Sam Strano

I have no complaints about how the week went, other than Jason Burns drove way too well and pushed (and at times pulled) me to get with the program. But considering he's a friend, his car is setup similar to ours (it is after all another Strano Performance Parts Mustang) and we constantly beat on each other locally I'm not at all surprised by his showing. And if I couldn't have won, he'd have been one of few I'd have been ok with getting beaten by.

At the Pro Jason was fastest on the left, I was fastest on the right. I was just faster than he was by .117 on the right than he was to me on the left. So that's what I won by, .117. Because it rained all weekend but stopped before the Challenge, it was dry and was chaos. As rounds went on, I was forced to break out (and get the time and a half penalty) to beat my guys. Jason's guys red-lighted and such so he never did break out. We met in round 3. I had to give him a 5 second head start (in the same class car). We had fun with it since there was no way I could beat him being 10 seconds in the hole to an equivlent driver and car combination. Oh well.... He went to the final round where he lost. But then later in the week the car that beat him was DSQ @ Nationals and the driver gave up his ProSolo winnings too. So it appears Jason will be the ProSolo Finale Challenge winner and gets the 4 Hoosiers to go with it.....

Come Nationals, it was a battle all the way.

We had to run 1st heat, 1st day. It was dirty, and the course we ran was very confining for a big car like the S197. It was also very, very slalom intensive. And just what I had been saying came true. A Bullitt (basically a GT suspension) ended up 2nd. Burns was 1st, Kent Kroll was 2nd .067 back, and I was 3rd another .070 back. I wasn't happy with 3rd, didn't feel I drove my best (and I know Jason felt the same way, we talked about it).

Day 2 came along, and I was determined to drive like I wanted to win vs. not wanting to lose. I came out of the box on the West course with a 42.8 which I ended up standing on since I coned my 42.7 and slowed down a .9 on run 3. The good news was that nobody else in the class ran a 42 second run, clean or dirty. I think Piccione had 2nd fast scratch time (in the Strano Performance Parts/Jason Burns Shelby) @ 43.1.

In the end, I won by .397 over Jason. I paxed 27th overall, but there were some course changes to the east that make that a little iffy. On the west course, I was higher in the index. That course never changed, and we didn't have to clean it off like the east course.

I know have a total of 4 ProSolo series titles. 3 in F-stock (2 in Mustangs), and one in my ESP Camaro. I'm also now a 5-time National Champion. 3 in ESP Camaro's, 2 in F-stock in the Mustang. And I've won 3 in a row, and 5 out of the last 7 years.

I also had some cars I either setup or help with setup do very well in other classes. ES, ASP, SS, ESP, STU to name a few....

Hopefully we'll see some more folks out there next year. F-stock is great, friendly and fiercely constested. We don't know why we don't see more cars from out west in our class..... you all don't know what you're missing.

PushinTheLimit

I've been reading about the scca nationals on their website as I have a general interest in the SS and ASP classes. I've been working up to start doing some national events next year. I think I will finally get to do my first one down in Valdosta, GA in Febuary. I'm excited and looking forward to it.

Congrats on your win... I know its not easy to win out there. So what kind of contingency do you get for winning your class? Is it money, tires, or both?

Whose car have you setup in ASP? I run against Jason Collett in ASP locally and he's a really good driver. I have yet to run close to him yet, but I don't have the funds to put the kind of money in my car as he has his so far.

pascal

Hey Sam, are you doing any racing at Daytona during the Rollex?