Chattanooga
Region of SCCA is tiny with only 25 members. They had their
biggest challenge in history putting on a SEDIV Solo II
Championship Series event sponsored by BFGoodrich and SF
Motorsports. It seems all 25 pulled together to put on a
memorable event at the Chattanooga Auto Auction which turned out
to be the perfect site for this rainy weekend.
Nearly 100 competitors came from all over the division plus several from outside the southeast, one from as far as San Diego. The Chattanooga Auto Auction had to move several hundred cars in order for the SCCA folks to put on this event. The course was laid out on fairly new asphalt which had a good slope and good drainage, as we found out all too well.
A really appreciated feature of this site is the huge garage area with an abundant overhang near the course. On premises is a full service restaurant with extremely reasonable prices and clean restrooms, a luxury in these days of the omnipresent "Porta-potties." The local region even set up a satellite TV unit so competitors could keep track of the weather on the Weather Channel and watch the Hungarian Grand Prix as well as the NASCAR boys tackling Watkins Glen.
Saturday dawned
with a 100% chance of rain. Every group dealt with some moisture
but the second group had the driest both days. Heath McMillan,
Woodstock, GA, took advantage and had FTD both days 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.
Sunday featured the end of the rains. However, the hapless Mod and Prepared group got stuck running first on the drying asphalt. The rest of the groups had a dry track, though the rain had deposited a fine sand all over the track. By the last run group a definite line had developed and the times really came down.
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. But Sunday, Sharp came roaring back with the quickest time of the class by only a thousandth of a second over his teammate but his effort only netted him 3rd place.
AS was a battle between local ace Brian Flanagan in a BMW M3 who scored the lead on Saturday and Carter Thompson, Kingsport, Tennessee, in a Toyota MR2 Turbo who trailed by 3 tenths in the wet. But Thompson proved the better dry driver to zip to a 1.2 second margin on Sunday and the win.
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 into Sunday over Chiles. However, the quickest on Sunday was Mike King of Florida who came from 4th place but his margin was only 1 tenth so he only moved up to 3rd.
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. On Sunday Anderson kept turning quicker
times and hauled in the winning times while Krogsund faded to
third. Street stayed consistent to finish 2nd.
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. Sunday Priebe DNF'd, hit 5 cones and finally put together a clean run a tenth faster than Rupp for the day but still handed the title to Rupp.
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. But Blair faded to third quickest on Sunday while Youmans pulled out a 7 tenths margin to take the class followed by Blair and Kempinski.
HS only had two entrants but they battled to one of the closest finishes of the weekend. Ron Foley, Georgia, took his Toyota Celica to the point on Saturday by 1.2 seconds. However, Chris Warren, Alabama, drove his Acura Integra to over a second margin on Sunday to pull within 2 tenths.
The
rain for the Prepared/Mods proved interesting as EM was led by a
street Thunderbird driven by James Bauman, McDonough, Georgia on
Saturday by 4 tenths. However, the drier conditions allowed Mitch
Hamrick, Georgia to take the slick-tired Chevubishi to a 4 second
margin on Sunday and the victory.
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. Sunday, Thatcher drove to the quickest time by almost 7 tenths but remained in fourth place. Saffels had the second quickest time on Sunday while McClure had carburetor problems and only managed the fourth fastest Sunday time but still held onto second place over Jim Murphy of Georgia.
1997 ABC Article for Day 1 by Ben Thatcher
1997 ABC Article for Day 2 by Ben Thatcher
'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
Home Page
Created August 22, 1997