The second event of the ABC (Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga) Inter-regional Solo II Series coincided with the running of the Saturday portion of the SEDIV Divisional at Chattanooga Auto Auction on August 9, 1997. That way competitors actually were racking up points for both the divisional championship and the ABC championship. A side note was that some who didn't do well one day could make up for it by doing well the other day.
Saturday dawned with a 100% chance of rain. Every group dealt with some moisture but the second group had the driest. Heath McMillan, Woodstock, GA, took advantage and had FTD in his CSP Honda CRX. All the Mod and Prepared classes had to deal with the wettest stuff. Saturday, they ran last, just when the rain really started coming down. It turned out that their first run, which was the driest, was critical since it started raining hard by the second set of runs. Many competitors opted for slicks because the track was essentially dry at the beginning of the run group. Those who changed to wets did great.
Class battles featured some real close racing. Four combatants duked it out in SS. All were in contention for the win. Rob Faulkner and G. H. Sharp shared the same Mazda RX7 and both hail from North Carolina. Saturday, Faulkner led the pack while Sharp took up the rear while Tommy Pulliam, Avondale Estates, Georgia, and Steve Waters, Smyrna, Georgia shared yet another RX7 and were the meat in this sandwich.
AS
was a battle between local ace Brian Flanagan in a BMW M3 who
scored the win on Saturday and Carter Thompson, Kingsport,
Tennessee, in a Toyota MR2 Turbo who trailed by 3 tenths to take
second in the wet.
The DS "money class" is always exciting as Bob Monday made the trek from Indiana to do battle with Mark Chiles of Florida (all DS entrants were in Neons). Monday carried a 3 tenths advantage over Chiles for the win.
CS, the "poor man's stock class" is still being sorted out. Six drivers came with a Porsche 924S, a 944, two Toyota MR2s (second generation) an Alpha Romeo and a Mazda RX7. Jon Krogsund brought his Porsche 924S over from the Washington D.C. area to see how it would do. In the wet on Saturday Krogsund was masterful but only led 944 pilot Joe Anderson of Florida by less than a tenth while Gerald Street, Chattanooga, trailed by another 2 tenths in his RX7.
The other "money class" ES saw Brian Priebe, Ohio, in a Neon trying for the Neon dollars while Ken Rupp, Georgia, was working to make sure his Celica GT would earn Toyota money. On Saturday, Rupp ran consistently clean runs and stood on his quickest first. Meanwhile Priebe only managed one clean run and ended the day a half second in arrears.
GS featured a three way fight for the win between local Jamie Blair, Jason Youmans of Georgia and Scott Kempinski of Florida, all in Ford Probes. The trio were within a half second spread on the wet Saturday course with the order Blair, Kempinski, Youmans.
Ron Foley, Georgia, took his Toyota Celica to the point of HS on Saturday by 1.2 seconds over Chris Warren's Integra.
The rain for the Prepared/Mods proved interesting as EM was led by a street tired Thunderbird driven by James Bauman, McDonough, Georgia on Saturday with a 4 tenths advantage. Mitch Hamrick, Georgia, had to poke around on slicks for second.
FM featured an all Chattanooga race with Ken Saffles in a F500 Red Devil leading Rick McClure in a Solo V Austria Vau by only 12 thousandths in the rain while challenger, Ben Thatcher, of Georgia, spun at the finish of his driest yet fastest run to end up 8 seconds back. Jim Murphy, Georgia finished 3rd in his F500 Daredevil.
'97 SE Divisional Results
'98
SE Divisional Schedule
'97 ABC Inter-Regional Day 1 '97
ABC Inter-Regional Day 2 '97 ABC Points
Solo II Chattanooga Region
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Created August 23, 1997