strano@stranoparts.com

I'll start with the easy stuff to remember:

Was 2nd in the Pro Finale to a 997.2 GT3 which checked out on us and was running SSM times, but hung on to win the Year end class championship by one point. I've won SSR for ProSolo the last two years, this one makes SCCA Championship (nationally) #17. 8 ProSolo class, 1 ProSolo Overall in 2009, and 7 National Championships. Still working on that one in a Corvette. Damned close every year since 2011. Lots of 2nds, I think it's 4 now and a 3rd? Maybe it's 3 and 2, I dunno remember anymore.

Then we moved onto Nationals.

Shelly Monfort dropped into my Z06 and won her 9th title, 7th in a row in SS/SSR, and 4th in a row in a C6 (mine but she has her own Atomic Orange clone of my car). And she was flying. As in she ran heat 2 Tu/Wed we ran heat 5... and she would have been 6th in SSR Open class. Very proud of her, and yes I'm biased since she's my other half.

My car was working perfectly. The west course was a narrow affair, very cone intensive. Drove better than it walked but it was more local like on crack than Nationals. Just too restrictive. Put everyone in very much the same place, little line choice, etc. And that is basically where I did myself in. I was going well. Let through 2 runs, even though I coned my 2nd which was 60.6. And then I goofed badly by having my foot slip off the brake a second to early (just slipped wasn't a bad decision) and ended up standing on that run of 60.7. At which point others did NOT make any similar mistake and it left me .401 down in 3rd going to the east course. 60.7 from the west follows:

Onto the east course. The day started normal enough. But when it came time to run, my car suddenly was dead. Wouldn't start, various jump packs, etc. Mechanicals were called, when we did get it running the TPMS was not freaking out (I choose to run it as I've had issues with tire gauges failing and having slow leaks in tires which TPMS helps me catch) and couldn't get it to sync. Not helped by the fact the LF sensor had be flaky some this year but worked fine on 3 separate tests of that rim before I left for Nebraska. Ended up fooling the car with my rains and got rolling.

But by this time my stress level was *high*. And my first run, while pretty fast @ 52.1 was a dirt-tracking, over aggressive, Hoosier melt-fest. My 2nd run was a 51.7 clean, as was the 3rd. I knew I had to make tracks on day 2 and I gave it all I had, and frankly can't think of many times I drove better. Remember, I was down .401. I made up .397. Which means. I lost. By .004. And that 997.2 GT3? He was 3rd .080 behind me. So 1-3 in SSR for 2015, .084 apart. This is the video of my 2nd run, the one I stood on:

Shane Chinnon was videotaping the battle on day 2, and posted his from the sidelines video of Grant (winner), my (2nd), and Matthew's (3rd) runs as well as a few others who had an outside shot the other night. It includes talking to Grant and I didn't win, but I'm okay with linking it because Grant is a good guy, he has had some tough luck with hitting cones on 3 runs on one day each of the last two years. Always fast enough, plenty of wins @ Tours and Pro's. He did what he needed to do an for that he deserves the win. I am also maybe less upset about it because he's a customer of mine, there are stranoparts.com stickers on there, he runs my 8472 sway bar, my shock mounts, and son on. And hey, I put his spark plugs in back in May and shredded my arms doing it. Anyway, if you want to see a C6 bending like a slinky, take a look. My run starts @ about the 2:30 mark and while that's my 3rd run it was barely slower than the 2nd run linked above. Here's Shane's video:

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So what else happened? A lot. But I'll keep it Corvette focused.

A-Street: James Yom won in David Howdyshell's C5Z. And in fact 8 of the top 9 in the class are running on my sway bar. 7 or those 9 were on Koni's with our rod-end mounts, the 8th on MCS shocks which I also carry.

A-Street Ladies: All 5 entrants there are customers and running our sway bar. Congrats to Jami Olerich on her win there in Glen Hernandez's car.

B-Street: For as much screaming as there was by some S2000 folk, that's what ended up 1-2. Trophies when 14 deep with 53 entrants. 8 of those trophies went to C5's. 7 of those 8 are Strano Performance customers and/or setup cars. Those 7 were on my 8472 front sway bar too. Special shout outs to Evan Schickel who had a monster rookie year. He ended up 6th here because rain got in they way on Day 1 (actually drying conditions he missed on being a single driver with a lot number). He was bad fast on day 2. Brian Coulson in 3rd was forced to move from AS"R" where he was your National Champion last year to B-Street and showed the very same setup works on street tires too. Car owner Cal Craner told me "we didn't touch a thing". Mike Moran in 4th his Z51 Coupe. He and 10th trophy winner Andy Thomas haven't had that car long and it's very different than the Celica they had before, but are clearly adapting in a hurry. But I'm not so sure about the graphics on that thing. Lynne Rothney-Kozlak was 9th, Allen Chen and Kenneth Tsang 12th and 13th respectively.

A lot more happened in a lot of places. I was involved with a number of other titles, and a LOT of other trophies. And while it makes me very proud to know that my products and hopefully my personal help gets people good results, it's sometimes a little overwhelming to look at how many folks are running my stuff. I'm proud and flattered both.

So to end this quicker. We also "brought home" the Championship and 4 other trophies in C-Street. The Championship and 3 other trophies in E-Street. The Championship and 5 other trophies in F-Street. The Championship and the other 2 trophies in F-Street Ladies. The Championship (by 1.6 seconds) and 3 other trophies in G-Street with Mark Scroggs killing it for the 2nd year in a row there. 2nd place trophy in G-Street Ladies. Championship in H-Street Ladies. Championship and two other (3rd and 5th) trophies in STX, There were other trophy winners in other places like SSP (Courtney Cormier), STU with Jon Lugod and Lane Borg in 3rd and 4th, and so on and so forth.

All in all. By my count it's 10 Championships to customers, and friends of ours. That's not bad for a two person shop from PA. And when I count those I'm not counting folks who bought an air filter from me 10 years ago. All those above are currently running products I make, have supplied to them. Many on partial or complete setups done by Strano Performance Parts. Again, couldn't be more proud. And I'm very glad you folks are willing to give me a chance.

autoxer6

Thanks for sharing. I've always appreciated your advice.

Chris Shay

firebirdfan

I'm curious to what this comment is about. I wasn't there. Care to elaborate?

froggy47

Great video thanks Sam.

chetly

My guess is the s2000 folks were screaming that the Corvette was an overdog car and that they wouldn't be able to compete with them.

talon95

Yup, although they may have benefited from the rain the first day. Not sure how wet it was through all their runs.

dhowdy

First day really sucked for BS drivers. It began very wet and only second drivers on third run really got a fair shake at the course.

Dr.Ron

Congrats Sam!!

Ron