Photo Credit: Anthony Porta
The second and final day of the 2015 San Diego Championship Tour saw 38 racers win their respective classes and take home more than just a medallion and t-shirt—pride, and bragging rights.
The course switchover from Saturday to Sunday produced a fun track that had great flowing elements. Many competitors enjoyed racing up the elevation change and threading the needle through the final Chicago box towards the end.
In AS, Glen Hernandez maintained his first-day lead and beat Scott McHugh by 0.305 seconds, while Jeff Bandes extended his lead from Saturday in BS to beat second-place Ben Clement by 1.044 seconds. "My plan for today was to put in a good first run, but I wasn’t as fast as I expected to be, so I had to really step it up for the second run," Bandes explained. "I laid down a really solid second run and then I knew I had enough of a lead so I could have fun on the last run."
In CS, Ricardo Quinonez edged Adrian Cardenas for the win by a mere 0.165. Following Cardenas in second, Scott Lewis placed third while Jonathan Stroud and Ahren Renner rounded out the trophy spots.
DS was one of the most competitive classes as the first through fifth finishers were separated by about seven-tenths. Jayson Woodruff used a third-run 52.036 to squeak by Catherine Train, who in turn beat Kaustav Acharya by 0.028. “The first couple runs didn’t go so well, but seeing just twenty-thousands between me and Kaustav I just decided hey I have to pull it off, I have to just focus, get the right line, and keep in the boost on these cars,” Woodruff described afterwards.
Vernon Jolley extended his first-day lead to win ES by 1.801 seconds, while Sean O’Boyle did the same in FS winning by almost a second. Mark Scroggs, who ended up 3rd in PAX overall and the highest-PAXing street tire car, pushed his advantage out to 3.433 seconds over Shelly Monfort in GS to take the podium.
Husband and wife Sebastian and Shauna Rios continued their great weekends on new Bridgestone tires winning STR and STRL respectively. Brandon Porambo likewise put together another fast day to beat out 11 others in STX, beating Max Hayter by a second. Rachel Kerswill won CSL by almost half a second over Eileen Blando.
STS provided drama on day one with Stephen Yeoh only getting one run in due to car trouble (but still placing second). He was fortunately able to get the car back in action Sunday thanks to the help of fellow racers who aided in replacing the motor—no small feat. Yeoh ended up in second after three runs on Sunday, finishing just 0.064 seconds behind the day-one leader, Matt Ales.
Photo Credit: Anthony Porta
Jeff Stuart gave Jonathan Lugod a run for his money, storming back to win STU by three-tenths. "The plan was to basically stay off the cones," Stuart said. "Thankfully I put in a really good one to start, and my second run was also clean." Brian Peters maintained his Saturday advantage finishing first in ESP by 2.769 seconds, while also taking home top PAX honors for the weekend.
Brenda Barnes maintained her day-one lead in BSPL to win by a second, while Larry Burron won CSP by almost two. Michael Heinitz was the victor in STF by 3.6 seconds, while Nathan Roof blew the roof off FSP winning by 7.1 seconds.
Ted Lewis had another good day in DP beating Darlene Pittman by 3.065 seconds, while Alcino Azevedo won CAMS over Rick Jung by 2.310. Mary Pozzi was another racer holding on to a first-day lead, winning CAMT by three and a half seconds over Tom Kamman.
Photo Credit: Anthony Porta
The Berry Family Racing Evo won in both SSM and SM, as Marshall Grice and Tom Berry took home respective first-place trophies. Course-designer Peter Bollenbeck grabbed second place in the 16-person SM class, while Michael Yanase finished third.
Anthony Porta won the nine-person BSP class by 1.277 seconds over Tony Rivera, earning fourth-overall PAX for the weekend. "Winning my first national tour event makes all the really late nights working on the car worth it," Porta detailed.
CM had some shake-ups as George Schilling, the day-one leader, dropped back to third as Jonathan Clement secured a 0.902 victory over Eric Clements. In JA, Kevin Jung won by the narrowest of margins, defeating Zak Kiesel by 0.098 seconds.
