PACKWOOD, Wash. (Aug. 27, 2008) In the final Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo regular season event of 2008, Mitch Lewis, of Kennewick, Wash., stormed through a tough Hawk Super Challenge field to claim his first-ever Challenge win. After earning his very first class win, driving the Tri-Cities Battery Mazda MX-5 to the C Stock win by 0.140-second, Lewis found himself the 11th qualifier for the Hawk Super Challenge. Cruising through the brackets, Lewis would eventually face Street Touring® Ultra winner Max Hayter, of Trabuco Canyon, Calif., and his Fordahl Motorsports Subaru WRX STi. Even after taking the win and tasting the champagne, it took awhile for Lewis first ProSolo win to sink in, but by the end of the day, his fellow competitors could find him packing up his car, pondering what he would do with all the tires he just won.Andy Hollis, of Austin, Texas, and Kevin McCormick, of Lincoln, Calif., faced off once again for the Honda Tuner Challenge and Honda Hot Shoe Award. After beating McCormick to the Street Touring S class win by a scant 0.072-second, Hollis Soulspeed/ART/GRM/PowerCurveDyno Honda Civic Si made it one round farther than McCormick in the Hawk Super Challenge, earning Hollis the Honda Tuner Challenge award. In the showdown for the Honda Hot Shoe award, however, McCormicks Kumho/Americas Tires/Bilstein/HAP Honda Civic Si was victorious. Following a third-place finish in Ladies Class 1 driving a Zzyzx Motorsports Fordahl Motorsports Subaru WRX STi, Annie Bauer, of Newport Beach, Calif., knocked off L1 winner Amy Coleman, from Renton, Wash., and her Tight-n-Tidy Racing/Surgeline Subaru WRX to take the Ladies Challenge win. It was Bauers second Ladies Challenge win of the season.Lewis wasnt the only driver notching his first Challenge win at Packwood; competing in ProSolo since its inception in 1982, Charlie Davis finally made it to the winners circle by topping the ChaseCam Bonus Challenge. Davis, from Burlingame, Calif., piloted an STS Motorsport Techniques/Rota Wheels Acura Integra to the top spot after beating L1 competitor Kimm Jensen, of Woodinville, Wash., and her Honda Civic Si.Mother Nature cooperated throughout the weekend, and superb planning by event co-chairs Kristi and Keith Brown helped the event operate seamlessly, aided by the largest contingent of Region workers in recent memory on hand for the Challenge competitions. The flowing Jim Daniels-designed course at Hampton Mills was well-received by competitors, even if the stop box was difficult to locate for some.In class competition, win margins greater than one second were hard to come by, the most notable exception being Don Nimis 1.404-second Street Modified win over Courtenay Whynot. The teammates from British Columbia co-drove a PDM Racing Nissan 240SX.Otherwise, finishes more like Ryan Eames 0.038-second win over Kevin Dietz in D Stock were more common on the weekend. The order could have just as easily gone the other way if Dietz, of Federal Way, Wash., hadnt coned six runs in his MaxQData/Evolution Schools Chevrolet Cobalt SS, which made it difficult to top Eames, of Boise, Idaho, and his consistent runs behind the wheel of a Volkswagen R32.Heading into the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Finale, Sept. 12 13, at Heartland Park Topeka, Hollis currently leads the Hawk Super Challenge points with 91 over A Stock competitor Greg Hahn (80 points) and STX competitor Billy Brooks (75 points). As expected, Hollis and McCormick lead the way in the Honda Tuner Challenge points (114 to 102). Hahn is third, with 85 points.Diane Johnson leads Annie Bauer in the Ladies Challenge points (114 to 107). The pair are followed by Tara Johns with 104 points.For full results from the Packwood ProSolo and information on the upcoming ProSolo Finale, click here.
