Membership Magazine of Oregon Region Sports Car Club of ...

The Solo National Tour and
ProSolo weekends have come
and gone. In spite of the events
being scheduled around July 4th,
the weather mostly held off. Only
about one run of one heat of one
day of the National Tour event was
damp. Sadly, the rain fell on third
runs and (with nothing to gain)
drivers already sitting on a good
run chose to skip their third runs in
favor of the covered Impound area.
Some drama was spoiled, I’m sure.
It was the Prepared classes where
Oregon Region’s star shined brightest.
With only five Prepared classes
being contested, Oregon Region
claimed four wins! From the top
down, Britain Smith claimed X
Prepared. Britain’s done a lot of
hard work on his (mostly) Porsche
914 over the past year and a half
and it is finally starting to pay off.
Smith topped an all Oregon Region
podium filled out by the team
of Josh McCall and Zack Morgan
driving a V8 powered RX-7. Jim
Daniels won D Prepared (which
had 7 drivers!) by just 0.089 seconds
over Ron Bauer. Tami Daniels can
claim a larger margin of victory in D
Prepared Ladies (5 drivers!). Tami
enjoyed a small lead after Day 1,
but made a stellar first run on the
second day and won going away.
In E Prepared, it was Dan Kuehn
over George Wilder.
I can thank Dennis Healy for giving
me the perfect segue between the
two events. On the second run of
Day 1 of the National Tour event,
Dennis experienced a mechanical
failure. The final drive gears of his
Super Stock class Lotus Elise de-
Solo National Tour and
Pro solo
Flying Solo with
Andy Howe
cided to go on vacation. I watched
from the course control position
as the car rolled to a stop and was
towed off course. His co-driver,
Matthew Braun from Michigan,
jumped in a Tesla to finish the day
and then the fun began. Dennis and
Matthew found the Road Tire Rear
Wheel Drive Lotus Elise belonging
to Michael Walker of Pasco,
Washington. Somehow, they talked
their way into borrowing the car
for Day 2. Both cars went up into
the air and the entire suspension
package of one car was swapped
onto the other over night. On Day
2, Matthew was fast enough to win
and Dennis claimed third place.
After the event was over, the entire
suspension was swapped back
and Dennis went home to away
the UPS guy with his new transaxle.
The following Friday, Dennis
and Matthew were headed back to
Packwood for the ProSolo! Matthew
won Super Stock and Dennis
finished third in Road Tire Index.
Dennis would really like to thank
Michael for his generosity at the
Packwood Tour event.
At the ProSolo, Ryan Otis, Tom
Kotzian, and Jim Daniels were our
three class winners. Ryan won
10 Oregon Region SCCA
Tom Kotzian at Pro Solo Photo by Dennis Healy
Street Touring R in Morris Green’s
Mazda MX-5 by just under two
tenths of a second. Tom Kotzian
survived three DNFs (I’ve never
seen THAT before...) to win in Street
Modified Front Wheel Drive. Jim
Daniels won Race Tire Index 2 (Prepared
Classes) by a decent margin.
These three drivers did well in the
Gumout Super Challenge. Ryan
Otis qualified 13th and advanced
through two rounds before eventual
Challenge winner Stephen Hui
eliminated him. Jim Daniels took
the 6th qualifying spot to a fourth
place finish overall. Tom Kotzian
turned the top qualifying spot into a
third place finish.
On the Ladies side, Tami Daniels
turned 6th place in the tough Ladies
1 Class into a 4th place in the Ladies
Challenge. Tami took down her
class winner in first round - a tough
job!
Bonus Challenge - Allan Zacharda
claimed the second place which
won him... absolutely nothing. Of
note, it appears Allan broke out in
each of the first two rounds of the
Challenge. That means he must
have been sandbagging. Look out
Mr. Kotzian!