TOPEKA, Kan. (Sept. 12, 2008) More than three inches of rain fell on the Heartland Park Topeka asphalt from midnight leading up to the start of Fridays Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo Finale opening day, but despite the weather challenges, competition is set to get underway.Friday will be full of initial class competition, with 28 individual season-long class competitions at stake. To capture a Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Championship, a driver counts his or her best two finishes out of their first three events, with a maximum of 20 points available at each event. This weeks finale offers a 20 percent increase in points, and all drivers may count the finale to their three-race year-end total.Drivers will have a total of 12 runs split equally on the mirror-image courses Friday and Saturday morning. A drivers best time on each course will be added together with the total time serving as the drivers score, the fastest time being the winner of the event.The top 32 drivers are then seeded in challenges, with the indexed Hawk Super Challenge determining the overall event winner and scoring points toward the overall season-long championship. In addition to the Hawk Super Challenge, the Ladies classes merge into the Ladies Challenge. Honda competitors are eligible for the Honda Tuner Challenge and finally, drivers not eligible for the Hawk Super Challenge may compete in the ChaseCam Bonus Challenge. All challenges except the Bonus Challenge have year-long point championships. Three drivers are currently in a healthy position to take the Hawk Super Challenge Championship. Andy Hollis, of Austin, Texas, currently leads the Hawk Super Challenge points in his Honda Civic Si. Greg Hahn, of Saint Augustine, Fla., is nine points behind Hollis and drives a Honda S2000 CR. In third is Billy Brooks, of Park City, Utah, in a Subaru Impreza. James Wilson, of Houston, Texas, could be the spoiler, however, after buying a seasoned Ford Escort GT late in the season and winning at Wendover, Utah. Wilson proved that high-dollar equipment is not necessary to achieve success in the finale, which uses dial-in times to balance cars from different classes.Last years ProSolo Finale winner, Mike Johnson, of Glen Allen, Va., went on to be selected for SPEED Channels reality show competition Setup, which he nearly won, before a controversial call by officials hampered his performance in the final race of the season. Johnsons wife, Diane Johnson, of Glen Allen, Va., leads a half dozen women who have a solid chance to take the Ladies Challenge title for 2008, including Annie Bauer, Tara Johns, Meredith Brown, Carrie Snyder and Karen Kraus.Hollis and Hahn, as well as Kevin McCormick, of Lincoln, Calif., are the leaders heading into the finale of the Honda Tuner Challenge, which awards the top Honda of each event.Information about the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Finale, Sept. 12-13 at Heartland Park Topeka, including entry lists and results, is available at www.scca.com/solo.
