Mile High Indoor Championships – Report

5280 Raceway in Denver, Colorado hosted the 2015 Mile High Indoor Champs. While the weather outside was cold and slushy, the action on the track was scorching hot with some very close action across most classes during an event featuring Formula, World GT, Touring Car and 1/12th scale classes. The “Mile High” kicked off with open practice most of the day on Thursday followed by the regularly scheduled club race that evening, which provided those who travelled to the event early a taste of racing action before the actual event began. Most drivers found solid pace by the end of controlled practice on Friday and lap times began to fall as qualifying began Saturday morning on this fast and fairly open layout, designed to encourage passing and plentiful on-track action. In Modified Touring Car Paul Lemieux snatched the TQ spot by just over 2 tenths from Kevin Hebert. Others rounding out the TQ honors were local club president Mario Ficco in Formula, Brian Wynn in WGT, Kyle Klingforth in 13.5 Touring Car, Bill Sydor in 17.5 Touring Car, Kevin Hebert in Modified 1/12th scale and Mitch Witteman in both 13.5 and 17.5 1/12th scale.

In the Modified Touring Car final Paul Lemieux would lead wire-to-wire but not totally comfortable as Kevin Hebert would mount a charge almost to Paul’s bumper in the final two minutes, ultimately Kevin would have to settle for 2nd, RC America team manager Ralph Burch would round out the podium in 3rd. Notable Kyle Klingforth had pace for a podium but a very small mistake would turn for the worse taking him out of contention.

Modified Touring Car results:
1. Paul Lemieux
2. Keven Hebert
3. Ralph Burch
4. Josh Hohnstein
5. Korey Harbke
6. Justin Salerno
7. Kyle Klingforth
8. Blake Bell
9. Drew Ellis
10.Dave Ehrlich

In 13.5 Touring Car pole sitter Kyle Klingforth would take off at the beginning after a “rough” start from 2nd placed Drew Ellis which would shake up the field. In the end Kyle claimed victory with Adam Brown having a great drive to be less than two seconds back. Corey Parsons would come all the way from the 7th qualifying position to finish 3rd overall.

13.5 Touring Car results:
1. Kyle Klingforth
2. Adam Brown
3. Cory Parsons
4. Justin Salerno
5. Josh Hohnstein
6. Arthur Scrimo
7. Jake Danilchik
8. Dan Hamann
9. Drew Ellis
10.Bill Sydor

17.5 Touring Car pole taker Bill Sydor lead for much of the beginning but bobbles from the front runners would allow Corey Parsons, coming from 5th on the grid, to the front after a great start from him. Corey brought company with Q6 Adam Brown to the 2nd position, both drivers seemingly finding better pace in the finals. It would finish like that with Corey Parsons taking the win, Adam to 2nd and Bill Sydor righting himself to salvage a podium spot.

17.5 Touring Car results:
1. Cory Parsons
2. Adam Brown
3. Bill Sydor
4. Damon Converse
5. Max Kuenning
6. Josh Hohnstein
7. Arthur Scrimo
8. Dan Hamann
9. Michael Toth
10.Michael Herald Jr

Modified 1/12th scale had TQ Kevin Hebert taking off to a good lead but a mistake would allow team mate Joe Trandell to the front. Joe would lead for a good bit with Kevin awaiting his opportunity to pass, in time Kevin received a bobble from Joe and never looked back. Joe Trandell would receive a well-deserved second with Chris Hillier’s consistency paying off to finish 3rd.

Modified 1/12th Scale results:
1. Keven Hebert
2. Joe Trandell
3. Chris Hillier
4. Blake Bell
5. Korey Harbke
6. Max Kuenning
7. Brian Bodine
8. Todd Mason
9. Stuart Mason
10.Dave Ehrlich

In 13.5 1/12th scale top qualifier Mitch Witteman would have the lead but soon relinquish it and dropped way back only to spend the rest of the race clawing. Q2 Joe Trandell would take the lead and battle his way to victory over Max Kuenning. Ryan Borgheiink would lead a large and racing pack to the final podium position with an exciting last lap race for positions behind him.

13.5 1/12th scale results:
1. Joe Trandell
2. Max Kuenning
3. Ryan Borgheiinck
4. Brian Wynn
5. Adam Balk
6. Mitch Witteman
7. Kyle Goodwine
8. Dave Berger
9. Kevin Van Ert
10.Joey Krysinski

Mitch Witteman was the heavy hitter in 17.5 1/12th scale all weekend and proved it again in the final, the largest charge was from the ever speedy Joe Trandell who had fast lap of the final but the consistency of Mitch would pay off in the end. Mitch took the win with Joe in 2nd with a seemingly new comer to the 1/12th scale division Dan Hamann doing great in the three spot.

17.5 1/12th scale results:
1. Mitch Witteman
2. Joe Trandell
3. Dan Hamann
4. Brian Wynn
5. Kevin Van Ert
6. Joey Krysinski
7. Kyle Goodwine
8. Mario Ficco
9. Tim Copp
10.Michael Herald Jr

In WGT TQ Brian Wynn would ultimately take home the title. The seemingly speedier Max Kuenning would make the race a very exciting one to watch but Max would come up short. A Hard earned 3rd place would go to Mario Ficco as he was able to hold off Mitch Witteman to keep himself on the podium.

WGT results:
1. Brian Wynn
2. Max Kuenning
3. Mario Ficco
4. Mitch Witteman
5. Adam Balk
6. Tyler Lynn
7. Brian Bodine
8. Ryan Borgheiinck
9. Justin Poulson
10.Kevin Van Ert

In the Formula class Drew Ellis stormed into the lead from 2nd on the grid, Drew never looked back and drove to a seemingly easy victory. Mario Ficco would work all the way back to 2nd after a bad start and Robert Bakoczy would end up 3rd.

Formula results:
1. Drew Ellis
2. Mario Ficco
3. Robert Bakoczy
4. Brian Wynn
5. Nick Canelos
6. Jack Kloeber
7. Adam Balk
8. Kevin Cole
9. Chris Lockhart
10.Bob Reinhardt

Thanks to Paul Lemieux for the report.