Event Results
On this past Sunday, the 2016 Tire Rack Match Tour season concluded with all too many satisfied soloists leaving PittRace, each in their respective caravans towards their home regions. The weekend was grand, made possible especially by a site as supportive and pleasant as PittRace. They even have a track dog by the name of Turbo, and he was absolutely adorable, his name notwithstanding. All contingencies were off for Sunday, which meant every driver was focused on having fun qualifying as fast as their mind and machine would allow, rather than on winning some silly tires. Despite some talk of a few loose sections during Saturday's competition, the course definitely picked up some speed for qualifying runs. Any Saturday evening quibbles were ousted with a variation of, "I was definitely faster this morning."
Unlike with ProSolos, the top qualifiers from each heat make it in to the Top and Under Dog brackets. Sam Strano laid down a 46.2 to take the top qualifier position in heat one, but decided to pass on competing in the challenge, bumping the following 16 drivers into the brackets. In heat three, Martin Valent managed his infamous MR2 to a blisteringly quick 45.5 to take the top qualifying spot, he claimed FTD for the weekend too.
As the Top Dog bracket racing began, times began to drop, drivers were breaking out past their dail-ins from earlier in the day. In heat three, Danny Kao piloting Oscar, the NB CSP car, was able to fend off all of his fellow heat three drivers to move on to the final, three-way battle. Heat two’s bracket winner was Gregory Vincent driving his yellow B Street S2000. Matt Jones was the victor in from heat one. In their three-way battle, tensions were high. The timing displays were switched off and the announcer did not share times as each competitor crossed the line. First one across the line was Matt Jones, Matt had been consistently going faster with each bracket pairing, but also steadily decreasing his dial-in. He powered across the finish, clean and solid run. Next across was Vincent, and like a crisp bolt of lighting, also finished with a clean run. For the final run, all eyes were on Danny Kao, and has he began the course and now seeing it for the fourteenth time, he was really shifting. On the second to last turn, he got on the power heading towards the finish; a bit of oversteer, a little bit more of oversteer, a lot of oversteer, and then the rear tires decided to cross paths and change rolling direction. Kao brought his reversing car to a stop as spectators paused in silence. The announcer came on and declared Matt Jones the winner with another properly quick 48.2 break out run. Excellent driving by all competitors in the Top Dog challenge, you put on one heck of a show.
Moving to the Lucky Dog challenge, Megan DePietro’s hear her name most. First, she fought off Matt Parson in his XP V8 Miata. The next competitor was Sara Odioso, who just nicked a cone on the back slalom. In the final bracket, DePietro faced off with Lloyd Willis in his HS mini, but Megan prevailed and piloted her beautiful Nitrous Blue RS through to the finish closer to her dial-in, and winning the Lucky Dog bracket! The final bracket on Sunday afternoon was the Under Dog challenge, the drivers qualifying ninth to sixteenth in each heat compete here. Kyle Herbst emerged victorious from the first heat bracket, Chett Wohlgamuth from the second heat, and Andrew Merrow from the third. Merrow went on to win the Under Dog challenge with a clean and fast run. Fantastic driving by all drivers on Sunday afternoon.
With another two National Tours on the horizon for east coast competitors, the cars will not get but a few days’ rest, if even unloaded from their trailers. Huge thanks again to PittRace for hosting a phenomenal weekend, and even with other events taking place simultaneously, the event flowed flawlessly. Next up, Wilmington!
