Inaugural Speedway Motors CAM Challenge Meet a Success

Mary Pozzi scored the Shootout win in the first event for the Speedway Motors Classic American Muscle (CAM) Challenge Powered by the SCCA this past weekend at Crows Landing Airport in Crows Landing, Calif., March 7-8. This event was the first in a series of three events scheduled to take place in 2015.

The first event attracted a total of 42 drivers, across three different classes, designed to attract the owners of both classic and contemporary muscle cars. The CAM-Traditional and CAM-Sport classes are centered on the cars that started the muscle car genre in the 1960s. Late-model generations of those iconic cars compete in the CAM-Contemporary class.

The meet utilized the Solo Match Tour format as class-based runs from Saturday and Sunday morning set the stage for Sunday’s Shootout bracket competition. Representatives from Speedway Motors were on site, including Carson Smith and Indy 500 Champion Al Unser, Jr.

Aside from the competition and included dignitaries, there were two social events that helped to bolster the importance of the event. On Friday night, Mike Maier, Inc., in Livermore, California, hosted an open house that attracted more than 100 people. Saturday’s awards dinner, hosted by Wilwood High-Performance Disc Brakes, took place in Patterson, California, to bring drivers, workers and their families together.

Taking the class win in CAM-C was Nick Grucza, in his 1964 Ford Mustang GT, after making only one clean run in both the morning and afternoon. Mike Maier took home the CAM-T title over some very stiff competition. The top four drivers in the class represented a total of 20 SCCA Solo National Championships. In CAM-S Scott Fraser emerged victorious in his 1966 Cobra, also setting the fastest time of Saturday’s sessions.

Heading into the bracket portion of the event, Pozzi had qualified as the third overall seed. In her opening round, she went up against Rick Oates. After taking Oates out, Pozzi downed James Fields allowing her to move to the bracket quarter-final at the controls of her 1973 Chevrolet Camaro.

In the quarter-final, Pozzi bested Todd Lilly. She then took down Alan Miller in the semi-final round. Pozzi’s final match up was with Carrie Wilhoff, who drove a Chevrolet Corvette.

Wilhoff’s road to the finals started with a bye. In the second round she took the win over Richard Wilhoff, moving her forward to the quarter-finals. There, Wilhoff beat out Mike Loftstrom earning her a semi-final showdown with Stacie Naumann. Wilhoff was able to get the best of Naumann, who entered the event mid-day Saturday and had never driven the Pontiac GTO she piloted in the competition, and advanced to the bracket final.

In the final round, Pozzi proved to have the pace to score the win over Wilhoff. Naumann earned the final podium position, after beating Miller in the third-place runoff.

Additional information on the SCCA Tire Rack National Solo Program, including the Speedway Motors CAM Challenge Powered by SCCA, can be found at SCCA.com/solo.

Like SCCA on Facebook at Facebook.com/SCCAOfficial and follow us on Twitter @SCCAOfficial.