Final Results
The 2016 SCCA Wilmington Championship Tour was on fire with hot competition burning up the concrete in each of the 5 heats this past weekend, with a total of 360 registered entrants blazing through the high speed Danny Popp designed course.
The first heat was host to the largest class of the event, with 34 competitors in C Street. John Wolf held the lead over co-driver William Bostic going into Sunday competition, with Chris Harvey, Dennis and Chris Sparks, Deana Kelly, and Jim Zeisler all within about 2 tenths of 2nd place. The battle for the podium was sure to go down to the last run with such close competition, but Wolf was able to stretch out his lead to take the class win in his Scion FR-S as Bostic held station in 2nd just 0.01 ahead of Harvey in the 2016 Miata. Dennis Sparks trailed by a scant 0.022 behind him for 4th, showing that the RX-8 can still hang near the top.
Some controversy in heat 1 came with Street Modified FWD, as a mystery cone came into play. In the end, day 1 leader Chris Haydu was bumped to 2nd place as David O'Maley Jr. took the win once the audit sheets were in.
In second heat, things started getting hotter. Street Touring R had a mix of cars fighting for the top spot, with two generations of Miatas and an S2000 in the top 3 spots, only 2 tenths separating them, and then only about 2 more tenths between 3rd and 9th place, with only 7 trophy spots available! Brian Karwan in his 2016 Miata held the lead going into Saturday, as Tim Viars gave chase but could only maintain the gap as Karwan started strong and held the lead through every run to take the eventual win. Viars held second as Greg Janulis moved up two spots to third.
Second heat also brought an exciting battle with AS, as Mark Labbancz ran down the day one leader, Brian Robertson, to take the win on his final run and claim his first ever National event trophy, leaving his record at 100% wins for every National event he has trophied in.
Tragedy struck in 3rd heat, as a catastrophic failure brought another Street Mod Subaru out of commission as Dan Stainback’s STi erupted in smoke during his co-driver Heidi Ellison’s first run. With Tim White's Subaru out of commission from running the previous day, this left only Aaron Miller within reach of challenging the Panda 240sx of day one class leader David White and his co-driver Todd Kean. Kean, 2 tenths back from day one and only 0.015 behind Miller, took the lead on run 2 and extended it further on his final run, as White held onto 2nd ahead of Miller who rounded out the podium. Micheal Aversa, with the only remaining Subaru in class, rounded out the trophies in 4th.
Over in STX, Raymond Dsouza in his Subaru BRZ set out to prove that horsepower wasn't going to be the deciding factor for the class win, as he led Kyle Herbst’s BMW 128i by 0.086 going into Sunday. He extended the lead on day two, bringing home a 2 tenths lead over Herbst, as Matt Jones came in 3rd.
Fourth heat's Super Street R looked to be anyone's class to win before Saturday runs, with anyone's guess as to which car's combination of power and gearing would come out on top. After Saturday, though, everyone in class would have to chase Grant Reeve, who held nearly a half second lead over Sam Strano. By SSR terms, this was a fairly unorthodox gap, as the class positons have been historically decided by thousandths of a second. Reeve proved that Saturday was no fluke, as he nearly doubled his lead on Sunday to claim bragging rights as the overall event PAX leader, as well as victory over SSR. Strano held second by a scant 0.052 over Josh Luster, who had Sunday’s fastest time in class to bump co-driver Evan Schickel into 4th.
In the final heat, Street Touring S saw something of an invasion, as Dave Montgomery, Marc Osgood, and Matthew Glagola jumped back into Hondas as their FP and SSM cars respectively were unable to make the event. Montgomery apparently hadn't lost touch with his CRX, or the change of speed made it easier for him to adapt as he brought in the only sub-75 second Saturday run for the class. This put him into the lead over Sean Greer going into Sunday, with Marc Osgood just a tenth back and co-driver Matthew Glagola just behind. The top 3 held station on Sunday as Montgomery doubled his lead to take the class win, with Greer staying 2nd stretching out his own gap over Osgood.
Overall, this year’s Wilmington Championship Tour went off smoothly thanks to the efforts of the Cincinnati Region! Somehow, we made it through 360 competitors running in scorching hot conditions with limited time on the site. However, there’s little time for rest, as the site will host yet another national event when the Wilmington Summer ProSolo comes back around next weekend!
