The Pacific Northwest is not known as one of America’s barbecue hot spots, but thanks to a lightning storm that lit fires on Wednesday night, the competitors at the July 25-26, 2026, Tire Rack ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv® Packwood ProSolo® were cooked low and slow for two days at Hampton Mills. (Sure, that's a bit of exaggeration, but it's a fun opening sentence.)
The James Paulson-designed courses, meanwhile, were anything but slow. The courses provided opportunities for those who could be precise with car position instead of celebrating pure power. Also, ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv’s Northwest Region members continued to prove they are among the best in the business when it comes to supporting events.
In all, a wildly successful event for all 111 drivers on site.
Class Battles
If we’re talking about class battles at the Packwood ProSolo, it begins with C Street Touring. That’s 14 cars and five trophy spots. Was it competitive? Let’s start with this: multi-time National Champion Jonathan Lugod was 0.273sec behind class winner Garrett Cogburn. Lugod missed the trophies! Taylour Wargo was 0.208sec behind Cogburn – he missed the podium! Daniel McCelvey was 0.051sec behind Cogburn, and finished third because Tony Rodriguez was 0.045sec behind.
So, to recap: Cogburn, Rodriguez, McCelvey, Wargo, and John Hunter were in the CST trophies – and all just 0.255sec apart. Include Kevin Dietz, and the top seven were comfortably within one second after two days of runs.
And that wasn’t the only game in town.
Ladies Class 3 saw Chelsea McConnell and her Honda S2000 up front, just 0.086sec ahead of Shelby Redding’s Honda CRX. Jessica Yeung was another 0.255sec back, followed by Kendra Mabie in the final trophy position just 0.314sec behind the winner.
That means Dee Dietz was just 0.784sec behind McConnell and didn’t even collect a trophy for her effort.
In other words, competition at the Packwood ProSolo was intense.
How intense? Check out the class results for a full rundown.
Challenge Recaps
All three Challenges were full at the end of the weekend, which was yet another testament to the competition at Packwood.
In the Bonus Challenge, Annie Gill shook off her eighth-place finish in the aforementioned C Street Touring class and charged through the Bonus Challenge. Gill wiped out Jason Lentz, Guillaume Coste, and Martin McCoy to take victory on the West Coast.
For the Ladies Challenge, Shelby Redding caught fire after finishing second in the tightly contested Ladies Class 3. Redding took down Ewelina Miasik in round one and Dee Dietz in the semi-final, earning the chance to battle Cynthia Clark. Redding stayed the quickest and took the max points toward the season-long Fletcher Cup. Dietz topped Gretchen Weidem for third place.
The C Street Touring posse reared their heads again in the Super Challenge. When qualifying settled, three of them were in the final bracket. Daniel McCelvey squared off against Garret Cogburn in the opener and got his revenge, only to face the trophy-less Jonathan Lugod in the semifinals. McCelvey advanced again, squaring off for the title against Alex Paraskevas. McCelvey ended up with the top spot, with Oliver Taylor topping Lugod for third.
Then There Were Two
With barely a few weeks to catch our breath, the only Tire Rack ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv ProSolo events left in the books are in Lincoln, NE, at Lincoln Airpark. The Tire Rack ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv Lincoln Air Park ProSolo event is up first, on Aug. 7-9, which leads into the Tire Rack ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv ProSolo Finale on Sept. 4-6.
Photo by John Hunter
