TOPEKA, Kan. (June 7, 2017) – Competitors arrived at the Mineral Wells Airport as showers saturated the Texas ground for the 2017 Tire Rack Mineral Wells ProSolo®. Intermittent showers continued through the weekend, making competitors unsure of their hopes for dry conditions. Heat 1 was quite wet as rain continued to fall. But as Heat 2 started, the rain subsided and most drivers ran in drying conditions as the site drained quickly thanks to a gradual slope from the right course across the left course. This meant that when draining, the left course was more treacherous than the right. Sunday morning, competitors woke to find the site covered in a dense fog, but dry. After a half-hour delay in starting, all classes attacked the course in dry conditions. This led to a few interesting changes in rankings as the playing field returned to level.

Challenge competition lit up with the ladies taking to the line first. Kim Whitener faced Su Brude in the semifinal round, taking the victory by 0.8 second in her Street Touring Sport Mazda Miata. But she also broke out, lowering her dial-in time by over a second. In her own semifinal round, Jordan Towns recovered from a 0.129-second deficit against Kate Fisher to advance by a margin of 0.772 second in her D Street Subaru WRX. In the final, that breakout cost Whitener as Towns took a dominant victory by 1.3 seconds. Third place went to Su Brude in her Super Street Prepared Porsche 911 Turbo as she held on against the charging Kate Fisher.

The Bonus Challenge, with participants selected from a random draw of those not qualified for the Ladies or Super Challenges, was a story of breakouts. Malcomb Lawson set a new dial-in with each round, lowering it by a total of 0.883 second. His competitor in the final, Linda Duncan, broke out in the semifinal round, lowering her dial-in by 6.559 seconds. This dial-in proved too tough to match as Lawson took the victory.

As the Bonus Challenge concluded, the rain resumed. Halfway through the first round, competition was halted as cones fell from the wake thrown by cars. After a 15-minute pause, rain had subsided enough to continue, with the understanding that if rain resumed, the Challenge might reach an early conclusion. Luckily, as the rain slowed, the clouds receded and drivers were once again facing the damp conditions of Heats 1 and 2.

The rain accentuated the strengths of several cars, specifically lower horsepower front and all-wheel-drive vehicles. As the kids would say, the struggle was real for the high horsepower cars, especially those not equipped with rain tires. John Hale (STU Subaru WRX STI) and Dennis Sparks (DS Subaru WRX) both advanced to the second round before the rain changed the landscape of the competition. Their AWD chariots would prove useful as they advanced through the challenge. In the semifinal, Sparks defeated Hale by 1.042 seconds.

On the other side of the bracket, Paul Brown showed that he could overcome having the best car for the conditions in his E Street Toyota MR2 Spyder. He made it to the semifinal round to face Russell Blume in a H Street Mini Cooper. Blume advanced handedly as others struggled with the conditions, including the weekend’s course designer, Vivek Goel, in a Street Touring Roadster Honda S2000. Goel’s attempt was admirable, but not enough to overcome the Mini’s advantage. In the semifinal, Blume and the Mini once again showed just how strong that car is in wet conditions, defeating Brown by 0.526 second.

Hale and Brown met in the third-place runoff where Brown faltered, giving up a 0.288-second advantage on the right side by spinning in the showcase turn on the left side. Hale kept it clean and took the victory. In the final showdown, it was Sparks in the Subaru versus Blume in the Mini. The AWD of the Subaru no doubt played a role as Sparks laid down two more consistent runs, claiming victory by 1.1 seconds, giving the WRX shared with Jordan Towns a perfect weekend with a pair of class and challenge victories.

In class competition, there was a lot of moving and shaking on Sunday morning as dry runs were doled out to all. In A Street, Zach Driver held a 1.337-second lead in a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 after the first two heats in the wet. With two attempts on each side Sunday morning, David Hedderick jumped to the lead from fourth, finding nearly nine seconds in another Corvette ZO6. Matt Lucas jumped from sixth all the way into second in the outcast of the class, a Chevrolet Camaro 1LE. Driver would end up third with Kent Kroll rounding out the trophies in fourth.

Bump 2 brought together drivers from H Street, Street Touring Ultra, Street Touring Pony, and Super Street Prepared. The seven drivers battled for three trophy positions. With the second-closest margin of victory, Russell Blume defeated John Hale by 0.062 second before the pair finished second and third, respectively, in the Super Challenge.

B Street brought the closest final margin of victory, despite looking like a foregone conclusion on day one. Todd Roberts led from start to finish in his Subaru WRX STI, but Jeremy Foley charged from seventh after day one to find over six seconds to claim second place by a margin of just 0.052 second in his BMW 1M. Brian Johns finished third, a mere half-second back, in his Chevrolet Corvette. Dan Bullis rounded out the trophies in fourth in a matching Chevrolet Corvette.

Since moving the Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S to D Street, C Street has become the Mazda MX-5 party. Mineral Wells was no exception as 10 Miatas gathered. With the theoretically equal cars, the rain played less of a role than other classes. Dave Ogburn III and Daniel McCelvey were the big climbers in the dry, claiming the first and second spots respectively. Tyler Kvetko stood steady in third and John Kvetko fell from the lead to fourth.

Street Touring Roadster ran late enough in the day on benefit from mostly dry conditions in Heat 2. On average, competitors found an additional second overall in the complete dry of Heat 3. With that said, there was still some shuffling. Vivek Goel led at the end of day one, but with 22 drivers, his 0.324-second lead was going to be tough to hold. While he found another 0.421 on Sunday, that was only enough for a fourth-place finish in a Honda S2000. The biggest gain in the trophies belonged to Michael Willman who found over four seconds to slot into third in the same S2000. Ian Stewart led the Mazda MX-5 charge and stood strong as the first runner-up. Ricky Crow made a serious improvement to find nearly two seconds on just one side and take the victory in his S2000 by a margin of 0.224 second. Kerry Coughlin, Heidi Ellison and Ed Vogt completed the trophies in two S2000s and a MX-5 respectively.

Running at the tail end of the day, Street Touring Xtreme drivers could lay down fast times in Heat 2, many of which stood through the end of class competition. Brandon Slater led following Saturday’s competition in a Subaru BRZ, but was unable to improve his times on Sunday, partially due to a pair of red lights. This opened the door for Justin Metz to move up from second. Gaining on one run, Metz claimed the victory in another BRZ. Gregory Schumaker and Brad Maxcy claimed the last two trophy positions in a BRZ and BMW 32is, respectively. All four trophies were covered by just over a second.

In ProSolo competition, the Modified and Prepared classes are combined into the Race Tire Index classes. Race Tire Index 2, composed of the Prepared classes, was a diverse mix with XP, CP, DP, and FP represented. The trophies were dominated by the Zust XP Lotus Elise and Strelnieks FP Porsche Boxster. Troy Acosta dominated day one in the Boxster, but stood on a Heat 2 time at the end of competition. Fred Zust capitalized laying down two blazing runs in his last looks at the course. Alexandra Zust showed her strength taking the third spot on the podium with Federico del Toro closing out the trophies in fourth.

The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo season continues this weekend, June 10-11, in Toledo, Ohio.