The eighth round of the SCCA ProSolo season wrapped up completion on June 11 with another 275-entrant sell out. Toledo, OH has become a must stop for Pro Soloists. The large concrete pad at the Toledo Express Airport is one of the best surfaces on the east side of the Mississippi River, and often mirrors what Mazda Team Members experience in Lincoln, Nebraska for the season ending events.
The North-West Ohio Region and SCCA put on another spectacular event with challenging courses and fantastic event operation.
Forty-four of the 275 competitors were piloting Mazda vehicles, showing once again the popularity of the brand for Soloists. Two of the largest classes were heavily represented by Mazda’s latest MX-5. In STR, David Marcus cemented his second victory of the season in his 2016 Mazda MX-5, ahead of Brian Karwan and Darrin Disimo. Just .346 seconds separated the top three cars, and ensured a Mazda sweep of the podium positions. C-Street was an all-Mazda class with 16 of 17 competitors in the new MX-5. Competition was extremely tight with less than a tenth of a second separating the top three drivers after Saturday runs. Mark Shrivastava stormed back from nearly a second deficit to take a .259 second victory over Rick Cone. New Jersey runner-up Brian Garfield rounded out the podium.
In other class competition, Michael Ron grabbed his first victory of the season in his 1999 Mazda Miata in E Street. Jeff Hurst captured the last podium spot in DSP in his 2005 Mazda RX-8. In Super Street Modified, Randal Wilcox took his heavily modified 1996 Mazda Miata to the top of the standings over Jake Namer’s 1993 Mazda RX-7. Eric Anderson would complete the Mazda sweep of the class, co-driving Wilcox’s Miata. Bump Class 4 would be a CSP battle to determine the top three positions. In the end, co-drivers Billy and Bob Davis would take 1st and 3rd positions in their Mazda Miata, while Michael Kline would split the pair in his 1999 Mazda Miata.
In Ladies classes, Tamra Hunt would secure second place in L1, with her Mazda RX-8, while Laura Campbell would dominate L3 with a .927 second victory. Laura would end up the top qualifier for the Ladies Challenge, but she and Tamra would suffer from first round defeats and not advance to the semifinals.
In the Super Challenge, Rick Cone, Brian Karwan and David Macrus would earn first and second round wins advancing to the round of eight. Brian Karwan would advance the deepest of the Mazda competitors, securing third place in the Super Challenge.
The SCCA ProSolo season moves to Packwood, WA on July 14 before returning east to Oscoda, MI on August 17. The ProSolo Finale wraps up with the Championship event in Lincoln, Nebraska on September 3.