Good weather and a great Solo course were the highlights of the day, along with a smorgasboard of vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and eras as MoHud’s Solo season rolls into the 2nd half.  Bert Huiest’s course proved its strength by resulting in virtually no off-course calls, minimal cone calls, and a lot of grins on the faces of competitors who were challenged to squeeze a best time out of it.  While NASCAR was figuring out Watkins Glen’s road course, the MoHud Solo crew took a shot at turnin’ left, as the course featured a one lap oval.  Competitors got a taste of National-level challenge with the finish comprised of a fairly long slalom.

Congrats to Will Schambach, who claimed both FTD and top PAX times for the event in his B Mod Cheetah.  Total competitors: 71

Season Championship Update

In the Stock class, Bill Bennett put up yet another win, and while Keith Lauria stayed close with another 2nd place event finish, Bill’s consistency looks to be leading him to another Stock season trophy.  Jeff Grossbard and Phil Redington remain in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, for the season Stock championship, but if Bill’s stranglehold on 1st place event finishes is any indication of what the rest of the season holds, the real competition will be for who claims 2nd and 3rd.

In Street Prepared, region member and former National Champion Alex Shchipkov paid a visit and picked himself up a 1st place event finish, co-driving Bruce Kosakoski‘s DSP BMW.  Steve Jones did his best to remain in the hunt, claiming a 2nd place event finish, with Bruce taking 3rd.  For the SP season championship race, Bruce still holds a 21 point lead over Steve, so Steve will need to make it a habit to finish at least two spots ahead of Bruce for the remainder of the season in order to get close.  Behind them, Greg Cuda and Tom Moeller are still close enough to bring some intrigue to who will emerge at season’s end with 3rd.

For Prepared & Mod, Russ Burckhard still remains in 1st for the season championship, but Will Schambach is making it a very interesting contest as he claims podium finishes in the class.  Russ’ lead is only 5 points, and it’ll be interesting to see if Will can find a car at the smaller venues that will enable him to keep pushing Russ.  Arn Beebe, Russ’ co-driver and owner of the CP Ford Mustang they drive, sits comfortably in 3rd place for the season.

In the Street class, EJ Smith remains in 1st place, and a 1st place event finish helps extend his lead over 2nd place finisher and season championship contender Bert Huiest.  Phil Shoemaker continues to challenge Bert, sitting just 7 points back.

In the Tire class, Paul Severino remains atop the class, having taken a 2nd place event finish, but Nelson Guay continues to put the heat on, claiming his third 1st place event finish and moving up to a tie for 3rd in the overall Tire season results.  DJ McArdle and Devin LeMoine will need to top Nelson at some remaining events in order to keep their holds on 2nd and 3rd place in the season championship race.  Attendance at remaining events could be the difference maker, but we’re hoping it hinges on performance at the remaining events.

MoHud’s Novice class remains the class to watch as the season championship race is providing the most intrigue.  Russ Gorman and Greg Pecore have swapped spots, with Russ taking the lead on the strength of a 2nd place finish and Greg’s 2 point season championship lead turning into a 10 point deficit.  Chris Sweeney was a no-show for Event 4, so he’s still safe under MoHud’s revised ‘2 event drop’ rule for scoring this year, but only time will tell if he will show up and remain a strong contender.  Bill Dergosits remains within striking distance of a season podium place, but the new contender to watch is Noor Jariri, and his Chevy Cobalt SS.  Noor’s trend of finishing 3-2-1 over the last 3 events is a trend that he’d likely to see continue, which if it does, could shake up the order of the others currently ahead of him.  As was said before, this is one to watch.

• Event 4 PAX Report
• Final Results Through Event 4,  including updated Season Championship Report