Compared to the DC, Toledo, and Wilmington ProSolos, the Champ Tour at Wilmington was a slow seller. It took an entire day to sell out. Of course, that might have something to do with the significantly higher entry cap. 368 people signed up to run the event, making it the 2nd largest Champ Tour in the history of Solo (the record is held by a Tour at Peru).

Due to fencing requirements by the airport, Cincinnati Region is effectively required to run back to back events to split the labor of fence setup and teardown over two weekends. With the Wilmington Pro the previous weekend, there were many familiar faces back on site after a short week in the 'real world'. But in addition to the people returning, a slightly less welcome returnee was present. After a week of sunshine in the Cincinnati area, a rain forecast had returned as well. Wetness was predicted for Saturday in particular.

First heat Saturday kicked off the event on a dusty and dirty Alex Jones designed course. With an eye on the weather radar and a course that was getting faster with every run, the pressure was on to make every run fast and clean. The chances were high that the last dry run you got was going to have the best conditions. Mike 'Junior' Johnson was back in A-Street in his beautiful c5 z06 and he wasted no time in showing everyone he meant business. He led from first runs and never looked back, ultimately standing on his second run after coning away an even faster 3rd run. Jed Peterson followed him 1.161 seconds back in his S2000CR, forced to stand on his first run due to spin and DNF issues on his 2nd and 3rd attempts.

ESP was also in the house, using those big steamroller tires to clean off the course for the rest of the entrants. Jadrice Toussaint led the way when the dust settled, but it wasn't an easy battle. He'd inadvertently made his first run on tires with only 18psi and to make matters worse Ryan Finch had taken an old school approach to ESP, brought out a 4th gen F-body, and was going fast. Ryan ended Saturday just .085 behind Jadrice. Third and fourth place drivers Dave Heinrich and Dave Feighner followed suit, with just .068 between them going into Sunday.

The first heat drivers weren't going to have much sympathy for the dirty course however. 2nd heat rolled in and dark clouds rolled in with it. The forecasted rain was certainly coming, the only question being when it would arrive. It was going to be critically important to make a clean and fast first run. In STR Nick Barbato did just that. He used his familiarity with his car to put in a 63.417 second run, giving him a 1.5 seconds gap on hotshoe car whore Matthew Braun who wasn't able to be as aggressive out of the gate. Unfortunately for Matthew, he wasn't going to get a chance to improve as the skies opened and the rain came, drenching the course and causing a 45 minute delay due to lightning.

As the rain fell, past AM national champ Dan Wasdahl, who had unfortunately DNF'd his first run, declared that it was time for a sandwich and promptly went off in search of sustenance, forgoing his 2nd and 3rd runs. Dave O'Maley in the 2004 Proto, had taken advantage of the rare miscue and set a blistering 58 second time on his first run, giving him a full 10 second lead going into Sunday over his codriver. After the lighting delay, O'Maley went back out on the rain soaked concrete in what was a very entertaining run to watch with the rear wing shooting rooster tails of spray 20 feet into the air despite the very slow speed he was able to reach on dry weather tires.

By the time 3rd heat rolled around, the rain had stopped and the course had started to dry. It was going to come down to 3rd runs and hotshoe Greg Reno in his H-Street Mini would end up being the fastest. He would go into Sunday with a .253 second gap over Tim Carritte with Courtney Cormier just an additional .030 seconds back. Nobody in the talent heavy HS class was going to be able to rest easy Saturday night. In other heat three action, Jinx Jordan put in a clutch last run to take the lead by .368 over Brian Kuehl in SMF, and Clemens Burger would lead Daniel Stone in B-Modified going into Sunday. Last year's BM national champ Dan Cyr would do no better than 3rd, standing on a coned run with a DNF and a spin on his other efforts.

Heat four was where the stalwarts of the STS class did battle. First day honors would go to codrivers with Ian Baker wheeling his Honda CRX to a .436 second gap over Darrin DiSimo. The owners in each car, Mike Snyder and John Brown respectively, would take 3rd and 4th spots. F-Street Prepared was another class to watch with Scott Giles taking the first day lead by .841 over Nick Myers. Myers was originally entered in his beautiful Lotus Elise in SSR, but instead opted to jump into Jason West's '86 Toyota Corolla in the ten car strong FSP group. West would round out the top three.

Formula Junior A and B also did battle in heat four. FJA only had two entries, but they are both ones to watch at this year's national championships and the battle was hard fought. Trey White had fixed the engine issues he suffered at the previous weekend's ProSolo and was running fast, taking the day one lead by .278 over Tom Regganie. In FJB Kieran Boito would lead the way chased by Tyler Comier, two more drivers to watch at this year's Solo Nationals.

In heat five Andrew Pallotta would lead the way in F-Street, driving Mike Snyder's Shelby Mustang. Despite a previous report, Andrew did not in fact steal John Laughlin's Mustang... here at SoloMatters, we're still not convinced :) .619 seconds back was Jason Huepenbecker in an E46 BMW M3, a car appearing more on the national scene these days with a re-class and the move to street tires making it a contender. Also running in heat five was the brutally competitive STX class, its 25 entrants making it the most populated class at the event. Eric Simmons would end the day in the top spot, driving Michael Bombard's Subaru BRZ. Allen Chen was .435 seconds back in his RX-8. Heat five also saw a return of the rain, with a light drizzle serving mostly to remind us that Mother Nature is the boss. It quickly ended however and the course dried out fast.

It had been almost twelve hours since the drivers in heat six had walked the course when they went out for their first runs. The heat 2 lightning delay had meant the cancellation of the course walk between heats three and four. In the talent soaked Super Street R class, Sam Strano overcame cone troubles on his first two runs and took the lead by .583 on day one over Grant Reeve. Jason Burns was 3rd another .461 seconds back followed by Josh Luster. Four different cars were in the top four with Strano in a c6 z06, Reeve in a c5 z06, Burns in a 997.2 GT3, and Luster in a C6 Grandsport. E-Street was also well represented with ten drivers in either Toyota MR2 Spyders or Mazda Miatas. Eric Peterson would take the lead there with a healthy one second advantage going into day two.

With the record entry levels, a lightning delay, and a hard deadline of 7:30pm to vacate the competition pad, course designer Alex Jones and the rest of his crew were under pressure to make a fast course change for Sunday. An audience of hundreds of people impatiently waited at the start line to get the all clear to walk the course for the next day, wanting as much time as possible to try and see the course between the elbows and butts of their fellow competitors. The course was basically reversed, with a couple minor tweaks to some key cones and the final slalom removed in favor of a finish chute. Everyone got time for at least one walk with some joggers getting multiple laps in before a chase car was sent out to encourage stragglers to get themselves and their stuff back to paddock. Sunday's scheduled one hour earlier start was also pushed back thirty minutes to provide more time for walking.

Sunday dawned with a forecasted zero percent chance of rain and a rubbered in course. Leaders were concentrating on keeping their advantage and drivers further back were anxious to move up. Heat one drivers were treated to much better grip than they'd found the previous day, but A-Street leader Johnson and C-Street leader Mark Andy would keep their advantage from day one, taking the wins in each class. C-Street saw movement behind the leader however, with Chris Carmenini setting fast time on day two to jump all the way up from 6th to the 2nd spot in class. In E-Street Prepared Toussaint extended his lead with the fast time of the day. Finch would hold onto 2nd despite a strong run from Feigher in his '95 Cobra R, his 2nd fastest time of the day not quite enough to make up for Finch's stronger Saturday.

Heat two folks enjoyed their three runs on the rubbered in and dry surface, much different than the previous day. STR saw Braun set fast time of day by nearly a second over the rest of the field, but it wasn't enough to make up for his day one deficit to Barbato and he would take the win. SSRL saw a great battle as Shelly Monfort fought to overcome her day one gap to Stephanie Reeve. After first runs Monfort had made up most of the gap and was knocking on the door to take the lead. Reeve responded on her 2nd run to extend the lead a bit while Monfort slowed down and the stage was set for an exciting set of third runs. Monfort would be back first, dropping another six tenths setting fast time of the day and moving into the lead with Reeve on course not knowing that if she didn't find some time Monfort would steal the win. Reeve powered across the line to a 54.196, a bit slower than Monfort but enough to regain the advantage and take the win on the strength of her clutch run when it mattered on Saturday morning.

There were other battles to watch in heat two as fast drivers that had been unlucky in Saturday's challenging conditions asserted their dominance. One such was in C-Prepared where Ethan Bradbury wheeled his '87 Ford Thunderbird back from a 2 second disadvantage to take the win over codriver John Bradbury by .691 seconds. 2Nd fastest time of the day went to Chris Miller, but unfortunately he'd DNF'd his only dry run on Saturday and would have to settle for the 6th spot overall. In A-Modified Wasdahl would set the overall fast time for the day at a 45.407 but with no time from Saturday it was all just for pride. O'Maley would take the win in AM by a whopping 16 seconds over his codriver. Kart Modified saw Scott Boito use his Saturday advantage to take the win over Colin Sheidler despite Sheidler being slightly quicker on Sunday. Timothy Vincent would round out the top three, earning his first ever national event trophy.

Heat three saw Mike Lane go fast enough in his B-Street Prepared 350Z to overcome having all dirty runs on Saturday. He'd end the days with a .293 gap back to Laurence Casey in 2nd. Brian Garfield and Neal Tovsen would continue their Saturday C-Street Prepared battle into Sunday. After Saturday Tovsen had a slim .036 second lead and Garfield had him covered after the first two runs on Sunday. Tovsen pulled it out on his last run and set fast time of the day by just .008 over Garfield, giving him a win by just .044 seconds over both days. Brian's son Julian Garfield would do a bit better in the DSP BMW of John Vitamvas. Julian had his one second Saturday advantage whittled down by Vitamvas who set fast time for the day on Sunday, but the advantage would hold and he'd take the win despite having to have his mom ride in the car with him to satisfy his learner permit restrictions.

H-Street continued their Saturday performance. Reno would end up on top, but fast time of the day would go to Carritte who cut Reno's advantage nearly in half. Cortney Cormier would have to settle for 3rd. Just .3 seconds separated the top three and their Mini Coopers over both days in a battle that is sure to be repeated in Lincoln in about a month.

STS was back in heat four, with DiSimo looking to drop the hammer on Baker in the battle of the 2nd drivers. Going into final runs DiSimo had the fast time of the day, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Saturday lead of Baker. With DiSimo as a first driver, on third runs 2nd driver Baker knew he was on a victory lap and laid down a flyer, setting fastest time for the day Sunday as well and taking the win by .749. In the car owner battle, Brown found nine hundredths of a second on his last run to squeak ahead of Snyder to steal away 3rd spot.

Street Modified was in heat four as well and Saturday leader Tyler Faucett and his E36 BMW would have to settle for 2nd place as David White was fast and clean in the G-Fab Panda, setting the top time of the day for the class by over 1.5 seconds and fastest time for any DOT-R tired car at the event. It was enough to move him up to the top spot despite having no clean runs from Saturday. In FJA, White and Regganie resumed their Saturday battle, despite White being inadvertently punched in the eye by Junior when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Johnson was starting up his kart. Regganie would be the faster of the pair on the day, gaining just enough time that he moved past White to take the win by .088 overall.

Heat five was up next and there was no drizzle to confuse things. Pallotta took the expected win in the Laughlin Shelby Mustang, but national event newcomer Alex Artayet served notice that he'd be someone to watch next year setting 2nd fastest time for the day in his E46 M3. In STX action, anyone that thought Simmons had gotten a lucky flyer the day before was quickly shown the error of their ways as he stormed out with a 56.077 first run that would end up being the quickest time for the day. Simmons had done the same thing on Saturday as well and would take the win on the strength of his first runs Saturday and Sunday, his only two clean runs of the event.

Super Street Modified was a repeat of Street Modified as the well used G-Fab Panda, this time in the hands of owner PJ Corrales, would come back from a Saturday disadvantage to Brian Johns and his Mazda RX-7. Corrales set fast time of the day at a 50.749, just under a second quicker than Johns who went into his third run needing a clean one as the first two were dirty. That was enough and he would take over the top spot.

With the event operations going smoothly and no weather issues, our final heat, number six, rolled around much earlier. In E-Street Peterson would take the win, but the honors for fast time on Sunday would go to Johnny Rose in his '99 Miata. Unfortunately for Rose his Saturday deficit was too much to overcome and he'd have to settle for 3rd behind Adam Norton. In G-Street Brian Priebe had brought out his Celica to show the world that you didn't need a Focus ST to win. He did exactly that, dominating the weekend with codriver Azmath Mohammed taking the 2nd spot.

In Super Street Prepared car whore extraordinaire, and last year's Solo Driver of the Year, Tom O'Gorman had gotten the call from James Cathers to see if he'd be interested in driving the car that had beaten him at the ProSolo the previous weekend. O'Gorman made it work despite not having fast time on either day. Those honors would go to Joe Tharpe on Saturday and Cathers on Sunday, but to win the event you need to be fast on both days and O'Gorman had done enough, taking the top spot.

Strano's advantage from Saturday in Super Street R would see him take the win despite only being able to muster 3rd fastest time on Sunday. The honor for Sunday would go to Josh Luster, wheeling his borrowed Grandsport Corvette to a blistering 51.994 second run that would have him in 3rd overall. Reeve was 2nd fastest, good enough to keep his 2nd spot overall. Conners would come back from day one to beat codriver Burns in the GT3, finishing 4th and 5th respectively. When the dust cleared, the C6 z06 had won the battle of the car models, with four different types represented in the trophy spots.

With the final heat complete and awards presented, over three hundred and fifty competitors at the Champ Tour joined the over two hundred and fifty from the ProSolo the weekend before in saying goodbye to Wilmington for now. This year has cemented the new site as clearly the best in the eastern half of the country. Cincinnati Region, along with its neighboring regions, have done an awesome job of securing the location and putting in all the work it requires to host three national events this past year. They all deserve a huge round of applause for their efforts. Thank you again for all your hard work.

And let's all plan to meet here again next year!

With the cancellation of the Milwaukee Match Tour, this was the final event of the 2014 SCCA Solo National event season. What does that mean? The next time we have an event recap will be from the 2014 SCCA Solo Nationals and ProSolo Finale. Stay tuned and join us for all the action next month in Lincoln, NE!