June SOLO II Event

The June Solo II event (Attack of the Killer Pylons) was held June 22 at Corning’s Erwin plant in scorching hot weather. The previous day’s extremely successful Solo II School (featuring thirteen students under the extraordinary tutelage of Sister Mary Kate Hughes) contributed to the thirty drivers in attendance.

The course was a mix of several elements used in the Saturday school featuring several slaloms, a decent straightaway, and an “inner loop”. Drivers got right down to business immediately with several setting their best time of the day in the first pair of the three heats.

In H-Stock, six novices fought it out with Matt Taves taking the win with a time of 30.415 in his dad’s 318i. Andrew Sullivan and Mike Taves followed in second and third, with Mike just edging out Casey Creamer’s out of its element ice-racer by 22 thousandths of a second. Pat Sullivan came in fifth with a respectable time.

The rejuvenated G-Stock class featured six competitors with three veterans (Clay Rugar, Skip Testut, and Paul Schelling) showing the way for three novices (Lin Hurd, Mark Lockhart, and Keith LeGrand). Clay’s time of 29.879 was four tenths better than Skip, though Clay had to work hard as evidenced by the day’s second highest total of five pylons.

In F-Stock, Russ Heft cruised with a time of 29.672, while in E-Stock David Anderson’s 28.377 bested Kent Sawyer’s 29.523. But no dishonor there... Dave’s time was both raw and PAX Fastest Time of the Day! Kent’s time was the second fastest PAX time.

In D-Stock novice Tyson Sawyer’s first heat time of 30.276 just edged Stacey Sawyer’s 32.475. And in C-Stock, Ed Hurd had an easy day with a 31.668 .

B-Stock proved to be a battleground as .744 seconds covered the first four places. Chris Wightman drove his 325i to a 28.855 which just bested Brian Reeves’s Miata by .227 of a second. Tina Reeves was third, while Adrienne Hughes finished fourth. Novice Mike Voorhees tried to keep up, but several off-courses slowed his progress. The strength of this field is evidenced by the top four placing third, fourth, seventh and ninth in the PAX ratings!

In Super Stock, novice Christa Meck’s twin turbo RX-7’s 29.156 easily defeated novice John Florence’s Corvette.

In D-Street Prepared, Mike Brush volunteered his Omni for high stress testing as he allowed Robbie Craig and Pat Scopelliti to co-drive it. Mike proved the better with a 30.524, while Robbie finished second by 39 thousandths of a second. Thak Chaloemtiarana in one of his 914s had an easy time in A-Prepared with a time of 29.183.

In the modified classes, Ray Peters took E-Mod with a time of 31.347 while in C-mod, ever mindful of the yearly championship, Kate Hughes drove her veteran Miata to a sparkling 28.525 which was the second best raw time of the day.

So.. all in all, a great time. Upcoming events:

Sunday, July 27 at Corning’s Big Flats plant

Sunday, August 17 at Corning’s Big Flats plant

Event Chair: Robbie Craig at 796-6265