyth Racing Subaru WRX) and Laurie Hyman (Ladies Class 1, Cobb Surgeline/GT-RR Nissan GT-R) in rounds one and two, respectively.
Gill was the last driver standing, after beating Mikko. As a result of the win, Gill also took the Ladies Challenge season-long point lead from Kim Whitener. Gill leads the standings with 109 points, with Whitener five markers behind. Jocelin Huang sits third with 103 points.
Otis completed the podium by beating Hyman in the third-place runoff.
Tamara Kwak (Ladies Class 2, AXAnalyst/AustinSoft.com Nissan 350Z), another ProSolo first-timer, was the Bonus Challenge winner.
The next stop for The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo tour will be at the Wilmington (Ohio) Airpark, July 26-27.That will be the last round preceding the ProSolo Finale, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Information on the Packwood round of The Tire Rack ProSolo Series, including full results, can be found here. More information on the entire Tire Rack SCCA Solo program is available at www.scca.com/Solo.
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2014 PackWood ProSolo
