Photo Credit: Robert Ippollito
Tune into uStream for all the Day 2 action and check out sololive.scca.com for live timing and scoring.
Day 1 is officially in the books at the Dixie Champ Tour. There was some seriously close competition across all five heats, with very few mishaps and reruns. Overall, a smooth event, and good conditions ahead for Sunday's runs. Remember to tune into sololive.scca.com and check out the uStream feed!
The biggest worry of the day came early on in Heat 1, when a BM car caught fire and spilled oil across the last third of the course during second runs. Thus, it was next to impossible to improve for most people on their last runs. Combined with a damp but drying surface made conditions a little hairy early in the day. In ES, last year's national champion Eric Peterson holds a 1.6 second lead over his wife, Chris, who keeps a 1.1 second lead over third place Steve Seymore; the Toyota MR-Spyder still proving to be dominant in a heavily Miata populated field. Every car in DS at this event is a 2015 Subaru WRX, with Ian Stewart piloting one to the lead on his very last run, taking a 3/10ths lead over Danny Kao. Mark Pilson currently leads ESP over Jeff Cox by 2/10ths. FM has JG Pasterjak standing on his only clean run to keep a .185 second lead over Terry Tabor.
Heat 2 had our largest class of the event, STX, providing some expected tight competition. Jason Ruggles took the lead on a blazing fast second run and never looked back. Chasing him are Mike King and Randall Prince, both with dirty first and second runs, cleaning it up on their third. The whole trophy field in STX is separated by 8/10ths, so Sunday is still anyone's game. In GS, David Spratte keeps a lead over Max Bales by 3/10ths, in one of the most diverse classes in the field, with a Focus ST, Neon SRT4, and a Mazdaspeed 3 all in the trophies.
Photo Credit: Brian Kuehl
The talk of Heat 3 was in FS, with Jon Nwanagu in Jadrice Toussaint's truly showroom stock 2015 Ford Mustang on OEM Pirelli tires holding onto the lead over everyone else in class. EP has the return of Darrin Disimo in a very familiar white and teal Honda CRX, taking an early lead. However, Tim Smith put down a fast second run to take the lead away and held onto it for the rest of the day. Perry Ellwood in the only Corvette in STU currently holds the lead by .038 seconds over Martin Kriz, with Michael Lawson rounding out the podium as of Day 1.
Heat 4 brings us into CS action, with Jason Stroud, the only car in the class on the new Bridgestone RE-71R, taking the lead on his first run and never losing it. He holds a .4 second lead over Nick Amick and Jake Engstrom. Moving on to ASP, Jimmie Talkie took his first EVER autocross runs, being a tire warmer for his son and seemed to have a pretty fun day out! Currently, Greg Pressley holds a lead over Han Henze by exactly 1/10th on the strength of his last run. In SM, Tim White used that Subaru all wheel drive power to take the lead away from Jadrice Toussaint on Tim's last run. Jadrice couldn't find time on his last run and trails Tim by just under .5 seconds.
Rounding out the day in heat 5, Sam Strano holds a commanding lead in SSR over Brandon Davis. Strano out raw timed all of SSP and would have been second in SSM. Steve Hoelscher currently leads XP but has to watch out for Jeff Mellow, who had a cone on his last run but had the scratch time for a lead, so Sunday still leaves things wide open. Perennial favorite Elliot Harvey held an early lead in CSP, but John Waight put a fast last run to take a .65 second lead. Finally in STR action, Ricky Crow holds a lead by 1 second over Andy Thomas in Ryan Davies' S2000, with Thomas leading Davies by .055, and Laura Campbell rounds out the trophies.
Sunday is bringing us warm and dry weather, so everyone's got their work cut out for them. Stay tuned for some exciting action, and who can pull it all together to take the win!
