Dave Montgomery, of Cincinnati, Ohio, may be a relative newcomer to SCCA Solo – starting only six years ago – but was already accustomed to extremely high-level competition on four wheels before winning the Solo Triad Award in F Prepared.
When I was very young, my dad, Mike Montgomery, raced a 914/6 regionally in Michigan and Pennsylvania with both the SCCA and with the Porsche Club of America," Montgomery said. “My whole family used to go watch him and cheer him on, and that is when I fell in love with racing. My dad saw that I loved it, and he got me into racing radio-controlled cars when I was only five or six years old."
After some early success, the radio control car track shut down. It wasn’t until 1996 when another track opened in the Pittsburgh area. The event they visited that day happened to be the ROAR Nationals – the pinnacle of radio-controlled car competition. The drive to compete was back, and in a big way.
"My Dad has always been very supportive with my racing," Montgomery said. "So, we worked together to improve my driving and our equipment over the years and landed some sponsorship deals that helped further with equipment and travel expenses.
"I ended up winning R/C Car Nationals in 2002 and, and competed in the R/C Car World Championships 3 times with a best finish of fifth in South Africa, in 2002. After that, I decided it was time to graduate into full size cars. I went through all of the Skip Barber racing schools and a few race weekends with them, and then ran out of money! So I bought a Honda CRX and started autocrossing."
At his first Tire Rack Solo National Championships, in 2009, Montgomery finished just outside the trophies in Street Touring S. The next year, he finished in the trophies in STS and hasn’t looked back. Since then he has finished in the trophies each year.
Montgomery began his quest for the Solo Triad Award by scoring the top indexed time among undersubscribed classes at the Tire Rack Peru Match Tour. He then went on to the Championship Tour event at Wilmington and took top honors in class. He finished off his successful year with a National Championship, winning by a 0.292-second margin.
For Montgomery, winning the Solo Triad Award is twice as special as he did it in the same type of car which his dad competed.
"The Solo Triad is an honor," Montgomery said. "I never expected to win it. It is really special because I won it driving a Porsche 914/6, which is the same car I grew up watching my Dad race. I always loved the car - the sound, the smell, the way it looks - so we always wanted to have a Porsche 914/6 race car.
"In 2013 we finally bought this car from Leeds Gulick. The car was built by Fordahl Motorsports and is just beautifully prepared. In the short time that we have had the car, we have been very successful with it. My friend, Tom O’Gorman, won a jacket in 2013 driving it, and to win the Solo Triad in it this year is a dream-come-true.
"The Solo Triad is especially cool because my dad maintains and transports the car to all the events from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We have a really cool father-son team dynamic, and this success is as much his as ours.
Montgomery had some folks to thank for the year, but most important of this is his dad.
"First and foremost, I have to thank my dad, Mike Montgomery," Montgomery said. "He’s been an incredible Dad, friend and team member over the years in all the racing that we have done together, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
"I also want to thank my sponsors - Full Throttle Indoor Karting and Matco Tools – as well as Chris Foley, at Tangerine Racing, for his tech support this year. Last but not least, I want to thank my friends - Tom O’Gorman for pushing me to improve (our Gran Turismo video game nights are like Nationals every time we get together!), Nick Myers for cracking me up all the time, and Scott Giles and Renee Hines for the Zombie Dust and Unicorn Farts (patent pending…). The racing is great, but the people are what make the National Solo scene so awesome."
Photo Credit: Perry Bennett
