The cars are packed up, the trailers are loaded, the hand shakes and hugs are exchanged, and a lot of “See you at Nationals” told to one another. While some take their last breath of mountain fresh air before heading back to city life Monday, others embark on the long drive home. This marks the end of the Packwood ProSolo, and two weekends of fun in a mountain paradise. Once again we were graced with cloudless skies, hot pavement and were able to enjoyed the wonderful indoor grid and paddock. The courses were very fast and had horsepower digs, but had sections that require some brass "you know whats" to believe in the grip and go in hard. Those who trusted their car and set the line up right were rewarded with fast times. Those who reacted too late ended up wide, or even in a spin. It took a lot to put together a complete run even on this shorter course.
Enjoying some of the cool morning, L1’s top drivers took advantage of their power and AWD to get the most out of Sunday runs. Laurie Hyman in the GTR carried a sizable 8/10 lead after day 1, but wasn’t satisfied with that in the least. After heating up the tires on her first two runs, she went on to put down a 23.082 on the left, and a smoking 22.927 on the right putting her with only a handful of cars with doors who were able to find the 22’s this weekend. Jodi Fordahl and Event Chair Caitlin Snell were both able to find time on the left dropping into the mid 23’s, but neither was able to find a fast enough right side to displace Hyman. Laurie would take a 8/10 win over Fordahl with Snell just 2/10 back from there. L2 was a much closer battle with Jami Olerich on her final left side run finding almost 1 full second to jump to a .250 lead over Laura Molleker and Barbara LeRoy-Boehme. If Sunday runs in L3 had to be an element of a movie, it would be the plot twist! Tasha Mikko in her STU Evo held a lead in the class after the first session over Mina Ingraham in the 2004 STi. Mikko would go on to drop time during the afternoon runs to extend that lead even further. Little did we know the beast of a Subaru was soon to be unleashed on the course Sunday. Ingraham came out and dropped an immediate 1 second on the left side. On the final two runs, both drivers found the 24.8 mark on the right side, but on her final run, Ingraham found another 4/10 on the left to take a .418 win over Mikko and the rest of the class.
In SM, Dallas Cutler in the 2006 Mitsubishi Evo would get his revenge for last weekend by finding 6/10 of a second on his final left side, and 7/10 on his final right side to take a large .760 lead over Jason Merritt in the 1989 240SX. SSM Leader after day 1 David de Regt driving the 2006 Lotus Elise had a slim margin over Eric Hyman in the Nissan GTR after 8 runs. Both drivers sitting in the high 22’s. Both drivers found time right away Sunday with Hyman dropping .1 on his best left, and de Regt finding .090 on this right to maintain the lead. In the final two runs, de Regt was unable to find any time. Hyman shaved another 2/10 on the right, but coned his left side that would have given him the win. de Regt would take a thinnest .039 win over the Godzilla GTR.
Staying with the theme of race tires, R1 was the land of no-door vehicles with Eric Clements in the 1994 Van Diemen C-Mod car fighting for the lead with Glen Barnhouse in the 2010 Dig It F-Mod. Barnhouse figured the course out quickly and was able to run high 22’s in just the first session on Saturday. Clements would spend the rest of the weekend chasing him. The C-Mod driver was able to drop time both sides on Sunday, but it wouldn’t be enough to overtake the F-mod. Barnhouse would take home a .365 second win resting on his Saturday runs over Eric Clements and son Jonathan Clements rounding out the trophies. R2 Sunday runs would finish the battle between Chris Dorsey in D-Prepared Corolla vs high power Andy McKee in the X-Prepared RX-7. McKee had the lead after day 1 on a pair of 22.7 runs, but was unable to stay clean Sunday afternoon. Chris Dorsey on the other hand was able to find 2/10 on the left side, and a full 8/10 on the right to jump back into the lead and take a .449 win over McKee. KP in the 1998 Lotus Elise would take 3rd .377 back from Mckee, and Ron Baker in the 4th and final trophy spot. If there was ever a well stacked R2 class, this was it.
If you’re wondering how the Coleman/Spyksma show that I talked about on the Saturday recap ended, there was a surprise special guest of Chris Thorpe in the 2012 VW Golf R, dropping an impressive 6/10 to on the left and 1/10 on the right to move him into the 2nd and final trophy position bumping Charly Spyksma out. Karl Coleman was able to find 5/10 per side on Sunday putting down a pair of 24.5’s to take a 9/10 win over the class in the 2015 Subaru WRX.
With the closing of the gates at Hamptom Mills in Packwood Washington, this means we are completed with our last West coast ProSolo for the season. Tune in in 2 weeks to our final round of the Tire Rack ProSolo series in Wilmington Ohio.
