R&S Racing and Solo Performance Specialties Midwest Division Solo Series 2005. Event #1 - Sooner Solotime Oklahoma City--Event #1 (SoonerTime) of a 5 event series. That's right, we have 5 Divisionals this year - Oklahoma City, St Louis, Salina (Hosted by Wichita), Kansas City, and the Championship event in Topeka. It will be a great season and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks to everyone on the Happy Team for putting on a great event. And Thanks to all the competitors for making the trip, and making the event a success. Please check out the St Louis Divisional May 29th and 30th. Oklahoma City, last year's Divisional of the year, took the challenge again this year. The Happy Team once again, did a great job. The OKC guys do specialize in Hospitality. They do everything with the entrant in mind. They arranged a nice event hotel, secured a great site, fed us excellent food, and the give-aways.....my lord....I think they got donations from every corporation in OKC. Everyone at Saturdays banquet had to have left with something. The grand prize of the evening worth $100 - an entry to the 2005 Solo Nationals, was won by Travis McMillan. I think everyone in the room was hoping for that one. I know I was. Another thing that the Happy Team came up with that must have taken a lot of work, was to go to all of the local car dealerships from each manufacturer and ask for donationed door prizes to be given away to the marque leaders as of Saturday. For instance, the fastest Honda driver may have received an insulated thermos, and the fastest Ford driver a ball cap, and so on. Very creative. And as if that wasn't exciting enough, there was an on stage marriage proposal, and acceptance! So on to some racing action. We had 113 drivers take on the weekend. SS - 2 drivers 1 trophy. Frank Wietharn from Topeka KS in his Z06 had his way this weekend. He had a very fast 74.180 AS - 2 drivers 1 trophy. Jim French put on a great show. With a combined time of 74.796 BS - 5 drivers 2 trophies. Andy Hohl, driving Christopher Hammond's 350z, had an amazing weekend. He lead both days. He was faster than AS and SS with a 73.803! Which earned him a 3 rd place finish in the PAX. Asher Wunderl in a BMW M3 was about a second back in 2 nd place and also in the Top 10 PAX. Christopher Hammond was one spot out of trophies by just over a tenth. CS - 5 drivers 2 trophies. Sean Grubb in his iZoom Graphics Mazda Miata had a comfortable lead both days with a combined time of 75.445, and he also placed 7 th in the PAX. But 2 nd place was a battle, a MR2 Spyder battle. John Larandeau was leading day1 by .071 If that wasn't close enough. Day2...Michael Elliott actually had the faster time, but not quite enough to even make up even that slim margin. And John ended up in 2 nd by a mere .034sec. CSL - 1 driver 1 trophy. Ann Commerford from Omaha NE had a 82.023 in her Toyota MR2 Spyder. And she did so, without hitting a single cone. DS - 1 driver 1 trophy. Eric Marusa of OKC ran a 81.929 in his street tired Subaru WRX. ES - 3 drivers 1 trophy. Ron Williams drove great as always to a total time of 75.980 He lead both days over his wife Tina "Jag" Williams in the family MR2. Ron also earned himself a 9 th place finish in the PAX. And George Walker rounded out the field in his Mazda Miata. GS - 8 drivers 3 trophies. One of the event's largest classes. Craig Wilcox drove his well driven and well prepared Mini Cooper S to the win. With a total time of 76.628, it earned him 2 nd place in the PAX index. Ryan Barnard co-drove Craig's Mini to a 2 nd place class finish and a 4 th place PAX finish with a 77.711 Greg Reno barely sneaked into 3 rd over fellow Celica driver Chris Ketter. Greg finished with a 77.941 (good for 5 th in the PAX) over Chris' 78.099, a .158sec margin for 3 rd place and the final trophy spot. Chris Ketter also got made the Top10 with a 6 th place PAX finish. GS will be a good class to watch in the coming events, with some great competition. GSL - 1 driver 1 trophy. Linda Mitchell drove her Ford Mustang to a 94.952 without hitting any cones. Very nice. HS - 4 drivers 2 trophies. Bob Michalski drove his Honda Accord to the class win, both days, with a combined time of 86.390 over Dave Patton in his 1969 Austin Mini, the original Mini, and a right hand drive model at that. Dave finished with a 86.674 Lawrence Duty was just out of the trophies in his Protege5. ASP - 2 drivers 1 trophy. Jeff Ivers drove his beautiful 1967 Lotus Elan (boy I'd like to have one of those.) to a win with a 81.013 over Craig Mitchell in his 1974 Porsche 914-6. BSP - 3 drivers 1 trophy. Jim Harrison had a nice weekend in his 1972 Corvette. His total time was a comfortable 76.136 over Darren Garvin's very nice1974 240Z, and Chris Howe's new 350Z. CSP - 6 drivers 2 trophies. Mazda ruled the class this weekend. Miatas were in the top 4 spots. Jason Judd was in 2 nd after day one, behind Brent Clark by about 5tenths and some cone problems. But on Sunday, Jason turned it up a notch, and ended up winning with a 78.277 to Brent's 79.474 CSPL - 3 drivers 1 trophy. Again, all Miatas. Trisha Clark had a great weekend with a comfortable lead both days. She finished with a 87.334 DSP - 3 drivers 1 trophy. Pat Lipsinic's Subaru 2.5 RS was definitely the car to have with the cold temps and the low grip surface that the 1 st heat had to offer. Even with 7 cones over the weekend, he managed to keep his fast runs clean, and that clenched the win over Mike Holtz's Merkur XR4Ti. ESP - 8 drivers 3 trophies. The other large class of the event provided some great competition, Subaru's were on top. And we had some shake ups in this class that definitely caused some excitement. After Saturday's runs we had James Elterman in 1 st in his Sti, Mark Jorgenson only a tenth back in 2 nd , and Jeff Templton co driving Elterman's Sti was in 3 rd . But on Sunday Jeff was sitting on 3 dirty runs, then went out on his 4 th run and just put the smack down. A clean fast run. Fast enough to move him from 3 rd to 1 st ! Way to go Jeff! His total time was 74.067. That also earned him an 8 th place finish in the PAX. In 2 nd place was the car owner, James Elterman with a 74.390 and 3 rd was Mark Jorgenson with a 74.841. ESPL - 2 drivers 1 trophy. Beverly Carlile was the clear leader both days, and was clean both days. She finished with a 84.307 in her Mustang over Maureen Wallace. FSP - 1 driver 1 trophy. This turned out to be a 1 car class after Greg Laws broke his tranny in the Phrog, making him unable to attend. I'm sure he'll have it ready for StL. But Mike Glass didn't seam to mind. He still drove that MGB GT like he stole it. He finished with a 82.707 FSPL - 1 driver 1 trophy. Rhonda Glass ran her 2 nd divisional of her racing career, and you can see the confidence building. She ran a 90.723 STS - 6 drivers 2 trophies. After day 1, We had some of the closest competition of the event, right here in STS. Eric Denissen was leading over David Avard by a very slim .055sec. Followed by Julie Avard by .058, followed by Jim Rowland back another .015sec. So that made 4 drivers within a tenth of a second. Wow! Day 2 David Avard really stepped up his game, pulling up a spot with a nine tenths lead, and took the win with a total time of 78.873 The rest of the field still remained pretty close to one another. 2 nd place was filled by Eric Dennisen with a total time of 79.732 STS2 - 2 drivers 1 trophy 1 marriage. It was husband vs. wife. This time the man got to win. Rob Seelig's total time was 79.105 to Michelle's of 80.013 SM - 10 driver 4 trophies 3.5 no shows. Yes that right...3 people didn't show up for the event, and another didn't show for the second day. That makes for more trophy spots for the 6 that did show up. Brandon Jackman pulled himself up from 3 rd place after day 1, to take the lead with a total time of 75.962. Micheal Lieberman remained in 2 nd place both days with a 76.361. Grady Wood slipped from 1 st to 3 rd with a 76.876 And accepting that 4 th and final trophy spot was David Cole with a 77.515 CP - 4 drivers 2 trophies. Mustangs took both trophies. V8 vs Turbo 4cyl. Dave Whitworth's V8 powered SoloPerformance.com car proved to work. (Thanks for your sponsorship Dave!) He had a total time of 74.422 Chris Miller took second with a total time of 75.971 CPL - 1 driver 1 trophy. Beth Whitworth drove very well this weekend. She was fast enough for a 3rd position in the open class. But this way she got a trophy. She was clean all weekend with a 78.446 Great Job! DP - 1 driver 1 trophy. What happened to all the DP guys? This is usually a competitive class. Well, I guess we have to wait until the next event to see the DP action. But that didn't stop Bill Cutrer and his X1/9 from having some fun. Bill ran a 74.448 FP - 3 drivers 1 trophy. Jonathon Jackson took the win in his Porsche 914-6 with a 74.549 over a couple Mazda RX7 drivers. Mark Akridge was leading on Day 1, but Jonathon put together a couple really fast runs on Sunday, to take him to the top. DM - 2 drivers 1 trophy. Lee Mabee in his Super 7 replica was cone free both days, and plenty fast to take the win with a 75.326 over Travis McMillan's Neon. EML - 1 driver 1 trophy. Past National Champion Ann Vogel is trying her hand in the husband's Subaru Sti. She was cone free, and took home a trophy with a 79.503 FM - 5 drivers 2 trophies. FM is going to be a great class to watch this year. We have some great drivers with fast cars in our division. Steve Pistora took home a gallon jug of hot sauce at the banquet for being "Hot Driver." This was earned by having FTD. His time was a 70.515, so naturally he won the class too. Vern Maxey of KC was not far behind with his beautiful formula V, ran a 71.517 to take 2 nd place. FML - 1 driver 1 trophy. Theresa of Salina, ran a very fast 75.959 in the family Red Devil. FJ1 - 1 driver 1 trophy 1 fast Lawn Mower. Here is your #1 PAX driver of the weekend. That's right it's a Junior Kart driver. Way to go Spencer!!! Spencer Elliott drove his kart to a very fast 74.729 STX - 4 driver 2 trophies. It was Lexus vs Subaru. Dan Crank was leading with his WRX on Saturday by .020sec. But Kyle Walther's IS300 came out on top. He drove very nice on Sunday to pull out a full second lead. Way to go! STU - 4 drivers 2 trophies. New Daddy, Brandon Burkhart had his STI hooked up this weekend. 75.473 on Street Tires!! Wow, very nice. In 2 nd place was Andrew Watts in his STI with a 77.410 SM2 - 3 drivers 1 trophy. Charles Watts' Supercharged Infiniti G35 led the way in SM2 all weekend. He ran a 80.204 That Supercharger sure does sound nice! As seen thru the eyes, ears, and keyboard of Greg Reno. |