Saturday Results!

The Tour portion of the Kentucky Match Tour has come to a close, which is relatively unique this year in the way it’s handled. It is essentially a full weekend’s Championship Tour in one day - two sets of three runs (albeit on the same course) where the fastest from each set are combined for the total class times. This produces surprisingly interesting results that are more typical of a ProSolo than a typical tour, and every competitor needs to take full advantage of what they learned on their morning runs to maximize their afternoon runs, as well as the qualifying runs for the Shootouts on Sunday.

But for now, let’s see how some of the more interesting classes shook out.

In heat 1, we had all the Street category classes running, of which FS was certainly the highlight. Jadrice Toussaint, not expected to make it to this event, was a sudden arrival and largely expected to be the favorite, but it appeared to be an uphill battle for him against John Laughlin in the M3. Laughlin came out strong, throwing down fast raw times and staying clean in the process, forcing Toussaint to push his 2015 Mustang to try to overcome issues with short gearing. Following a downed cone on his first run and a near-spin DNF on his second, Toussaint pulled the safety valve to get in a safe and clean run for the afternoon and finish 0.577 back.

In the afternoon, the battle continued to the death. Toussaint showed the true potential of his car right out of the gate on run 1, putting three-tenths pressure on leader Laughlin, who continued to run strong and steady but ultimately slower than his morning runs. Seeing the door open to move up into first place, Toussaint pushed on his last run, only to spin spectacularly through the finish, nipping the timer in the process for a DNF. Laughlin would take the win in the class, as well as top PAX for the heat, so look for him to be a top qualifier for the Shootout rounds on Sunday.

However, FS wasn’t the only class to watch during heat 1. As many may well be aware, the Mazdaspeed 3 is a new addition to the GS class this year, and David Entz was set to show it’s true potential at this event. And that he did - he ended up with a whopping 1.2 second gap in the morning session over Clay McCool in an SRT4 ACR, and finishing nearly three seconds ahead following the afternoon session. With the bar in GS being raised by the Focus ST, it certainly seems like the MS3 will be a worthy competitor to it in the class this year.

STX and FSP took center stage in heat 2, two fiercely competitive classes where going off the beaten path in terms of car choice is highly encouraged. This was certainly most noticeable in FSP, where every single car competing was something different - 1G CRX, Mk1 Rabbit, B13 SE-R, and even a rear-wheel drive AE86 Corolla GTS. This makes it a blast to watch, because there is no cookie cutter solution to the class, and therefore rewards creativity in car selection and setup.

Today, the competition surrounded four drivers - Scott Giles, Steven Duckworth, Geoff Zimmer, and Andrew Buck. With Duckworth and Zimmer in the Lamborbunni both DNF’ing their first runs in the morning, Buck took an early lead on the class, which would eventually erode to third place at the hand of Giles by the end of the session - not a bad finish at all considering the level of competition in this class at the event. Knowing there was more time on the table, the Automobili Lamborbunni team went back to make setup changes in order to tidy up a loose car for the afternoon session. This paid off as both Duckworth and Zimmer showed a definite increase in speed in the afternoon, though not quite enough to work their way past Giles, the eventual winner of FSP and the heat’s top PAX contender.

STX continued to be a fun class to watch, also due to its interesting variety. Kyle Herbst and Gordon Maciulewicz were fast out of the gate in the morning, with Herbst leading the way after first runs, but cone troubles for Todd Kunze would force him down into second place. However, the true speed of Kunze’s Integra Type-R could not be ignored, and it was in the afternoon that he was able to put in a clean run in the 46-second range to take the class over Herbst by 0.241. Maciulewicz would also find a 46-second run here, but would finish no better than third due to cones in the morning.

The last heat of the day featured little else besides the fast raw time cars, and Sam Strano in SSR clearly delivered them. He wasted no time throwing down the fastest PAX time of the event in his first couple of runs in each session, and walked away with a 2.9-second gap on Brandon Davis, a driver who is no slouch in his own right. Shelly Montfort would finish third in class, being forced to open the safety valve on her last afternoon run after two dirty ones.

But over in SSM, things were getting interesting quickly. Brian and Tara Johns were certainly the favorites in this class in their signature black RX7 (okay, I guess *all* the SSM RX7s are black…), but Chuck Pyanowski and Tim White in an ’87 Nissan 300ZX were not willing to give up so quickly. All of these drivers put in close runs, and when the dust settled, it would end up being Pyanowski over Brian Johns by a combined 0.919 on the day. This would be the first National event win for Pyanowski, and perhaps a shred of evidence that it’s not the RX7s that can go fast in SSM anymore.

Stay tuned on Sunday to see how the qualifying runs shake out in all classes in the morning, followed by the Super, Club, and Bonus Shootouts later on in the afternoon.