Solo2 SFR Round 5

Round 5 of the 2000 SFR Championship Solo2 Series was held
on May 20th at 3Com Park. Keith Hearn and Nanda Holz teamed
as co-chairs, each testing the hot seat for the first time,
and hosted a strong turnout of over 270 participants.

Keith spent extraordinary effort over several days mapping
the site and designing a very long course that took over
75 seconds for the fastest of drivers to complete. The long
course with as many as four cars on it at a time contributed
to a late start and longer delays than usual clearing the
course for timer or pylon problems. The morning run groups
were so large that it was not until 4:00 p.m. that the
afternoon run groups began making but three runs instead of
four to be able to finish by 8:00 p.m. Regrettably, a few
competitors had to leave for other commitments before
they could complete their runs.

Despite the bumpiness of Candlestick Point a surprising
number of modified machines joined the fray with Kevin
Christman being the fastest just missing top time of day
by two hundreths of a second. Kevin's and Karena's runs
were cut short after only three between them by a flat
battery. Art Allen in the fun to watch Tui Super Vee and
Arnold Escano in the sometimes Modified, sometimes Prepared,
Toyota Corolla both made it into the top ten fastest times.

Junior Karts had some drama as Elyse Mottaz pasted Chris
Spencer with a 16 second deficit on their first runs. Chris
cut it in half on his second run and then took the lead by
3 seconds on his third. Elyse looked set to take it back
but spun on the last turn of her last run. Chris claimed
his first win and third place on the series which Elyse
leads.

In A Prepared Rich Urschel founded the Elan bottoming on
the ground during the first run. Taking drastic action,
he banned his student from further rides, altered his
line around the course, and squeaked by John Kelly in
the Seven by seven tenths. Pat continues to run the Seven
without competition in A Prepared Ladies, but I'm working
on bringing her some.

It's good to see Louie Lira back in the Corvair but as in
Fresno the week before he failed to keep it running for all
of his runs.

In E Prepared Neil Verity took the win in his MGB while Neal
Ryan came close despite not having his Fiat 124 race car
ready for this event. Dwayne Komush took third in the too
stiffly sprung for 3Com Capri over David Pina in a Datsun
SRL311. Verity, Komush, and Ryan lead the points race.

Chris Boynton took another win in A Street Prepared in the
Porsche 911T. Jeffrey Gordon continues to respond to the
competition with a second place over Rob Boynton, Jerry
Pretti, and Enno Wein. Jeffrey leads in points with Chris
and Enno tied for second.

Mary Beth Wilson started close in time to Regina Morec but
took five seconds off over four runs to claim ASP Ladies
in a Porsche RS America over the Mazda RX7tt.

Tom Ellam made a rare appearance in C Street Prepared, made
but two runs, and walked away with top time of day. Corey
Smith claimed second in the Audi A4 to keep points leader
Don Ebaugh honest (and back in third place) while Nanda Holz
managed to stop worrying over event operational details long
enough to claim fourth in the 15 driver field.

Registration Chief Ben Martinez made short work of D Street
Prepared again driving the real Capri to a 4.5 second victory
over points leader Donald Lew, Toyota Supra, and Rick Myllenbeck
back after a considerable hiatus in his Capri.

At round four in Stockton Jim Ochi and Tony Ozello were closing
in on ESP points leader Kirk Meline and this time they got him.
Jim cleared Tony by 1.5 seconds with Kirk but a quarter second
back from Tony's Formula WS6. In ESPL Victoria Meline was having
none of it and walked away with a 15 second plus win over the
Impala SS of Joyce Merkl. Joyce claims the Region of Doom as
her sponsor. I don't want to ask.

Durk Edwards fretted away the morning waiting for his run group
and worrying about missing a birthday party, took to mumbling
"I'm toast!", and won FSP on his first run and gained the series
points lead by 20 points over second place finisher Scott Fraser.
Third place points holder Marty Nygaard also fretting over the
time and a 4:00 am wake up call for The Duel at Deanza fell to
fourth place on the day behind Christopher Steweke in a VW Golf.
Jo Jo Collantes claimed fifth and holds fourth in series points.

I was ribbing Archie Collantes before the Open Street Prepared
competition that no clear winner has yet emerged this year.
Archie broke out of the pack on his third run with the fourth
best time of day only to be bested by Tito Solis taking the
win with the third best time of day on his fourth run. Archie
leads in points over Tito and Louie Martinez who could not
better sixth place in the event. I miss running with you guys.
For an idea of just how deep and competitive OSP is, consider
that Britt Britain was faster than 78 other drivers at the
event but finished 20th in OSP.

Street Touring has been broken into two classes for street
tires and DOT legal "R" autocross tires. Soebe shook off
the Stockton results and put Chok's Integra back in first.
Chok Balmaceda took second despite problems with the car.
Mark Watson maintained third in points with a third place
finish over five other drivers.

In Street Touring - Street Tire, the only class with an
index actually adjusted for street tires and therefore
utterly useless in comparing to rookie and Street Tire
Class participants, Barry, I'm working on signing up my
sixteenth sponsor, long-time marketeer, Chafin put the
black, I'm trying to find room for more signs, Maxima
in first place over Peter Hwang and Greg Umbay who also
moved over from ST-R.

In Street Modified, a class whose rules make my head
go "duh!", Jim Zalesny took number four for the Eagle
Talon, besting Ken Kurtz in a TransAm, George Matsuzek
in a CRX, and eight other drivers.

Super Stock is just so boring. Don Mckenna won. Don always
wins. By a little with nothing in hand. He just can't lose.
Kevin Stevens took second. Kevin often does. Steve Hobaugh
took third in Don's car. Steve sometimes takes second.
David Morin took fourth. He hasn't run much this year. The
most exciting thing that happened in this class is when
Kevin drove by a downed cone waving frantically at the course
workers followed by David who stopped for the cone and then
had to blow his horn to get the workers' attention. Maybe
they had been bored to sleep.

Jerry Mouton, professor of the I'm just here to have fun
philosophy, grinned his way to another win in A Stock. Dan
DeGruchy, Brian McKenzie, and Jim Graham filled out the class.

E.J. Bayliss drove for the second time in five events winning
ASL over Shelly Berg. Shelly has about twice as many points
as E.J.

A bunch of Miatas ran in B Stock. Rick Gould ran in the wrong
run group, Craig Boyle won, Kevin Lahey finished second,
Andrew Jensen took third, and the overworked, under(not)paid
cochair Keith Hearn managed fourth. Craig has a mass of points
with the other mentionables scrambling for second.

Nothing but Miatas ran in C Stock, but not enough to call a
bunch. Chris Herring took first at the event and fourth in
points, Scot Zediker took second and holds first in points,
Dennis Armstrong took third and holds second in points, while
Dog Gentges took fourth and holds third in points.

Ed Chang rang up number four in E Stock over Alan Gruner and
Steve Bowlus. Civic, Civic, Saturn.

Peter Mottaz had it his own way with Jesse Wills pulling out
prior to running. Pete claimed scored fastest PAX time again.
Sean O'Boyle took second and maintains third in the G Stock
points race. Joe Mercado and Marvin Martin came third and fourth
in 325i BMWs.

H Stock went to Russ Bowlus uncontested by Larry Sharp who
had to pack up and leave at 4pm. Jonathan Ng stepped up to
take second place in a Saab with Tryge Isaacson driving an
Accord to third.

Katie Kelly brought the Miata back for a go and moved into
second place in points in the PAX class with the second best
indexed run on the day. Andy McKee was a tenth back on his
third run and an unreported cone back on his fourth. Andy is
fourth in points. Points leader Teresa Neidel drove the
Boxster to third, and third in points Derek Butts claimed
fourth.

Dennis Pedersen brought out the Boxster for the first time
this year to claim the Street Tire Class win. Peter Thana
came alive in the BMW Z3 to claim second. Co-points leaders
Dave Rowney and David Parker finished third and fifth on
the day.

Judy Colman took Street Tire Ladies from Maggy Kelly but
Maggy has a commanding points lead.

The Rookie classes were rearranged to better balance the
run groups so a few drivers are now racing against different
competitors. Michael Santos, Mustang, won Rookie 1 and leads
the points race with four wins. Joe Friedmann, BMW M3, claimed
second place and fourth in points. Hugh Simmons, BMW Z28 took
third on the day and is third in points. Second place in points,
Chris Warner, Eagle Talon, finished fourth in the class.

In Rookie 2 Carlos Gomez, Acura Type R, claimed the win and is
second in points to George Chiou, Integra, who finished second
this day. Nicholas Lygizos claimed third in an Impreza.

Kevin Kluge is ruling Rookie 3 in a BMW M3 taking the win over
Karl Glynn, BMW Z3, in his first autocross. Tony Tabacco, Miata,
Richard Bright, MR2, and Alexander Komlik, MR2T took third
through fifth and are in a tight race for second in points.

In the rookie Street Touring / Street Modified group 22 drivers
have tested the waters but no one has run more than 3 of 5 events.
Adrian Tang, Impreza, won his third while Nick Crivello, Mustang,
finished second ahead of second-in-points Jeff Finder, Maxima.

One out of four drivers in Rookie 5 failed to work the event.
Thanks guys, we really enjoyed working for you. Josh Schaefer
won the event and may be in a tie for the points lead with Brian
Elloy unless Brian now calls himself Boz (second at round 5)
in which case Brian/Boz leads the points race. Jeff Singer,
Boxster S, took third on the day. Johannes Erdfelt, Audi S4,
is third in points.

First, second, and third at the event and in the points race
in Rookie 6 were Soslan Kibilov, George Kibilov, and Jojo Bayabo.
Ben Treynor in his first autocross ever would have claimed
second had he received better advice on car classes.

Calvin Wan, Corolla, won Rookie 7 and is third in points. Kurt
Lee, Corolla, took second. Points leader Jeremy Bergsman, Integra,
finished just ahead of second-in-points Stan Guidero, CRX.

The day finally ended at 8pm prompting the Steering Committee
to take an emergency vote to cut back future events to 3 runs
only. The event chairs will have the authority to offer fun
runs as time allows.

- Rich Urschel