Event Results
Images Credit: Thomas Thompson
A trip Mineral Wells promises big ProSolo courses and it delivered this weekend. STR times were in the low 45 second range and that was with a relatively high average speed. The rain held off and if you were from Texas or Louisiana your probably told your friends how nice and cool the weather was. If you were from elsewhere you probably used the word "Hot".
Overnight Saturday the course was repaired and the few drivers that had been delayed the previous evening were sent out early to get their missed runs in. By the time the class competition was complete here were some of the storylines.
The largest gap between 1st and 2nd in a class came in AS. David Hedderick used Sunday to stretch his lead to 2.571 second over Ian Peebles. The wide open course helped limit Hedderick’s usual cone carnage to just 2 for the entire weekend. Peebles's co-driver, Rick Martinez, was able to pick up time on Sunday and slot into 3rd place by just .187 seconds over Nick Gruendler.
Vivek Goel won praise this weekend for his course design and won B-Street. The latter proved to be pretty tight, as Todd Roberts was just behind Goel all weekend and eventually finished just .055 behind Goel. Jeremy Foley negotiated a co-drive in Kerry Emmert's BMW 1M, and finally figured it out enough on Sunday to get into 3rd place .322 seconds behind Roberts.
There was no shuffling among the top 3 in CS compared to Day 1. Tyler Kvetko stretched his lead over 2015 National Champion David Ogburn III to .529 seconds on Sunday, proving the 2016 Mazda MX-5 to be a viable platform in CS. Chris Levitz finished in 3rd with Matthew Leach and Eric Jones rounding out the trophy spots.
DS and ES remained the same as Day 1, with Tom Reynolds (DS) and Paul Brown (ES) finishing in 1st. Ken Orgeron could have slept in and still claimed 1st in FS but Kevin Youngers was able to slot into 2nd.
Ricky Crow must have found his speed behind the dresser in the hotel room Saturday night because Sunday was his day to move up. He bumped Kerry Coughlin from to 2nd place .664 seconds behind. Chris Leclair and Michael Willman rounded out 3rd and 4th.
In R2, Erik Strelnieks came away with yet another ProSolo class win. This time getting some completion from his co-driver Troy Acosta. The R1 first place trophy went home with Jason Hobbs (FM). He topped co-driver/tire warmer Matt Murphy by 1.190 seconds.
After the dragstrip style start, the challenges one of the most exciting elements of ProSolo.
The Ladies Challenge featured some great female autocross talent. The final four featured Meredith Brown and her MR2 against Jordan Towns in the WRX on one side of the bracket and Su Brude in a beautiful SSP 911 Turbo against Deana Kelley wielding the 2016 Mazda MX-5. Towns and Kelly moved on to the finals. That set up Brown vs Brude in the match up for 3rd place, which would eventually go to Brown. In the finals, the dreaded red light ended Towns’s shot at the Ladies Challenge title, handing it to Deana Kelly.
The Bonus Challenge Final 4 featured Nathalie Lepine in a Scion SC against Brandon Slater in a Scion SC, and Charles Cram in a C5 Z06 vs Michael Currie in a 1993 20B RX-7. Lepine and Currie won their matchups and met in the finals. One of the great things about the Bonus challenge is your dial-in is based on your times during class competition, and that can lead to some very interesting match-ups. For the Bonus Challenge finals Nathalie Lepine had an almost 10 second head start over Michael Currie, and while the RX7 was capable of closing multiple seconds of time against the Scion SC, the gap proved too much as Curie fell to Lepine.
The Super Challenge Elite 8 featured James Harnish against Tyler Kvetko. Harnish had beaten top qualifier David Hedderick in round 2 but stumbled against Kvetko by red lighting after switching sides. The second Top 8 matchup pitted Paul Brown against David Whitener who uses Mineral Wells as his home practice site. That home court advantage was enough to move to Whitener to the next round. Next Brad McCann took on Eric Hyman who had benefited from an Erik Strelnieks red light in round 2. He should have hoped for McCann to red light because Hyundai Genesis and its head start proved too much of the more powerful GTR. For the final match up in the round of 8, Kim Whitener paired up against Ricky Crow. Whitener watched as Crow jumped early and red lit, the same as Ken Orgeron had done in the round before against her. Kim would go on to beat Brad McCann after he picked up a cone. Tyler Kvetko was the only thing impeding an all Whitener final. His win over David would put him up against Kim for the final round. McCann and David Whitener met in the 3rd place match up, and McCann was victorious and captured 3rd. After being the beneficiary of multiple red lights in the early rounds, Kim Whitener became the victim and handed the 2016 Mineral Well ProSolo Super Challenge Championship to Tyler Kvetko. Congratulations, Tyler!
The next Texas event is the College Station Championship Tour be sure to sign up for that as soon as you finish reading this.
