1. The year of the Tents. 2010 saw the first paddock tent. It became a hub of activity featuring cook-outs, parties and hours upon hours of 4-square. This year 10 more tents will be added to the fold, each from a different division. Factor in the annual CP party, rumors of “Big Wheel ProSolo”and the Bier Garden trucked in from Texas, and this should be the best paddock in Nationals History.
2. The Battles. This year is shaping up to be the most epic Nationals on course in several years. All eyes will be on classes like Super Stock with Strano taking on Braun and Mark Daddio’s return to F-Stock to take on Brian Peters. E-Modified will see Bob Tunnell trade in the trusty M3 for a Jeep to try to run down the Super Sprite of Jeff Kiesel. But it is often the classes no one sees coming that provide the highest drama, there are always underdogs, legends, heroes and villains battling for championships, trophies or just trying to not be D*L.
3. Education. There is a lot to learn at Nationals. This year will feature a fresh practice course on a bigger pad, designed by Karen Babb. There will be lots of opportunities for testing, tuning or just practice on the Lincoln surface. Need a little help? Evolution is providing instructed Test and Tune Time, Saturday-Wednesday on the practice course as well as the annual Course Seminar on Monday night. And don’t forget, this is the biggest collection of Nationally competitive drivers each year. Bring a notepad, you may want to write a few things down.
4. Money. Nationals is not free, but 2011 is the best chance at winning some of that money back. This year’s event has a record 19 contingency programs ranging from tire to auto manufacturers. If you can run up front, count on stopping at the bank on the way home.
5. Everyone else is doing it. There are two types of people at Nationals, your current friends, and your future friends. Good news, they’ll both be there.
Course Worker Guidelines By the Solo Safety Committee
The Solo Events Board asked the Solo Safety Committee to develop a set of Course Worker Guidelines — to make sure that we’re all on the same page when it comes to what we expect of our course workers. So, here goes:
– Down and out rule – make sure all workers understand it
– You’re there to work – no cameras, cell phone calls, or music at worker stations and minimal idle chatter
– On your feet when cars are on the course
– Photographer (with spotter) should not be placed at worker station
– Stay hydrated — alternate between water and Gatorade if possible
– Never turn your back on the cars
– Spread out — use a satellite worker if necessary — not at the outside of turns
– “Own”a section of the course
– Watch the cars pass and follow them with your eyes- this catches cones that just move a little
– Hustle to reset cones and get back to your worker position
– Watch out for each other — every worker is every other worker’s “spotter”
– Worker with radio should also have red flag – flag unfurled and held against pole
– If you have to red flag a car, be prepared to tell the driver why and how to proceed off-course
– Carry a fire bottle cradled in your arms like it’s a baby — not flailing loosely about where it can smack you in the shins
– To use a fire bottle, pull the pin — aim nozzle at base of flames — squeeze handle — and sweep back and forth (P-A-S-S)
– Methanol fires require water, not traditional fire bottles. Hard to “see”a methanol fire in the daylight — blue flames.
The Tour featured an awesome Karen Babb designed course that utilized the topography well to provide many off camber challenges yet avoiding the sites harsher areas and also allowing for good drainage. Patience was the word with key sweepers being of the decreasing radius variety. Even in the wet the start was a hoot with nearly 300 ft of straight after a sharp entry box.
The weather was a challenge for drivers, as forecast worsened running up to the event. Saturday started with heavy rain failing and a very wet course. Several drivers were unprepared and ran on drys resulting in more than a few spins.
Heat two saw drying conditions that started as bad as heat one and ended with a drying line. Many classes saw 1st day winners based upon latest runs on the tight but dry line including Bob Bundy in SSM who took a .8 second lead into day two. Drivers who pushed too hard wound up off line, in the wet and often backwards.
Some STU drama occurred when the Mikko family STU car had a dead clutch after arriving on site. Co-drive Geoff Clark spent 12 hours under the car Friday night and replaced the damaged clutch component and a turbo bolt that broke along the way. Further troubles arose during heat 3 competition when the cars sway bar link broke. Spare in hand, Clark again came to the rescue and fixed the car just in time for Tasha’s final run on which she took the lead.
As always, the Packwood Tour featured great social opportunities. The party at the town’s firehouse included good home cooked chicken and wine, and many awesome raffle prizes including $250 Tire Rack gift certificates and free alignments from Fordahl Motorsports.
Sundays course was the reverse of Saturday’s with some minor tweaks and finished with an exciting off camber right hand turn into a very fast finish. Competitors awoke to dry conditions on Sunday, but in a cruel twist of fate, a light drizzle started during course walks and by the time heat one started
Heat one was again completely wet and featured many spins as folks sought to make up the margins the previous day’s weather left them with. The stand out from the crowd was the Hyman Nissan GTR, utilizing both AWD and rain tires to navagate the course as though it were dry.
Heat 2 was again changing conditions but started drier then on Sunday. A lack of direct sun light left the course moister then by the end of Saturday’s competition but again was mostly dry by the end. Several great battles including H-Stock where Joe Austin almost snatched the win from Local Bill Zerr, but in the end wound up a few hundredths short.
The tour featured some seldom seen autocross cars this year, including a 67 Luv Pickup competing in SSM and and an electric powered Tesla finding its way onto the podium in SS.
Both Packwood Events this year saw record numbers in attendance. The Tour broke the 280 mark for the first time ever and the Pro, while still a smaller ProSolo, was up 8 from last year at 145.
The weather for the Pro more than made up for the rain at the Tour. In fact, Saturday of the Pro was as close to a perfect day as Field Staffer Cindy Jansen could recall. “Absolutely spectacular weather with highs in the high 60’s and a clear view of Mt. Rainier all day, no equipment problems, no cars broke down on course, no fluid spills, on-time start, leisurely pace, and none of us could remember a single re-run all day.”
The Chris Kmetz designed course, though a little shorter than other ProSolo courses this season, was well received by competitors. Jeff Kiesel had fastest time when he turned a 22, but most times were in the upper 20’s. Gumout Super Challenge winner Andy Hollis noted, “Courses were straightforward to get 90%, but hard to find 100. So many classes were tight. Left side substantially more technical than right, especially in two key places. That caught a lot of folks out in the Challenges.”
Again STR was a great battle and based on Saturday scratch times, Annie Bauer looked headed for a win until her limited slip stopped limiting slip. Annie ran the car anyway on Sunday, though was clearly off her own pace. Her co-driver, Max Hayter, had to sit nervously on the sidelines while the rest of the class chased down his times relentlessly on Sunday but was able to hold on to the win by only .064.
Both Brian Peters and Scott McHugh had important weekends as they are both now tied for the ProSolo Points leads in their respective classes. Neither, however have particularly easy paths to the championship as McHugh will have to contend with The Kozlaks and Marc Pfannenschmidt in B-Stock while Peters will square off against Mark Daddio in F-Stock.
Andy McKee also put in a needed performance in Packwood to bring himself to a points tie with fellow RX-7 driver Erik Strelneiks in Super Street Modified. Tom Kotzian added to his previous ProSolo points as well to claim the Street Modified Front-Wheel-Drive lead in the Mini.
ASP got a shake up in Packwood as Eric and Laurie Hyman seem to be making the most of their Nissan GTR. Eric took the class win over past champion Ken Motonishi while Laurie posted a dominating performance in Ladies 2. Provided the GTR show the same type of advantage on concrete that it had on the Packwood asphalt, the Hyman’s could be set for a strong Nationals performance.
