This weekend’s Heidts Performance Car Challenge marked the beginning of a new era in Pro Touring style events and we’ve got photos to prove it. With super stars like Mary Pozzi, Mark Stielow, and James Shipka on hand everyone knew the competition would be fierce, but before it was over jaws would drop. While our own BangShift Chad was up on the roof announcing the event, BangShifter “Chicago” Bob Chiluk was snapping photos like a mad man while taking in all the action.

Bob showed up Saturday in his bitchin’ ’69 Camaro and spent his time enjoying the car show, the road racing, and the QA1 Track Cruise. Big thanks to Bob for hanging out with us and helping bring you coverage of what Mary Pozzi proclaimed was “the best Pro Touring event I have ever participated in.” The Heidts Performance Car Challenge included 3 major competition elements, including the Heidts Road Course Challenge, Nitto Autocross Challenge, and Wilwood Wilstop Challenge, as well as the QA1 Road Rally and Carbon Kustoms Karting Enduro.

Not a single competitor asked for more track time, or complained about the facility, because Autobahn Country Club is incredible. Mark Stielow, Jim Shipka, and Mary Pozzi finished one-two-three in the Heidts Roadcourse Challenge portion of the event and were separated by tenths. On the Nitto Tires Autocross is was no surprise that Fast Mary Pozzi pulled out the win, with a 32.3 second run that beat Stielow and Shipka who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Mary’s 3rd place finish on the road course, and win on the autocross was not without drama. On Saturday she had chassis issues that required welding, and thanks to help from Chris and Phil at The Roadster Shop along with Eurosport Racing some fixes were made. Because of the repairs, Mary was only able to make 6 laps on the roadcourse all day.

No amount of repair work was going to stop Mary from competing, and so her 3rd place finish on the roadcourse was just going to have to be enough as she parked the car in preparation for Sunday’s Nitto Tires Autocross and Wilwood Wilstop Challenge. With a brake rotor that was cracking on the left front and welding required on her panhard bar, nobody expected her to make it through the entire day on Sunday. Well, she did. In fact, when she got bumped to 11th on the Wilstop Challenge, Big Jim Shipka, who was in 2nd on the Wilstop, gave her some advice on his technique. Jim is such a nice guy. Not very bright some times, but a nice guy. (The key is to laugh Jim) Mary took his advice, promptly used it against him, and moved right around him into the number 2 spot. Jim was not thrilled. Repeated attempts to better his time were not succesful and the move on the Wilstop not only moved Mary Pozzi into 2nd place overall, but insured she would get the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitation Birth from this qualifier.

Final results were Mark Stielow in the top spot, Mary Pozzi in Second, and James Shipka in third. What a great group of people and all very deserving. Other highlights of the weekend included the Carbon Kustoms Karting Enduro where randomly drawn teams of 3 raced a kart for one hour. The team who finished the most laps in the 60 minutes won. BangShift Chad’s team was incredibly talented and had one of the fastest karts on the property thanks to some of Chad’s “modifications” but due to an equipment error and subsequent stop and go they finished 9th out of 12 teams. Congrats to the Team of Ridetech’s Greg “Snaps” Schneider, “Fast” Kevin Miller, and “Big Iron” Mike for their win. They deserved it.

BangShift Sponsors Optima Batteries and Ridetech both did incredibly well this weekend as well. Ridetech’s new coilover shocks are making huge strides as at least 10 competitors were running them this weekend. The two most impressive entries, your first and second place competitors Pozzi and Shipka, were running Ridetech’s new Triple Adjustables all weekend.

To check out all of Chicago Bobs photos from this weekend,

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