The East Coast ProSolo season has cleared its throat and is about to start singing for real. The 2015 Tire Rack Wilmington Spring ProSolo is this weekend, the first of three ProSolos in Ohio this year. The series will be in Toledo the following month, with the final regular season event back at the awesome Wilmington site a month after that. Sometimes its good to be an Ohioan.
East coast battles are already starting to shape up. In New Jersey Evan Schickel dominated B Street and went on to finish 2nd in the challenge. He's looking to back up that performance at Wilmington this weekend to carry a perfect 40 class points to the finale at Lincoln later this year, but long time fast 'guys' Paul and Lynne Rothney Kozlak are looking for redemption as well.
C Street is about to get serious. Chris Harvey is back in his 2009 MX-5, coming off a 2nd place at the the Spring Nats Pro. However his regular co-driver and Spring Nats winner Chris Fenter doesn't show up on the entry list... A casualty to the entry cap or a planned absence? Either way, C Street competitors will be trying to take advantage of his absence. One of those folks will be last year's STX national champ Andrew Pallotta, coming out for his first national event in his new RX-8. A long battle with grounding issues is finally over and he's got power steering... Expect him to be quick!
E Street sees a rematch between surprise NJ winner John Ryan and the always fast Eric Peterson. Peterson was forced to settle for 2nd again at Spring Nats this past weekend and he's only got two events left to gather up class points for the Finale, a position he's not used to. Ryan meanwhile is looking to show that NJ wasn't a fluke and that after a long break from autocross he's back with a new car this year having found his national competition stride.
Skipping down the entry list a bit we hit Super Street R, our biggest class this weekend. The east coast bastion of Corvette and R-Tire love is in full swing with eighteen competitors. Sam Strano is coming off a dominating performance at Spring Nats, but Grant Reeve is looking to show that he's the man to beat despite being in a relatively underpowered C5. Meanwhile Matthew Braun has found himself a C6Z06 Corvette as well. And let's not forget Josh Luster, our NJ SSR winner. Sam was slumming with STU that weekend and Luster will be out to prove that he can beat the SSR patriarch too.
Street Touring Sport is no slouch on the entry list either, with 15 entries. The class is a mix of the longtime stalwart Miata and CRX's, with the former STC Civics now thrown in. Results so far this year aren't showing a dominant platform and its anyone's guess what the final results will look like. Our NJ podium STS finishers (Wagstaff, Lee, and Roleira) aren't at this event, so its a whole new ballgame.
In New Jersey, the rest of the Street Touring Ultra class could only watch Martin Kriz's taillights as he left them all gasping at the tree. He ended up with a decisive win over Nick Barbato and the afore-mentioned Sam Strano and comes to Wilmington as the clear favorite. Barbato is back in his 350Z however, looking for vindication and don't count out Kriz's codriver David Wampler either!
You can't talk about Street Prepared in Ohio without talking about FSP. There's only six people registered for this class, but every driver has a name you recognize and all of them are out for blood. There was only one driver in FSP at New Jersey, so this weekend starts the real FSP ProSolo season on the East Coast. ESP also looks to be a battle with eleven entries. Longtime class competitors like Jennifer and Marcus Merideth are joined by KM graduate Jeremiah McClintock. Can McClintock adapt his considerable shifter kart skills to work with a Mustang that weighs ten times as much? We'll find out.
The Street Modified category looks to have some good action as well. The ubiquitous Panda is in SM, this time with PJ Corrales and David White driving it. Todd Keen, our NJ SM winner, apparently is not making the trip. Watch Aaron Shoe and Tim White to try and use their AWD launch advantage to knock the Panda off it's tree however. Meanwhile in SSM, a dominating win in NJ by Jake Namer was soured when he exploded his rear differential in spectacular fashion on his last run of class competition. He's listed for Wilmington, but so far there's no word if his car has been repaired. Randall Wilcox may not care either way... He's fresh from a strong showing of back to back 2nd places at Spring Nats and will be hungry to step up to the top step of the podium. Let's not forget SMF either... Brian Kuehl completely dominated at New Jersey, taking the win there by over four seconds and taking the top qualifier spot. Will Haydu, Janusz, or Tipple have an answer to him?
In the slick tire camp, R1 will see Ver Mulm and his completely awesome 'Camaro'. He's on his 2nd year with the car, but will he have it dialed enough to go after folks like Clemens Burger or Paul Magee? R2 matches SSR's 18 entries, albeit across the entire Prepared category. The calculators will make it all work out though and we'll see big names like Allen Kugler in his limited prep EP CRX going up against Raglin and Jones in their FP Solstice. Don't count out Darrin DiSimo either, but with no car listed on the entry sheet you have to wonder if he's really going to end up here or if he'll be stuck in the trailer working on SoloLive instead.
Ladies is last on the entry sheet but first in our hearts. Unfortunately for them they're usually in the first heat as well. L1 was drama filled at New Jersey with Stephanie Reeve ending up with the class win along with the Ladies Challenge top spot. She had to come from behind on Sunday to do that however, with Saturday's leader Shelly Monfort sidelined by food poisoning. Monfort is riding a high from a Spring Nationals L1 win and its anyone's guess as to who will come out on top this coming weekend. Watch for Kugler, Lavender, Baker, and Weaver in L1 as well. In L3 watch for Laura Campbell to face off against Kim Whitener. Whitener's new STF Civic has been doing well this year and may have the edge in the battle of the indexes.
Tune in to Sololive and our Ustream broadcast to see how it all shakes out. With a 60% chance of scattered thunderstorms predicted for both Saturday and Sunday, this one may come down to who can put it together the best when the course conditions allow. No pressure!
