SOLO: National Tour Ft. Myers summary

The Tire Rack SCCA National Tour Gets Run in the Sun in Ft. Myers.

FT. MYERS, Fla. (Feb. 27, 2004) -- After Round One of The Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo NationalSeries in Atlanta, Ga., provided a climate more similar to Atlanta, Mich., a week earlier, the Sunshine state lived up to its name giving competitors and enthusiasts at The Tire Rack® SCCA National Tour event in Ft. Myers a chance to warm up Feb. 20-21.

With temperatures in the middle and upper 60s with light and variable winds, several national drivers put on a show at the Gulf Coast Autocrossers-hosted event as they lit up courses and cooked their individual class competition.

David Mcilvanie, of Port Charlotte, Fla., posted the largest margin of victory of any men's class over the weekend, running a time of 95.119 seconds in his A Prepared 1965 FFR Cobra and taking the win by 6.541 seconds over silver finisher Chris Evans, of Orlando, Fla., who was in his SloMo Racing Team 1965 FFR Cobra.

Not to be outdone, Danny Popp, of Cincinnati, Ohio, breezed his way to the A Street Prepared victory by 6.071 seconds in his Ecklers/McCluskey Chevrolet/RAFT 2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 over Alex Bolanos' 2003 Honda S2000.

In Super Stock, Jerry Onks, of Smyrna, Tenn., proved his Eckler's/VetteSport/RAFT-sponsored 2002 Chevrolet Corvette was the top 'Vette in the class (all six entries in SS drove either their own or a teammates' Corvette) as he timed out at 95.682 seconds and toppled the second-place Phoenix Performance Corvette 2002 Corvette Z06 driven by Steve Landstra, of Chester Springs, Pa., by 1.381 seconds.

Young gun Ian Stewart, of Tallahassee, Fla., put together another nice weekend as he grabbed the B Stock win in his Maitland Importers Inc. 2001 Honda S2000. His time of 94.506 seconds was untouchable as his teammate, Aaron Nash, of Apopka, Fla., could only post a 97.432 in Stewart's ride.

Karter Bollmann, of Texas City, Texas, raced his Motor-Force.com 2003 Mini Cooper to a respectable 0.494-second win in H Stock over Mark Chiles, of Rocky Mount, N.C. Chiles was looking for back-to-back class wins after his season-opening victory in Phoenix. The event was the first for Bollman as part of a new team effort consisting of him and David Hedderick, of Houston, Texas, who finished just 0.099-second behind Chiles for third.

Tim Aro, of Richmond, Va., was phenomenal in C Street Prepared as he blew out everyone in the class. Aro, in his McGeorgeToyota.com/Skittles 2002 Toyota MR2 Spyder, handily defeated his teammate Rod McGeorge, who drove the same car, by 2.271 seconds. Bill Harvey, of Lakeland, Fla., finished a distant third, more than 4.5 seconds back.

The event's largest class with 19 entries, Street Touring also provided the weekend's closest competition as Ryan Thompson, of Duluth, Ga., squeezed his Fastech/PittmanPerformance 1989 Honda Civic Si by the Corey Ridgick-owned Redshift Motorsports 2000 Subaru Impreza RS by 0.211-second. Ridgick, of Allentown, Pa., was the year's first Honda Street Challenge award recipient in The Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo NationalSeries event in Atlanta, Feb. 14-15. The award is given at every ProSolo event to the top Street Class finisher in the Hawk Performance Super Challenge.

In women's action, Sharron Shields, of Valrico, Fla., nabbed a win in A Stock Ladies in her Suncoast Porsche 2002 Porsche Boxter S, which recently came as a birthday present from her husband, Danny, who snared a win for himself in the new ride in A Stock competiton. Shields' time (101.083) was 0.741-second faster than Patti Frye, of Kernersville, N.C., who drove her SF Motorsports 2003 Porsche Boxster to a mark of 101.824 seconds.

Brenda Ashburn, of Rocky Mount, N.C., blew out the competition in H Stock Ladies in her Mini of Charleston 2002 Mini Cooper as her post of 107.672 seconds was 7.313 seconds better than the 2003 Mini Cooper driven by Judith Lawson, of Boylston, Mass.

The Tire Rack® SCCA Solo National Tour makes its way across the United States as Qualcomm Stadium, home of MLB's San Diego Padres and the NFL's Chargers, hosts Round Three of the Tour, March 6-7. The next installment of The Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo NationalSeries is set for San Bernardino, Calif., March 13-14.

For more information about The Tire Rack® SCCA Solo Program or the SCCA, visit www.scca.com.

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