Prep for the Pro Highlights Autocross #3

Over 130 people took to the course at Cal Club Autocross’ third event of the 2018 season— “Prep for the Pro” Autocross—at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Sunday, March 4. The Jon Lugod designed course was focused on the speed and length of a typical ProSolo (to help those gearing up for the 2018 Tire Rack Fontana ProSolo on March 23-25), and featured a low cone count, one difficult turn, and a thread-the-needle section.

PAX Ladies was one of the first groups to kick off the event, and Lisa Berry in the Evo earned her first class win of the young season with a .763 victory over Jessica Pao in the Mazda MX5. Theresa Berry, driving a Porsche Boxster, was a close third just .033 back of Pao. Silvio Zucchet was another competitor to win for the first time this season, taking the H Street crown by three-tenths over Bill Martin.

On the other end of the spectrum was Steve O’Blenes, who made it a perfect three-for-three in Street Touring eXtreme with a .393 victory over Guy Ankeny. Likewise, Brian Howlett in his 1966 Morgan Plus 4 also won for the third time this season with a .192 edge over Brian Jackson in his 1969 Chevy Corvair.

Jeff Wong in his Camaro SS earned his first victory in PAX class by improving on each of his four runs to ultimately top Tom Berry in the Evo by .373. Matt Jones in a Corvette finished third just .047 behind Berry.

Mark DeShon took the top spot in Street Touring Ultra against co-driver Jeff Stuart by a mere .058. Another driver to beat his other half was Brandon Porambo, who remained perfect in class competition this season with a half-second win over Paul Molina in Classic American Muscle Contemporary. Tom Tanquary also earned his third-class victory of the season in B Street, and came from behind to do it on his last run by topping Scott McHugh by .339.

Chad Ryker stood on his second run to claim top honors in Classic American Muscle Traditional for the third time this season, holding off Efrain Diaz by just .141. Mike Bradley in the Mini Cooper S earned his first win of 2018 in California Street Touring, improving by 1.2 seconds from his first to third runs to win the 10-driver class by eight-tenths over Scott Mullens in his Ford Boss 302. Jonathon Hartendorp, driving his BMW M3, claimed the final podium spot finishing just .159 behind Mullens, while Adrian Cardenas in his Mazda Rx7 was close in fourth just .017 behind.

Tom Frecentese took the podium in C Street by over two seconds against Marc Lewis, while Brian Strovers won Super Stock R by 1.5-seconds against George White. For the second event in a row, Randy Gonzalez was the victor in A Street, cleaning up two dirty runs to lay down a third run that was .166 better than early leader Danny Castillo.

The SCCA’s newest class, Solo Spec Coupe, saw Max Hayter top the charts for the second straight competition, holding off Jeff Cashmore by almost three-tenths for the win. Stanley Kowalski was another three-for-three class winner in Street Mod Combined, besting Julian Manolov by nearly eight-tenths.

All three drivers in C Modified went faster as each run progressed, with Jason Swindle ultimately edging co-driver Casey Quinn by just .030 to earn his third class victory of the season. The top six drivers in Street Touring Roadster—the largest class of the event with 13 competitors—were within one second of each other and all went the fastest on their fourth runs. However, Jon Lugod just went the fastest, earning his third win of 2018 with a .020 victory over Mike Yanase. Reed Gibson finished third with Kevin Pao in fourth.

Leonard Cachola remained perfect in E Street this season with a near half-second victory over Dennis Hubbard. Edward Tsui finished third, only .070 behind Hubbard. Nicole Wong won F Street by 1.1 seconds over David Reiner.

The Novice class was nine deep and witnessed Bolong Guan driving GS pick up his third win of the season with a .622 win over Alice Ying Gao of ES. Garet and Owen Binckes finished third and fourth respectively.

To finish off the competition, four Junior Karters took to the course with Robert Ekstrand defeating Shelby Baltazar by 1.2 seconds in Junior A, and Tadao and Lakshmi Nakata competing in Junior B and Junior C respectively.

Cal Club Autocross hosts the 2018 Tire Rack ProSolo on March 23-25 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, and returns to regular season competition on April 15 with Autocross #4 at the old El Toro Marine Base in Irvine.

A big thank you to all our chiefs and volunteers!