Photos by David Anderson

Kevin Youngers, of Greeley Colorado, made the trip to Mineral Wells Texas for this past weekends' Tire Rack Pro Solo event, and it paid off as he won the Super Challenge in his 2012 Ford Mustang GT. Meredith Brown from Los Alamos, New Mexico would pilot her 2003 Toyota MR-2 Spyder to the win in the Ladies Challenge. Representing the Lone Star State and locals, the bonus challenge was won by Michael Holzmann in his STS prepared 1990 Mazda Miata.

Texas Pro Solo Winners Giving each other Champagne Baths in Hot Mineral Wells in June (above)

After a wet month of May in Texas, the wettest ever recorded, the Sun decided to shine this first weekend in June, as did the competitors in what was a great weekend of racing and comradery. In typical fashion event hosts Brad and Jennifer Maxcy from Texas Region, pulled out all the stops on a great event. Parties under the big Texas tent on both Friday and Saturday nights added a great amount of socializing and story during the weekend.

With over 200 entries the competition was fierce in many aspects and there were lots of fast cars dueling for class and births into the Challenge rounds all through the weekend.

Lots of Fun, Laughs, and Fierce Competition this weekend in Mineral Wells – C-Street competitors, Brandon Slater, Jacob Randall, and Zach Lemoine hamming it up for the camera during the weekend (above)

Kevin Youngers would make his way to the challenge rounds by way of a 2nd place finish in the F-Street. Kevin had been narrowly clipped by Texas Region local Ken Orgeron in what was one of the more interesting races for the top spot in F-Street throughout the weekend. Ken would win the class by .114 over Kevin but both drivers would gain births into the Challenge Round. Kevin would then be up first against STS Class winner Kinch Reindl, no small task. After defeating Kinch, a shot in the arm in itself, Kevin would then go up against another class winner in Daniel McCelvey in his STX prepared 2013 Subaru BRZ. Keeping the trend of knocking off class winners going, he would take out both Stephen Hui and Vivek Goel in B-Street and A-Street respectively to make the final. In the final round for all the marbles Kevin would take the win over E-Street Champion Paul Brown, keeping his streak alive of knocking off all the class winners in what was a very special win.

In the Ladies Challenge Meredith Brown secured her entry by finishing 3rd in the class completion in L2, just behind Jordan Townes with the class win and Su Brude in 2nd. Meredith found herself up against a very competitive and fast Donna Marx in the first round of the ladies challenge, but would will her MR-2 Spyder to a win over the Corvette of Marx to move into the next bracket round. She was then up against Stephanie Boehm, who had just come off a victory in the first round of the ladies challenge against Kim Whitener. Meredith would gain the victory over Stephanie to setup the final against Mindi Cross in her 2013 SCION FRS, where she would secure the challenge win and opportunity to spray champagne across the site at day’s end.

Michael Holzmann got faster and faster and more and more consistent throughout the weekend to take the Bonus Challenge, which was a really neat story, as he is a somewhat newcomer to the sport, and a popular driver amongst the home crowd, so he had a lot of fans in his corner as he took down the bonus challenge.

There were some great battles for class competition and trophies all weekend.Taking a look at some of the more competitive races we witnessed the following exciting finishes:

• Dave Ogburn III wins C-Street by a mere .370 over Jim Reyenga and a field of 17 entrants
• Ken Orgeron winning F-Street by the slimmest of margins of .114 over eventual Super Challenge Winner Kevin Youngers
• Trevor Jones clipping Local Favorite Brad McCann in G-Street by .193
• David Whitener fighting off a hard charging co-driver in Spaggo Venutti by only .075 seconds!
• Kinch Reindl ousting Grant Watkins and Gerry Terranova in another Epic STS race, but a combined total of less than a half second.
• Lane Borg taking down STU in an Epic and very close race against John Hale and Robert Pendergest.
• Jordan Towns winning Ladies 2 in a great race with Su Brude where they swapped the lead on almost every run of the weekend in a great back and forth between great drivers.

Next up in the 2015 Tire Rack Pro Solo Tour is Toledo, Ohio later this month. Things are really heating up across several classes for points and awards, so we expect another great fun summer event in the coming weeks! Until then we are signing off from Texas – See Yall at the Races!