Great views and great weather welcomed the 8th round of the SCCA ProSolo series in Packwood Washington.  The fun started Friday night as the welcome party included a full dinner line up with burgers, dogs and all the accessories.  Unique was the ProSolo Tri-Cycle races which was setup to raise money for the fire department charity.  Sean Green provided the two adult size tricycles, and Jerry Lamb provided a complete ProSolo style computerized timing system.  It was a blast to stage and run these trikes on a mini course just like a real car!  I think Scott Miller bested the field on this one. Saturday morning brought out wild Elk to accompany the national staff as they finished up final preparations. Then there was the great driving competition on large asphalt lot of the Hampton Mills lumber yard.  The Stacey Molleker courses provided lots fun with a very challenging figure 8 crossover at the far end, which found many competitors downshifting to 1^st and back a couple of times to extract the most time from the course.  Things worked like clockwork and the event finished by 2:30 on Sunday with a nice cool trophy presentation in the large pit hanger afterwards. 

Hawk Super Challenge
Andy Hollis joined Mt Rainer as the tallest peaks in Packwood.  Hollis in his STS Miata meticulously marched through the 32 person field and just edged out Mark Smith and his DS VW R32 by 2 tenths in the final round.  Brianne Corn continued to dazzle the guys as she took 3^rd over all in the Barrowed GS Mini Cooper S over Ron Bauer in the Daniels CSP Miata.

Ladies Challenge
The ladies provided plenty of drama as the final 4 rounds of the Ladies Challenge unfolded.  First Leslie Cohen exhaust came completely loose and dragged behind her Camero as she finished her first side so she had to forfeit her second run and settle for a try for 3^rd  (which she won) as Elise Sias was handed the win and continued to the final round.  The drama followed Elise into the final round where some staging problems caused a rerun between Laura Molleker and Elise Sias.  Laura proved to be the winner both times and put the Dodge SRT4 Neon in the top spot!

Bonus Challenge
Harold Olsen Won not only BSP but the Bonus Challenge.  Harold was one of 6 Bonus Challenge competitors that won there class but did not have enough competitors to qualify for the Super Challenge.  Toby Larson ended up 2^nd and also won DSP as well.  Same can be said for Kevin McCormick who ended up third in the Bonus Challenge. Great competition in this 16 person challenge and the talent ran deep.

Trophy presenter Bob Tunnell got quite a Champaign shower as all there challenge winners turned their spray on him unexpectedly.

 

 

 

 

Class Competition:
There were several close classes this weekend with several drivers swapping the lead as the weekend finished up.  Once such class was SS where Mike Wood leaps over Sat leader Tom Kotzain by .09 to take the win. In AS both John Stimson from CA and Stephen Hui from WA barrowed local Annie Bauers Boxster S.  John owned the weekend but just ended up holding on to win over late charging Stephen Hui with Curtis Eames made a great showing to end up third in his Porsche 993. ES Karl Coleman holds off a late charging Jerry Jenkins by only .065

In other classes we saw some very interesting competition. Local Stacey Molleker wins a 9 car DS class in an unlikely contender, a Dodge SRT4 Neon, over some strong competition from the Denver region. Brianne Corn from CO. skirts a tightly contested open GS class of 6 drivers in Jake Nygard’s Mini Cooper S, and then goes on to take third in the Hawk Supper Challenge.

Other classes suffered the car problems and beakdowns. Vic Sias over comes car problems and pulls out the last second win in SM over Bob Tunnell, after breaking the rear differential Saturday.  A lot of SM drivers struggled due to car failures on Saturday, which found them in unfamiliar rides on Sunday morning. In ASP Scotty B White pulls out the win with his last two runs over Greg Fordahl who had to stand and watch when the differential of Doug Hebenthal’s GT3 gave way Sunday morning. SM2 winner Andy McKee was looking over his shoulder as L J Moffet over came some car problems Saturday and made a great Sunday morning charge beating his co-driver Bill Buetow and coming just .164 short of the win.

In the ladies classes, Laura Molleker pulled the upset win in L1 driving the family Dodge SRT4 Neon over Annie Bauer and Mary Medicus.  Pamela Eames finished up the trophies in 4^th with a strong performance in a DS VW R32  In L2 Leslie Ann Cohen squeaks out a .027 win over Elise Sias. These gals were very tight all weekend and Leslie found a little more Sunday morning to take the win.  Other great performances by the ladies were in the open classes. Anna Goeke Trophies 4^th in a 11 car BS class, while Jackie McInnes takes 3^rd, Brett Spore 4^th , and Kristi Brown 5th in 6 car HS class.