View the Crows Landing ProSolo Entry List!

Photo Credit: Anthony Porta

The second ProSolo of the 2016 SCCA season should delight all entrants as it takes place on the home of the "fourth-gear" course,—Crows Landing—on April 29–May 1. If the Championship Tour the weekend before is any indication, racers can expect fast speeds and a grippy surface on which to compete.

There are a few large classes to focus on, namely STX with 16 drivers and STR with 15. In STX, look for El Toro ProSolo winner Jonathan Lugod (in his Ford C-Max…errr…Focus ST) to defend his crown. Karlton Lew, who finished third at El Toro and won the Crows Championship Tour, will also be a contender, as well as the Tsang brothers, Mack and Justin. In STR, James Yom is the clear frontrunner as he comes into the event having won both the ProSolo at El Toro and Tour at Crows. Also keep an eye out for Michael Yanase, Kevin Dietz, and Ron Bauer.

In other street touring classes, Bryan Heitkotter and Jeff Stuart will have another opportunity to go head-to-head in STU, following Heitkotter’s win at the El Toro event and Stuart's victories at both the Oceanside Match Tour and Crows Championship Tour. In STS, Jeff Wong will have the target on his back after three straight wins. The only question remains is whether his CRX be fixed in time to compete after it broke at the Crows Tour.

Michael Heinitz won Bump 1 at El Toro, and will this time have a full STF class to compete in at the Crows Pro. Steve Lau in his GT3 RS should be the favorite in SSP following wins at both the El Toro ProSolo and Crows Tour. Bred Norgaard, who won the Pro at El Toro, again should be the favorite to win at Crows, but his car broke before he could get a run in at the Crows Tour, and it will be interesting to see if it’s fixed in time.

SM, which was in a bump class at El Toro, has a full class this time, with many of the competitors tapped to win. Look for Peter Bollenbecker (fresh car), Greg McCance, Eric Hyman (returns in Godzilla to keep the pressure on the leaders), and Jason Merritt (second at the Crows Tour).

As we move to R1, KJ Christopher vs. Jeff Kiesel vs. Tom Ellam highlights the very fast, mind-blowingly quick class. It will be interesting to see what kind of course the designer creates, and which Mod will reign supreme. In R2, look for Nick Bjoin and Andrew McKee (one-two at the El Toro Pro), and perhaps the wider, open course at Crows will favor the long legs of the RX-7.

In the Ladies Classes, all three winners from El Toro return to defend their crowns: Christine Grice in L1 (who also won the Ladies Challenge), Kristen Acharya in L2, and Nicole Wong in L3. All three will be facing stiff competition with high numbers of women in each class: eight in L1, 11 in L2, and 16 in L3.

Street Prepared classes will most likely be bumped together as they are all short of five competitors. CSP has four, though, so if they get a fifth, look for George Doganis (who won the El Toro ProSolo) and Brock Palmer (who won the Bonus Challenge). Other street prepared names to keep on eye on are Tom Berry (who put a smack down on the bump class at El Toro), and Tim Bergstrom and Anthony Porta, who finished within five-hundredths of each other at the Pro.

As we head to the street classes, B-Street and C-Street both have plenty of racers who could take home the crown. Alex Muresan maybe the favorite in B-Street, though, following his win at the El Toro Pro, but look for Dan Bullis to challenge after his victory at the Crows Championship Tour this past weekend. Jeffrey Bandes in C-Street may also be the one to beat: he finished second to Ron Bauer at the El Toro ProSolo, and won the 17-person class at the Crows Tour. Also notable in CS is the variety of cars competing: MR2, ND Miata, 350z, RX-8, and BRX spanning 23 years.

In F-Street, the battle will be between El Toro Pro winner Matt Ales and Ryan Otis, who finished second at the Crows Tour. There are also quite a few other street classes likely to be bumped, so it will be very interesting to see who’s competing against whom and how that shakes up the rest of the group.