Event Information 

Event Results 

Next Round 

1999 Results 

Round 1 of the 1999 San Francisco Region's Solo2 season brought out 280 drivers to the coliseum in Oakland on Super Bowl Sunday despite a forecast of heavy rain. Katie Kelly and Vernon Head repeated their capable perfomances as cochairs of this most difficult to manage traditional opening round event.

The rains abated overnight and left a wet course for the morning runs and a cold, slick surface for the afternoon. Tire choice mattered for the early runs and codrivers were helpful to warm the tires after noon.

The first classes out on course to face the standing water were Super Stock and Street Tire. Kevin Stevens, having cast bones through the night in an futile effort to predict the morning's weather brought out his C5 Corvette on it's stock run-flat street tires and faced off with David Morin in his Grand Sport on freshly shaved R1's. Kevin led through the second set of runs and took the course for his last run unaware that David was in progress of taking 9/10ths off the leading time. Kevin put his 1998 Steet Tire Championship experience to full use coming home just 1/10th ahead of David with a time of 55.666. Don McKenna slid home in third in his Grand Sport shod with worn Kumhos. Josh Sirota was notably missing in his wicked- in-the-wet Z3 coupe.

In the Street Tire class, 2nd place finisher in 1998, Skip Snyder brought a six-cylinder Fiero to take the win at 57.408. Steve Sharp bested Skip's raw time in his Miata by 6/10ths but his index-corrected time was only good for second place. David Parker, 300ZX, rookie-graduate Brent Nordman, BMW M3, and Dietrich Schultz, 325is, took the next three indexed placings. Despite 24 Street Tire entries only Lynda Traves, 325is, choose the Street Tire Ladies class, taking an uncontested win at 61.159.

In the second run group more than 20 Street Prepared rookies took to the course with times ranging from the 58s to over 73 seconds. David White took the indexed win in his VW GTI. In BSP, Jeff Glorioso lowered the target to 56.229 while placing ahead of David Bonar and Jesus Villarreal, all in Corvettes.

Five drivers made their debut in F125 Karts with Peter Mottaz taking the win while overcoming a broken rib with a new seat and a heavy listing to the right driving style. See Peter's separate article on this interesting class.

As the course continued to dry (a relative term) and quicken, Kevin McCormick turned a 54.596 to lead the PAX class, with rookie-graduate Derek Butts taking a fine second place in his MR2, with co-driver Charlie Davis in third. Teresa Lommatzsch challenged for the lead on her third run but could only claim fourth place with a cone penalty. CS national champion

Andy Mckee claims that was some other Andy Mckee out there claiming fifth. Katie Kelly was so distracted by co-chair duties she had trouble following Vernon's course and posted two DNFs. Running worn R1's against the new BFG G-Force may have been a factor as well. Katie claims "It was a grease pit out there... that's my story, and I'm sticking to it."

Also in the third run group was DSP with Chris Cox and Dave Jackson taking the top two spots with Chris working down to a 53.669. With fuel injection and Chris's street prepared development experience, the Isuzu may well be a contender throughout the season. Rick Myllenbeck took third with Ben Martinez and Arie Villasol sharing Ben's Capri in fourth and fifth. A mere 6/10ths separated 2nd through 5th place.

Street Touring switched to R tires and Mark Watson pushed Scott Higashi in a Sentra to a two second improvement with Scott maintaining the leading pace. Sheening Lin brought a Civic Si home in third, with rookie-graduate Catherine Liao bringing Mark's Integra in fourth fastest.

Conditions remained slick but relatively dry in the afternoon sessions. Over 50 drivers including 36 rookies got in three runs in the fifth run group, with a fine shoot out between Eagle Talons and Camaros in ESP. Fred Van Wagenen and Perry Kincy kept the GM faith, heading Jim Zalesny and Vincent Chiaro half a second back in Eagles. Erik Van Wagenen collected cones on his all important third run and fell back to fifth. DC region transplant Travis Lane claimed sixth in Vincent's Eagle, saving his street shod M3 for an even rainier day.

At 3:40pm run group six took to the course as the first of the last three groups limited to two runs only. In AP, PCA driver Larry Sharp eked out a 3/10ths win over John and Pat Kelly in traditional Porsche vs. Lotus competition. In EP, Arnold Escano bested Dennis Hale by 4/10ths but Peggy saved the Hale and NASA honor with an EPL time 2/10ths under Arnold.

OSP had a massive turnout of 34 drivers with Jack Van Wettering showing his VW bug's amazing ability to hook up in slick conditions, posting a top time of day of 47.018 with codriver Marty Nygaard 5/10ths back. Current OSP champion Archie Collantes brought his Starlet home in third a good 8/10ths ahead of the pesky Elan driven by Rich Urschel. Jo Jo Collantes posted a fine fifth place heading Tom Kubo in his supercharged Miata by 4/10ths. Tito Solis spent only slightly more time negotiating a new ride for the next event than he did slogging his under prepped Corolla around in eighth. Cindy Pon, Glenda Manangan, and Karen Weber claimed the OSPL honors.

Another 20 rookies got in two runs in the last two groups, but the late story of theday was in CSP where Navid Kahangi wisely eschewed rookie status and won the CSP class outright over Ed Chang. It's only a rumor that Navid talked Tom Ellam into leaving the event to watch the Super Bowl instead of running.

With 86 rookies, SFR regulars, and a lot of Oakland daytrippers, Katie and Vernon deserve a salute and maybe a rest for being able to cycle 281 entries through the course for a highly needed opportunity to feed the driving addiction and to work out two and half months of accumulated driving rust.