Back to the bullring! After a highly successful first event at the Springfield Upper Valley Mall as part of the Great Lakes Solo Series, WOR returned to its traditional home for the fourth points event of the year. Forty-eight drivers showed up to tackle the course, which opened with a long sweep through Kil-Kare’s Turn Three before slowing sharply and heading into the infield for the usual double loop then exiting out towards Turn One. Any joy that Corvette or Porsche drivers felt in the first half of the course was sure to dissipate after negotiating a couple of the very sharp left-handers in the crossover; still, eight of the top ten raw times were set by either V8s or heavily-boosted boxers.

Street class amounted to a free clinic put on by Kent Weaver in his Nationals-prepped C5 Z06, with nearly eight-tenths separating him from John Souder’s BR-Z in second place. Chris Krueser finished sixth in a temp-tagged Cadillac ATS-V but confessed that the interaction between the twin-turbo torque and the various electronic stability systems was proving to be a bit difficult.

Street Touring featured a bit of drama when Myke Dziengel borrowed Crissy Weaver’s STi for his final run and promptly took the win over the aforementioned Mrs. Weaver. Jo Dziengel finished third in her bone-stock 2016 STi, with fourth place going to the FWD Civic of Mitchell Kenoyer.

Tami Staup took her maiden win in a contested WOR class with a half-second gap on the rest of the Street Prepared field. James Driscoll, in second place, brought an authentic SLP-prepared fourth-gen Firehawk to the proceedings and frequently finished his runs in a sort of rolling burnout.  In Prepared, the absolutely wicked ’98 Mustang GT of Ricky Lanser growled and whined its way to a commanding victory.

CAM featured three of the first four Corvette generations in pitched battle with a ’69 El Camino, but Bill Hughes took the win from his very first run in his C5 and never let it go. Keith Owen, by contrast, didn’t pick up the win in Modified until his eight run, throwing in an absolute flyer to put a second on Josh Blackwell’s STI. Brian Huntsbarger picked up third in a very angry-sounding 2011 Camaro wearing “Continental”-branded tires that looked suspiciously like Continental Series tires from IMSA.

Both Ladies and Novice classes featured a Ford pipping a Mazda to the win; in Ladies, it was Charley Baruth who sealed the win in her third run over Janet Schnittger, while for the Novices it was the Focus of Kyle Barchek that raw-timed John Fowler’s Mazdaspeed 3 to pick up the WOR glass mug.

Top raw time went to Ricky Lanser’s XP Mustang, but the top six times were all covered by eight-tenths of a second. Top four PAX times were set by Kent Weaver, Bill Hughes, Myke Dziengel, and John Souder, with special mention to Scott Knick for getting a 1965 Corvette into the tenth PAX spot. Twelve of the top fifteen PAX times were set by a Corvette, a Subaru, or a Miata, so if you’re new-car shopping this year you know where to start.

This upcoming month, WOR and the Miami Valley Sports Car Club will meet at the Wilmington Air Park in the first annual battle between the two clubs. You don’t want to miss it!