On Friday March 6th San Francisco Region was host to the Inaugural Speedway Motors CAM Challenge event at Crows Landing outside of San Francisco. The weather cooperated with 80 degree weather all three days.
The event started on Friday with a Test n Tune, walking the course and Registration. Everyone finished up the day with a Welcome party hosted by Brianne and Mike Maier at their place of business, Mike Maier Inc. Over 100 people attended the Welcome party.
Saturday brought us great weather and good competition. The CAM Challenge used a variation of the SCCA Match Tour format for the event. There were 42 CAM cars competing for class wins on Saturday. In the CAM C class (Contemporary Cars) Nick Grucza lead from start to finish in his 1994 Mustang GT. David Voth in a 2010 Camaro was second and Kirk Meline was third in his 1993 Mustang. In CAM-T (Traditional Cars) we had a battle of the heavy weights from the west coast. The top three people had over 20 Solo National Championships to their credit. Mike Maier in his 1965 Mustang took first with Mary Pozzi in her 1973 Camaro second and Brian Hobaugh in the Wilwood sponsored 1965 Mustang in third. In the third CAM class, CAM-S (Sport Cars) Scott Fraser won a 16 car class in a 1966 427 Cobra. Scott set FTD for the Saturday competition. Arie Villasol was second in a Corvette and Richard Willhoff was third in another Corvette.
On Sunday 24 cars choose to participate in the Speedway Motors CAM Challenge Shootout. At the end of the day, ladies were in the top three positions, with Mary Pozzi winning the Shootout, Carrie Willhoff taking second and Stacie Naumann taking third place.
At the end of competition the top two people in each class were given an invite to the 32 car Speedway Motors CAM Challenge Invitational at the Solo Nationals in September. Mary Pozzi as the winner of the Shootout was also given an invite to the Good Guys Autocross Finale in Scottsdale, AZ. in November. They have a 32 car shootout in November and they have 15 guaranteed spots for their Championship. Mary and the winners of the next two Speedway Motors CAM Challenge events will get a guaranteed spot in the Good Guys Finale.
We had huge support from our sponsors for the event. Speedway Motors was on sight with Carson Smith, one of the owners of Speedway Motors and one of their CAM drivers, Al Unser, Jr. Wilwood brakes had people on site with a display trailer, their 1965 Mustang and they hosted the Saturday night dinner for all drivers, workers and their families. Good Guys had people from their California office on sight to watch the event powered by SCCA.
One thing SCCA tried at this event was to allow C4-C7 Corvettes compete in the CAM S class. This was an experiment to see how competitive these cars are and to weight them to get good information on the cars we have excluded for 2015. We got very lucky has we had some outstanding Corvette drivers who participated to give us some very good information. The next two CAM events will stick to the current rules and not allow C4-C7 Corvettes compete in the events. I do encourage local SCCA Regions to modify the CAM class to help your members. Maybe you allow the newer Corvettes in the CAM S class, maybe you put the CAM C and CAM T into one class. If you modify the CAM classes please share your information, your successes with the SDC’s in your Divisions, the SEB and Solo Matters.
The next event for the Speedway Motors CAM Challenge will be at the Grissom Air Base north of Indianapolis on August 7-9.
The Speedway Motors CAM Challenge event has introduced SCCA to some new sponsors for 2015 for the CAM cars, Speedway Motors, Wilwood Brakes, Ridetech, Good Guys and Mike Maier’s Inc. Watch for more info on new sponsors coming on for the August and September events.
