Sports Car Club of America Solo racers were once again dodging autocross cones this past weekend, with two events running simultaneously in Irvine, Calif., and Atlanta. On both coasts, the Street Touring classes were dominated by cars running on Toyo’s Proxes R1R extreme performance tire, reports the company’s Stan Chen.
In Atlanta, Team Toyo’s Tim Smith, the 2008 SCCA Solo National Champion, finished first in the Pro Class out of 26 entries with his 1989 Honda Civic Si equipped with the R1Rs. Not only did he win the class, but he also lent his car to a friend, Bill Bounds, who finished second behind Smith.
Hondas with the R1Rs captured the top three spots in the Pro Class. Running the same car, and with the same set of tires, were Laura White and Amy Smith — who scored a 1-2 finish in the Street Touring class over a field of 13 cars.
“Our Proxes R1R tires perform exactly as expected…sometimes a little more, and never a disappointment,” says Tim Smith. “I am looking forward to competing in Houston next weekend.”
Smith also won the SCCA Dixie National Tour at South Georgia Motorsports Park, the first stop of the SCCA Solo National Tour, and heads to the third event of the Solo National Tour in Houston on April 4.
The SCCA Pro Solo national season kicked off at the El Toro Airfield in Southern California. Team Toyo’s Ken Motonishi continued his dominance by scoring his fourth consecutive ST class victory in 2009 while running on R1R tires, including round two of the Solo National Tour in San Diego.
Motonishi won Sunday’s competition with a comfortable margin of victory driving his 1989 Honda Civic Si, yet he still felt the pressure.
“Ours was a hard-fought win with a lot of drama despite a margin of some 1.9-seconds,” says Motonishi. “Also, during the previous race in San Diego we ran in both the rain and on a dry track (with) our Proxes R1R tires maintaining the same performance gap over our competitors in all track conditions.”
In addition to Motonishi’s ST class win at El Toro, the R1Rs finished first and second on Mazda Miatas in Street Touring S (STS), first in Street Touring X (STX) on a Subaru WRX and first in Ladies Class 1 with a Honda Civic Si.
“We congratulate both Tim Smith and Ken Motonishi on their continued dominance in Solo,” says Chen, Toyo’s manager of motorsports and events. “This has been an awesome weekend for the Proxes R1R, and we are glad people know it is the tire that delivers podiums in the Street Touring classes.”
For more information, visit www.toyotires.com and www.scca.com.
