51°µÍø

PACKWOOD, Wash. (August 10, 2010) €“ The Tire Rack® 51°µÍø Solo National Tour held the final test of the season prior to the 2010 Tire Rack Solo National Championships this past weekend, where 248 competitors challenged the course at the Packwood (Wash.) National Tour. The Packwood stop is annually one of the most picturesque events of the season, with the course nestled in a valley between mountains, in the shadow of Mt. Ranier on the grounds of the former Hampton Mills lumber mill facility. Luck was on the event€™s side, with rain beginning just after the last heat on Saturday afternoon, running into the evening but drying out before Sunday morning€™s runs. Temperatures ranged from the low 60s in the mornings under the mountain fog to mid-70s in the afternoon. Entries were up 10 percent from a season ago and only about a dozen cars away from a record, thanks in part to the Northwest Region€™s efforts to hold a fun event, including the annual Saturday night party and barbecue hosted by the local fire department. Competition on the Karen Babb course laid out on the undulating asphalt of the lumber mill was just as entertaining, with four classes separated by less than two-tenths of a second. In Super Street Modified, Bob Bundy, of Anacortes, Wash., posted a final run of 50.306 seconds in his 1990 Mazda Miata, then had to wait to see if it would be enough to top Tonya Langley, of Umatilla, Ore. Langley had posted a better first of two counted runs in her 1990 Dukes Auto Chevrolet Corvette, but with a final run of 50.494 seconds, Bundy claimed a 0.154-second class win.The A Modified class was a two-man race, but ran even closer than the Super Street Modified battle. Neal Stanley, of Meridian, Idaho, posted two fliers early in the weekend in his 2006 LRC. While never matching his early runs, he waited to see what John Haftner, of New Westminster, B.C., could do. Despite turning his two fastest times on his final two runs, Haftner€™s 1973 TUI BH3 Supervee fell 0.108-second short of Stanley€™s win. In addition to being one of the largest fields on the weekend, H Stock was also among the closest. At the end, Bill Zerr, of Tacoma, Wash., posted the fastest time in the class on a single run with a 54.623-second run in his 2003 Ford Focus SVT. That fast run boosted him to a slim 0.071-second advantage over Ian Basford, of Edmonton, Alberta, in a 2002 Ford Focus SVT. The closest battle of the weekend was in the Street Touring R class, which ended with just 0.034-second separating the top-two positions. Michael Carpenter, of Draper, Utah, posted his best runs in his 2005 Kevin Schultz Racing Honda S2000 in the middle rounds of the weekend, and it seemed like the times would be enough for a class win. Mike Lillejord, of Redmond, Wash., had other ideas, however, posting his fastest two times in his final two rounds behind the wheel of a 2006 Team Pajama and the K-Do Pontiac Solstice to swipe the class win from Carpenter. The Tire Rack® 51°µÍø Solo National Tour returns to action for its premier event, the Tire Rack® 51°µÍø Solo National Championship, at the Lincoln (Neb.) Airpark September 7-10. For more information on the Packwood National Tour or the Solo National Championship, visit www.scca.com/Solo. Results from Packwood are available directly at : Bob Bundy won the SSM class at Packwood. Credit: Scott Broyles