TOPEKA, Kan. (July 18, 2017) – Competitors returned to the peaceful valley between the mountains of Packwood, Washington for the Tire Rack Packwood ProSolo® just one week after the successful Championship Tour at the same location. While windier than the previous weekend, competitors enjoyed the covered grid and impound.
In the first round of the Ladies Challenge, Ladies Class 2 winner, Meredith Brown, downed a cone on the left side, giving Jessica Gauthier the win by 0.2 second. Catherine Tran and Jessica Podhola were both slow off the line in the second pairing, and Tran ultimately moved onto round two. In round three, Tasha Mikko red lit, giving the win to Mina Ingraham. In round two, Tran was paired with Gauthier and took the win to move onto the final. Ingraham was paired against Lacey Otis and took the win by 0.9 second. In the final round, it came down to Ingraham and Tran. Ingraham put down a flyer first run, but coned it away early on run two, giving Tran the win by about one second.
Onto the Bonus Challenge, Jim Zhu from Street Touring Xtreme faced Theron Langel from Street Touring Roadster. Zhu took the win after a good, clean race for both drivers. Doug Mikko was paired against Kit Gauthier, and on run one, Gauthier came back with a cone penalty, giving Mikko a 5.3-second advantage. There was no sandbagging on either side as Mikko cut a 0.487 light, giving the automatic win to Gauthier. In the second round, we had a brief battle of the twins as Jim Zhu was 0.003 second too fast at the light on his second run in his STX Subaru BRZ, giving Kit Gauthier the win in his D Street Scion FR-S. In the final round, Gauthier saw Cal Craner in a C Street Mazda MX-5. Craner coned his first run, but didn’t give up as he cut a 0.501 light on run number two. Although he put up a great fight, Craner’s reaction time was not enough to catch up to Gauthier, as Gauthier came away with the Bonus Challenge win.
In the Super Challenge, Mark Scroggs emerged from the third qualifier position on the strength of his D Street victory in a Chevrolet Camaro. In the semi-final round, Scroggs took a 0.15-second win over the E Street Mazda Miata of Jack Yeung. On the other side of the bracket, Kevin Dietz faced Dierter Beldi. Second runs came with Beldi on the left and Dietz on the right with a 3-second advantage. Beldi broke out to overcome the deficit and claim a position in the Super Challenge final. In the third-place runoff, Yeung DNFed on his right-side run, giving the final podium position to Kevin Dietz. In the final showdown, it was a classic Ford vs. Chevrolet battle. Dieter Beldi in a H Street Ford Fiesta ST, and Scroggs in the D Street Camaro. The racing was close and clean, and in the end Scroggs took the win by 0.75 second.
In class competition, Bump Class 1 started Sunday with Bill Zerr (STU) in the lead over Stacey Molleker (FS). But on Molleker’s last run, he took the lead by 0.052 second. Monty Pack (SS) took third, and Dan Podhola (STU) took the fourth and final trophy spot.
In B Street, Ford Focus RS driver Lorin Mueller took the early lead on Saturday morning as Cayman S driver Ryan Clark carried a cone on his first left-side run. But on Saturday afternoon, Clark took the lead and held onto it through Sunday to take the win. Mueller moved into second and ended up 0.02 second ahead of Tom Kerns. Dan Bullis trailed just 0.319 second behind in his Chevrolet Corvette to take the fourth and final trophy position.
Paul Brown took an early lead in E Street, with a 0.325-second advantage over Jack Yeung prior to Sunday. Yeung was able to drive his ‘99 Mazda Miata to a significant enough margin on his final left-side run to take the win by 0.128 second over Brown in a Toyota MR2 Spyder. Matt Waldbaum took third in Yeung’s Miata and Charles Matthews grabbed the final trophy spot in another MR2.
Scott McHugh, after enjoying his top PAX position the first half of Saturday, did not improve on his Sunday runs, but kept his lead in H Street in a Honda Accord Sport. Dieter Biedi took second in his Fiesta ST, 0.3 second behind McHugh after coning away his final right-side flyer, which would have been enough to take the win by 0.015 second.
Street Touring Sport started Sunday morning with Shane Jensen holding a 0.028-second lead over Eric Stoltz. Neither driver improved with first runs, but on Stoltz's second left-side run, he found a 0.236-second improvement, enough to take his ’92 Mazda Miata to the top spot in STS for a 0.208-second margin of victory over Jensen, who stood on his Saturday afternoon runs.
All eyes were on Street Touring Xtreme as Chris Thorpe rode his early lead into Sunday. Karl Coleman jumped up in the standings from fourth to second. Steve O’Blenes was carrying cones on all of his left-side runs Saturday, but the pace was there to bring his rotary-powered machine to the front of the class. He cleaned up enough to leapfrog into third place, then put down a flyer on the right that would have been enough for first place, if not for the cone penalty. He had to stand on his second run on that side from Saturday. Alex Paraskevas claimed the final trophy in fourth.
In Street Touring Roadster, Ron Bauer took the win last week at the Champ Tour, but Kevin Dietz came out on top in his Honda S2000 at the ProSolo by a 0.584-second margin over Bauer. Ken Motonishi took third place in the orange ND Mazda Miata, with Jay Balducci trailing just 0.108 second behind for fourth in Bauer’s Miata. Piotr Szarkowicz drove Dietz’s S2000 to the fifth and final trophy spot, 0.076 second behind Balducci.
In a large 15-driver class, Race Tire Index 1 had a lead change Saturday afternoon as Josh McCall took the lead over co-driver Zachary Morgan in the F Prepared Mitsubishi Evo. Fred Zust took third spot in his X Prepared Lotus. Jim Daniels took fourth in his D Prepared Miata, the fifth and final trophy spot was taken by XP Mazda RX7 driver, Andy McKee.
Classic American Muscle, with nine drivers, was led until the end by Ryan Otis in his CAM-C Camaro. The battle for second was tight, as Jami Olerich held second position at the end of Saturday, followed by Dennis Healy. On Sunday, Healy got it done on his final right- and left-side runs to take second position. Olerich would hold onto third for the final trophy spot.
In the ladies’ classes, Tasha Mikko took the early Ladies 2 lead in her B Street Focus RS, but Meredith Brown, driving an E Street MR2, went on to take that lead away, and kept it through Sunday to take the win. Laura Molleker would go on to take the third and final trophy position in her F Street Camaro, just 0.148 second behind Mikko. In Ladies 3, Mina Ingraham took the early lead on Saturday morning with just three Saturday runs. She stood on her second Saturday run but made a trip home to replace a broken axle on her STU STi and was able to improve the left side. Lacey Otis took the lead in her STP Camaro on her first Sunday morning run while Mina coned away a fast left-side run. On Mina’s final left-side run, she took the lead back by 0.282 second to win. Catherine Tran took third position, 0.219 second behind in the O’Blenes STX RX8, Jessica Podhola finished fourth in the Achtuning Golf R by 0.466 second.
The final Tire Rack ProSolo of the regular season takes place August 5-6 in Oscoda, MI. The top qualifying drivers in the country will then be invited to the Tire Rack ProSolo Finale, September 1-2 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Words and Photo by Bailey Sampson
