Khai Duplantis. Remember the name.

This impressive 30-year-old Louisianan caught the eye of many at the 2023 Tire Rack SCCA® Solo® National Championships when he finished sixth out of 67 in the challenging Solo Spec Coupe (SSC) class – that was, after all, his first time at the event.

Wheeling a black Scion FR-S owned and co-driven by Texan Justin Harbour, Duplantis wound up just 0.530sec behind class-winner Mason Herrick on aggregate in his first trip to Lincoln Airpark for the Solo Nats, unfazed by the challenges on either the fast and flowing East or technical West course.

The result was not only a trophy at his first Solo Nats, but he was also recently presented with the 2023 SCCA Solo Rookie of the Year honors.

His is quite a story, with the wind at his back in his first Nationals foray coming from a particularly supportive Southern and Central Louisiana Regional Solo community.

The Early Days

Duplantis “discovered" autocrossing almost by chance:

"I'm sure that's how it happens for a lot of people,” he says. “One day, the guy mounting tires on my Fiesta ST asked me, 'Hey, you ever heard of this [sport]?' He showed me some pages to follow on Facebook, and one of those led me to the Delta Region website.”

Reading that the Region would be hosting a Solo school, he entered and took in both the school and the accompanying autocross.

That was 2017. "And I just didn't stop after that because it was like it was meant for me,” he says with a laugh. "When I went to my first Solo event, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is it. This is what I want to do.'”

Duplantis’ Fiesta ST was modified “just enough to boot me out of Street classes” before he started autocrossing, and thus was uncompetitive in the next class up. But he learned the basics, and then got to drive his buddy Kyle Tanglao’s Mazda Miata.

“I really liked it and ended up swapping the Fiesta for an NB Miata of my own. I did all the STR stuff to it and then threw a turbo kit on it. I still have it and have fun with it – it’s a great little car – but the modifications kinda kept me away from the events.”

Khai, though, really wanted to compete in one, eyeing the 2023 South Texas Tour event.

With Friends Like These...

Re-enter Kyle Tanglao.

“Kyle has been my friend and kind of my rival for years,” Duplantis explains. “We both started at the same time and seem to have similar skill levels. He’s the friend with the NB Miata that convinced me to get one. And he really wanted me to go to that Tour event, so he made me a little autocross resume and posted it on the Houston Region Facebook page.”

(Kai Duplantis (right) and Kyle Tanglao celebrate after competition at the 2023 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships.)

Days later he heard from Granger, TX, Solo Spec Coupe driver Justin Harbour who stepped up, offering to share his Scion FR-S.

“Justin didn't know who I was, and I didn't know who he was,” Duplantis remembers. "All I knew was that he was going to let me drive his car. So I showed up, met him at the event, and ended up winning SSC in the South Texas Tour in his car! So then I asked him if I could drive it at Nationals. He said, ‘Yeah!’ So I got to run at Nationals in his car.

"I like his car and it worked out great,” Duplantis continues. "He has experience and he has his stuff together. All I had to do was focus on driving, which was great."

Duplantis wound up sixth and Harbour also trophied, finishing 12th, so the arrangement worked out well for both drivers.

“ was excited that we both did so well. I don't know who he's co-driven with before, but he’s a serious driver, and he beat my time on the East course (plane side). Just because I drove a little better than him overall that day, no doubt he could beat me on another day.

“He even let me change a couple of things to suit my preference,” Duplantis adds. "He was really open to those changes because he wanted the input, and the changes actually worked really well. It's not just everyone who would be open to that. He was great."

Rolling into the 2024 season, Duplantis hopes to do the South Texas National Tour event again and maybe add Moultrie, GA.

"I may do both or only one, but either way, I definitely want to go to Nationals again,” he explains. Though one of his Delta Region friends has offered an SSC drive, Duplantis is open to co-driving with Harbour again “because, you know, being so close to the top in SSC, it's like, we both want to go and try again."

Getting There

Hopefully, Duplantis will have a more comfortable 1,000-mile journey from hometown Houma, LA, to Lincoln than he did in 2023, where he delivered friend Chris Wooster’s G Street VW GTI – along with three other passengers, including friend Tanglao, who would be sharing Delta Region’s James Wanamaker’s Scion – to the Nebraska event.

“Kyle and James both competed, we all went up to Nationals together and we all drove SSC. It was so cool. We had a decent Louisiana group presence in 2023 – got to hang out with people we know and meet new people, you know?"

Nationals rookie Duplantis says he enjoyed every facet and was surprised only by the scale of the event – “like, getting to the courses from where you were in the paddock, that kind of stuff. You have to have pit transportation of some sort. Since we’d packed four people into that GTI, we did not have room for a lot of luggage,” he laughs.

The solution? "I managed to buy the cheapest scooter I could find at Walmart – it worked pretty good," he says.

A Community

Duplantis is quick to share his thoughts on the SCCA Solo community and the people he’s met: “Sharing a car to get [to Nationals], sharing a hotel room and Airbnb, co-driving with someone that I just met – it all came together. And that's also why I like autocross. It's not just because it's the perfect hobby for me; it's the people I’ve met, the community."

(With autocross, Duplantis has found a community of friends.) 

People like Terry Neuville, Duplantis says: “He's one of our fastest drivers locally. He and his wife, Terri – with an ‘I,’ Terry and Terri – drove their RV to Nationals and that was our hub. They're basically the ‘Louisiana Autocross Dad and Mom’ – it's awesome the support they give. They’re just awesome people. I'm waiting for Terry, who drove a CAM-S Camaro ZL-1, to get his first podium up there because he's a really serious driver.

"Their son, Dustin, also competes, and both he and his dad have trophied at National-level events.

"And obviously [C Street frontrunner] Kerry Coughlin from Delta Region who has been doing this stuff forever and is probably the person most excited about my Nationals results,” Duplantis adds. "He’s the big local guy promoting all the National events. He's been doing it for the longest time and is probably our fastest local driver. And his wife Casey has won multiple jackets."

Duplantis was quickly welcomed into the enthusiastic and hospitable Central Louisiana and Delta Region communities, and now he has cemented his own place not only among that group, but also in SCCA’s record book, where his name will forever appear in the Solo Rules under the line “Solo Rookie of the Year.”

Lead photo by Rupert Berrington