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1999 Results 

Round 2 of the 1999 San Francisco Region's Solo2 season brought out 239 drivers to the colesium in Oakland despite a forecast of heavy rain. Charlie Davis, Ben Martinez, and Chris Cox provided a wealth of experience as event chairs, but none were able to demonstrate even a modicum of Katie Kelly's mythical ability to control the weather. Unlike Round 1, the rain not only came, but stayed all day.

The first run group actually had a dry course for their runs and the top time of day fight belonged to the CSP competitors taking the top eight spots. The course was laid out with several cone-lined boxes projecting out into the course, but Tom Ellam allowed nothing to trick him on his first run, posting a time that by itself would have been good enough for fourth fastest in class at day's end. Navid Kahangi, Corey Smith, and Ed Chang all posted times better than Tom's first, but after spinning on his second attempt, Tom took more than two seconds off his previous best to leave no doubt that the CSP national champion has come to Northern California to race. Dan Williamson finished a few tenths back in sixth, still running his not-so-sticky Street TD-compound bias plies.

Farhard Ghamgosar took first in rookie CSP driving a BMW 2002tii (!), elevating himself to second in the standings behind Dennis Armstrong of Tracy who took first at round 1 and second at round 2.

Run group 2 faced a course getting constantly wetter. In Super Stock Kevin Stevens shod his C5 Corvette with the road-compound Hoosiers he wished he had brought to round 1. I hope this guy isn't buying stock only after the market goes up. Kevin coned his all important first run, but then David Morin went out and felt his way around the course to leave the door open for Kevin. Kevin was 2.4 seconds slower on raw time the second time out in much wetter conditions, but David couldn't match it, coming second as he did at round 1.

In the street tire class, Jan Sears made a rare appearance, making the most of his first run to take the indexed win over John Mittelstadt in an Audi A4.

Group 3 brought out the F125 Karts, all on slicks, in conditions that weren't quite yet bad enough to require paddles. Darren Madams brought his new CRG-Kawasaki and codriver Steve Sharp to challenge the Mottaz-Head racing team's Trackmagic. Round 1 winner Peter Mottaz found no amount of listing with broken ribs could stop the front end from plowing. Team mate Vernon Head had the lead through the first runs, but slipped to third behind the newcomers after the second set of runs. Steve Sharp, showing no deference to the boss, walked the ragged edge of control on his third run and took the win. Vernon recovered for second, with Darren settling for third.

Sons of Autocrossers Derek Head and James Mouton shared Derek's CRG-Briggs Kart in Formula Junior Kart. Derek took the win as James found his first karting experience complicated by the discovery that all of the bolts holding the gas tank and carburetor had gone missing. Repairs and slicks and rain, oh my!

In Street Touring only Mark Watson out of the top four round 1 finishers returned for round 2. After one set of runs, Mark led with his Integra GSR, with Phil Esra's vintage Civic Si a full second back. Sacramento Chapter's Eric West moved his Civic Si to within 3/10ths of Mark during the second set of runs. On their final runs, all three drivers improved with the order staying the same. Mark moves to the points lead with Phil second.

The missing-in-action Sirota BMW Z3 showed up in the PAX class for round 2 with three drivers and, inexplicably, on G-force tires quite unsuitable for the conditions. Josh, Rex Tener, and Gary Richardson provided entertaining driving in the wet but failed to impress as Josh had in the wet slush series running Dunlop street tires. In the rain, the Toyota MR2s claimed the top four spots with the Miatas relegated to fifth through eighth. The real Andy Mckee showed up for this one claiming the win and first place in the points standing. Teresa Lommatzsch avoided the cones this time for second place while Charlie Davis squeaked by car ownder Derek Butts.

By the midday course walkthrough, the steady rain had produced a very large lake in front of the timing trailer, a river crossing the course at the first turn, and a pond at the braking point for turn two. A very deep, course-wide puddle had also accumulated just beyond the finishing lights.

1998 Rookie stock1 champion Eric O'Brien led group 5 with his second GS win in '99. Ric Quinonez provided the only challenge to the Integra type R's, driving his Prelude to second. Paul Emhoff and Harry Wong took third and fourth. Eric claims the fastest PAX time amongst drivers in the wet, a distinction he seems to have made up for the occasion. Trophies and stickers and promotions, oh my!

Rookie stock2 followed in the next group with 25 drivers and too few loaner helmets to go around. Look for a reordering of the two stock rookie classes and recalculation of points and standings by round 3.

In ESP, With the Diamond Star Motor club (AWD Talons and Eclipses) staying home and taking no advantage of the wet weather, Fred Van Wagenen of Fremont drove his rear wheel drive Camaro to his second straight Championship Series victory with a time of 57.856. With first place out of reach, the real competition was for second as four drivers finished within 6/10ths of each other. The best of the rest was Robert Glover driving his own Camaro this time instead of Perry Kincy's Z28) with a best of 59.201. He was followed by Nick Steel (borrowing Glover's car and only missing second by 3/1000ths of a second), Tony Ozello (WS6 Firebird), and Erick Van Wagenen (Camaro Z28).

In Group seven Dennis Hale reclaimed some honor (can't get too much driving a pink car) by taking EP honors over Arnold Escano and besting constant companion Peggy's EPL winning time. Casting traditional Lotus-Porsche competition aside in AP, John Kelly brought out the secret weapon V-6 Fiero on street tires to run away from Larry Sharp's 914-6 by 1.6 seconds.

Not satisfied with trouncing the entire field at round 1, Jack Van Wettering shod his OSP VW bug with Hoosier Dirt Stockers and would have claimed an awesome 53.9 had he not short cut a corner claiming he couldn't see in the dim light and rain. Codriver Marty Nygaard jumped through the open door to take the win by coasting with the clutch in where he had spun on an earlier run. Archie Collantes posted third best time but may be facing disqualification of his car and three co-drivers for reported hot dogging by drivers unknown in a closed lot. As this behavior is prohibited by the site contract and insurance, it is one rule that must always be enforced. Upon discovering that his new ride had no street tires, Tito Solis stuck with the under- prepped Corolla and claimed fourth. The owner of the proffered ride (Yours Truly) claimed a fine 20th place and slipped to fifth in the standings behind Tito.

In the final group, getting a full three runs during daylight hours, Rob Luis again won AS driving Boris Elpiner's M3. Jerry Mouton snuck into second ahead of Boris. Would someone please tell Jerry that 911's are not good in the rain?

If you would like to contribute to these event reports send e-mail to OSP13@IBM.NET within one week of receiving the printed results. If you'd like to contribute by postal mail, see the guy in the black Lotus Elan at round 3. If contributions are weak for rounds 4 and 5, there may be no reports as the report editor is planning to be elsewhere. May lions and tigers and bears be with you.