LINCOLN, Neb. (Aug. 31, 2014) – Paul Russell, of San Diego, California, was the Super Challenge winner at the Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo® Finale at Lincoln Airpark. The Challenge win allowed Russell to claim the 2014 ProSolo Super Challenge Championship. Kim Whitener, of Fort Worth, Texas, was the Ladies Challenge winner earning her the ProSolo Ladies Challenge Championship title.
The Finale brought together the best ProSolo drivers from around the country to Lincoln, Nebraska, to help decide season-long championships in both Super Challenge and Ladies Challenge groups.
The final class runs on Sunday morning were delayed by lighting and a brief downpour. Following the 20-minute intermission, competition got back underway on the pair of rain-drenched courses. The wet conditions forced each driver into a slower pace, but served as more practice in preparation for the Challenge portion of the meet.
Directly preceding the Challenge rounds was the inaugural Speedway Motors SCCA Classic American Muscle Invitational. Josh Leisinger, of Souix Falls, South Dakota, took home the win, in a competition that was very popular among drivers.
"This is my first SCCA event," Leisinger said. "The track is huge and fast. The surface was awesome and each of the SCCA folks were very helpful."
"With the invitational nature of this competition, there were a lot of fast cars here with some tough competition. I had to be on my 'A' game and couldn’t take any of the other drivers lightly. Using the 'Christmas Tree' was something different and created some more strategy for the competition."
The CAM Challenge was not only popular amongst those who competed, but also spectators at the event. The classic, high-powered Detroit iron attracted the attention of the other ProSolo competitors, but also some locals who have never been to National-level Solo events.
Chuck Jones, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was an SCCA member in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Through his recent attendance at Nebraska Region SCCA events, as well as today’s event, as a spectator, Jones said he is starting to fall back in love with racing.
"When I was a kid I used to go out to stock cars races in which Speedway Motors sponsored cars," Jones said. "I’ve grown up with the company, in some ways. They have a car here that they are sponsoring, which is awesome."
Doug Grote, of Lincoln, Nebraska, is a first-time attendee at an SCCA Solo event. Grote said he was alerted to the event by a customer of his muffler shop.
"I’m really impressed," Grote said. "I did some work on a Mini Cooper for a couple from Washington who told me about this event. We decided to come out and see it. Hopefully, we can make it out to the Nationals for the rest of the week.
The overall atmosphere is really cool. The customers from Washington said this is the Super Bowl of autocross, so we wanted to see what it was all about."
Russell (Kart Modified, Seventhgear.com Tony Kart) started Challenge competition as the No. 3 seed and beat Glen Hernandez (Street Index RWD, Evolution/Chase Race/Petrel Data Systems Chevrolet Corvette) in the opening round.
In the second round, Russell scored the victory over another SR-classed car driven by Eric Peterson (Solo Pro Driving/Atomic Empire Toyota Spyder). Eric Strelnieks (Super Street Modified, Hoosier/OSGiken/Jungle Cat Racing Mazda RX-7) was the next opponent for Russell, in the quarter-finals.
Russell’s semi-final matchup was against Jeff Stuart (C Street, Berry Family Racing/Racetraceapp.com Nissan 370Z). Russell came out on top, earning him a trip to the finals against Nick Barbato (Street Touring R, KARCEPTS/Adidas Motorsports Honda S200).
Barbato’s road to the final started with wins over Tom Berry (SP/SM Index A, Berry Family Racing/Hoosier Mitsubishi Evo IX) and Kinch Riendl (Street Touring Compact, Riptidehosting.com/RDP Hosting Honda Civic Si) in the first two rounds, respectively.
In the quarter-finals, Barbato met and beat Paul Kozlak (Street R Index RWD, Red Haus Racing Chevrolet Corvette) in their head-to-head battle. Barbato earned his spot in the finals after taking out Mark Hill (Bump Class, Jayhawk Racing/Ive Got Grip Mitsubishi EVO XI).
In the Super Challenge final, Russell showed he was the class of the field by besting Barbato on both the east and west courses. With the win, Russell earned enough points to take home his first season-long Super Challenge title. In the third-place runoff, Hill completed the podium positions after beating Stuart.
"The first couple rounds I got lucky," Russell said. "The other drivers threw up a couple red lights, which really helped. I then met up with Strelnieks, and we were close in the Championship standings. So, that match-up would pretty much decide the season-long winner."
"After the first run I was 0.1-second quicker than him. On the second run, I’m still not sure how I was able to hold him off. After that is was just all about being smooth and fast.” Whitener (Ladies Class 3, Black Armor Helmets/Texas Track Works Honda Civic) entered the head-to-head Challenge bracket at the top qualifier after taking the win in class competition. Whitener began her march to the final by after scoring the opening round win against Laura Campbell (Ladies Class 3, Honda S200).
In the quarter-finals, Whitener faced off against Linda Duncan (Ladies Class 2, MiniUSA MINI Cooper). Whitener came out on top beating Duncan to finish line on both the east and west mirror-image courses. The win promoted Whitener to a semi-final matchup against Jocelin Huang (Ladies Class 2, The Alignment Guy Porsche GT3). Whitener eliminated Huang from the competition for the bracket win, earning her a final showdown with Gwen Habenicht (Ladies Class 2, Audi TT).
From the No. 15 seed, Habenicht did what it took to win her matchup against No. 2 seed Christine Grice (Ladies Class 1, Berry Family Racing/Chase Cam Mitsubishi Evo IX). Her next win came against Rachel Baker (Pixie Posse Racing Karcepts, Honda CRX) in the quarter-finals.
Habenicht earned her spot in the bracket final after eliminating Chris Peterson (Ladies Class 2, Atomic Empire Toyota Spyder).
In the final, Whitener got the best of Habenicht and came away with the win and 2014 ProSolo Fletcher Cup as the Ladies Challenge Champion. This title makes Whitener the third woman to win three ProSolo Ladies Challenge Championships in a row. In the third-place runoff, Peterson took the win over Huang and completed the podium positions.
"The Ladies Classes are hard," Whitener said. "When I started out I was at the bottom of the pack. Running against top-notch competition makes one a better driver. You can look through the record book and see all the National Championship drivers you are competing against."
"We made some setup changes last night, which really helped us today. Luckily, we had the CAM Invitational to dry the courses out. The courses were fun and fast, but also technically challenging."
Final Results
Information on the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Finale can be found here. More information on the entire Tire Rack SCCA Solo program is available at www.scca.com/Solo. Follow SCCA on Twitter @SCCAOfficial and like the Club on Facebook at Facebook.com/SCCAOfficial.
