When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The weekend prior to the 4th of July was the Toledo Pro Solo. It was an event that filled registration in less than 10 minutes with 240 entrants. This is the first national event to my local region and I have been impatiently waiting for it. It was also my 2nd Pro Solo and 1st in the Camaro.
After finishing up at Optima the week before I had to get all the Optima stuff off (well most) and get it ready for the SCCA stickers and contingency again. I headed down to Toledo straight from work and got registered and tech'd, walked the course, got my stickers and headed home to get my hoosier wets from the storage unit. The weather forcast pretty much said 100% chance of rain from 2am - 6 am the following day. So after getting the hoosiers and started getting my gear together I feel asleep rather late and over joyed for a national event in my back yard.
Day 1
So the weather was crap. I got to the site had my co driver's change to the hoosier wets ( I had a ladies class co driver, old owner's wife, and my usual co driver) as I was dropping ice, water, flags, radios, and other equipment off at each site. This was nice and fun and actually took up a decent amount of time to the point where I barely got another course walk for the day.
Hiding under the results tent most of the day
Camaro waiting in the wet for L1 ladies class to run
Long story short for the day.... It was miserable....
After running the morning session and having many close calls, spins, timing issues, tree issues, and just negative attitudes the event was called and we cancelled the afternoon sessions. This is probably the first time i've seen alot of people happy to have an event cancelled. I didn't waste my time getting any footage, but I was standing 5th T on my first day with my 10 year old 245 hoosiers, haha. We left the camaro on site and I got a ride home from my co driver since we live 45 minutes away. I got out of the wet clothes took a shower and proceeded to go get a pizza, some beer, and enjoy the company of my xbox for the next 7 hours.
Life was good.
Day 2
The clouds parted and their was sun to be seen!!! It was a great start to the morning with almost no chance of rain to be seen in the sky! We arrived at the airport with a bit of damp spots and even puddles, but we knew this would be just fine by the time we were out.
Looks like theirs a water box for burnout's prior to the staging lanes?
Looking good back on CCW's and Hoosier A6's
ESP Line up
My co drivers staging effort.
So since I haven't done many Pro Solo's I didn't realize that I was supposed to be the first driver up since I beat my co driver in the crappy rain condition's. This isn't very ideal since being the 2nd driver usually your course is a little cleaner, the tires are a little warmer, just small benefits. Either way, I hoped quickly in the car and got ready. In the first heat we got the news that they would be letting us do 3 runs per side vs the normal 2 per side for the 2nd day, due to the rain out. Everyone was very pleased about this because the rain racing didn't teach us anything about how the course could be driven.
Off we go. I felt pretty confident after my first run on each side sitting in 1st place and having .5xx lights on each side. As the runs the second runs finished I had went slower on each side and my lead was no longer as big. Now if we had not rained out, this would have been it, but lucky 1 more chance at each side.
Last run on the right side... .6xx on the light i was slower on the tree but found a tiny bit of time on course. Last run left side, slower on the tree .6xx but found a few tenths to improve more overall. We ended the 1st driver session with me sitting in the lead by a decent margin. Problem being, a few of the driver I battle it out with , or have been beat since owning the camaro still had to run in the 2nd drivers group.
I sat and waited nervously.
The cobra R came out swinging with times within tenths of my fastest for the day... this wasn't looking good. The boss 302 took a few more runs but boom fastest ESP time on left course... This is looking worse... As it came down to the finish of the Cobra R (replica, motor is built as a R) I couldn't even tell who won, I honestly told my co driver, well at least 2nd place still wins a tire. As I nervously kept hitting refresh on my phone for solo live to update it finally came through.
Solo Live had me sitting in 1st!! I jumped in the air , did a fist pump, yelled a few random things and ran over to ESP waiting in impound. As I ran up JT in the Cobra gave me huge and big hand shake congratulating me, but then he said how close he was.... 0.019!!! Holy **** that was a close one!
Then all of a sudden theirs some radio chatter as an official walks up and points at the Boss 302 and says "you get a re-run", my heart dropped. This is the car that loves to come out on his last run and mess up my decent lead, and usually leap frog me almost every-time, and now he get's another attempt to improve upon it !?!?
I sat at the staging area nervously waiting. The run was looking good through the end and nothing stood out as a potentially bad, so I just held my breath (thinking about winning 1 hoosier) and waiting for the red numbers to pop up.........
He didn't improve.... Hooray I still won!!
Preliminary!!! Was so pumped!! and what a small victory it was.
So the Super Challenge battle between my camaro and the cobra r was getting pretty hyped up since it was pretty much a heads up race. A decent amount of people stuck around to see us go at it.
Super challenge bracket.. Notice no one advanced in the ESP battle?
If you looked at the picture and read the comment underneath it you might be scratching your head? Why did no one advance from the ESP superchallenge face off. Well, because we were moron's and both redlighted!!
He went .0472 to my .0499 after we both did 10 runs all weekend without 1 single red light. Also for people who don't know the drag tree a .500 is a perfect light, so I was .001 away from being safe!!! Oh well, I was still happy I had won, I just wanted a chance to battle it out in the challenge.
Getting a little close, but no cone calls.
Celebrating after the event with some beer and my trophy
07-05-2015, 11:35 PM
2015 Toledo Pro Solo 
