Wine and racing, can you really go wrong with that? Here is your chance to experience the rolling hills of California wine country and a healthy dose of octane, for good measure. GoPro, the Official Camera of SCCA, is giving you the chance to attend the GoPro IndyCar Grand Prix of Sonoma, Aug. 25 at Sonoma Raceway.
With five races left, the IndyCar championship fight is heating up. Can three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroveves hold onto his point lead to claim his first season championship, or will someone else step forward to make their claim for the title?
The closed-fender sports cars of the Pirelli World Challenge will also be in action this weekend. Catch some of the top sports car drivers from around the world go door-to-door, across four classes, in the penultimate championship event. Johnny O’Connell, Jack Baldwin, Ryan Winchester and Ernie Francis, Jr. lead the drivers’ championship in their respective classes, but there is plenty of competition looking to grab the lead at the slightest mistake.
To be eligible for up to four tickets, and enter your name for a chance to win a GoPro Hero3 Black Edition, simply follow this link to the SCCA forum and tell us what you would do with a GoPro camera, in 10 words or less.
Details on the contest are listed on the forum. Submit your response by Aug. 16 to redeem your tickets. Enter as often as you like until you win, or the contest ends. Join us for what should prove to be an exciting weekend of racing in one of the most unique parts of the country.
The final opportunity for soloists to get in top form prior to The Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships concluded with last weekend’s Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour Northern States Championship in Wilmington, Ohio.
The event site, as well as the competition, gave the 259 entrants a feeling of what to expect at the National Championships in September. The location of the meet was a slightly smaller version of the championship setup in Lincoln, Neb. Members of the Cincinnati Region put over three years of work into the effort to secure the airport site once used by DHL.
The effort was well worth it, as the location proved to be one of the best solo sites in the country, according to SCCA Vice President of Rally/Solo and Special Programs Howard Duncan. The concrete racing surface was in good shape, providing a smooth and high-grip course.
Sam Strano used the premier location to his advantage, creating courses that were fast and technical, but still enjoyable to many. In fact, a large number of drivers were overheard saying that the layouts were the most fun of any course they had run in years.
The importance of this event to the local community was underscored when Wilmington Mayor Randy Riley and Debbie Stamper, the head of the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, arrived to take in the on-course activities. Both dignitaries were afforded the opportunity to get an up-close experience, sitting in the passenger seat for a ‘tour’ of the course.
Feedback from the VIPs was positive, in reference to their ride and the overall operation and importance of the meet. Local restaurant Generations Pizza and Pub showed their support for the event, as well. The business not only provided concessions for competitors and spectators, but led the charge of local businesses that welcomed SCCA to the area.
Aside from the extra attention that was being given to the event, the on-course competition also gave the event a championship-like feel. The winners of four classes were decided by less than 0.2 second.
In Street Modified, David White (G-Fab Racing Nissan 240SX) took the win over teammate and co-driver Todd Kean by 0.081-second. White set the best time on Course One, but had to rely on his initial time on Course Two, hitting a total of six cones during his second and third runs of the course. That left the door open for Kean after setting the fastest time on Course Two, but White had built up enough of a lead on Course One to hold on for the win.
Brian Hoover (E Modified, Lizard Skinz Autobody Sunbeam Tiger) took a narrow 0.083-second class victory over Jay Storm (Sauls Motorsports Subaru Impreza). Through three runs on each course, Hoover clocked best times just fractions of a second quicker than those of Storm.
Jojo Corrales-Kean (Street Touring Ultra Ladies, Mitsubishi) scored a 0.118-second win over Jo Dziengel (Turn in Concepts/FattBoyz Subaru STI), a wide margin in comparison to the aforementioned battles. Corrales-Kean showed her prowess on Course One setting the fast time and creating enough of a gap to secure the win, negating Dziengel’s quick lap on Course Two.
In C Prepared, Ethan Bradbury (Ford Thunderbird) took the win over David Feighner (Ford Mustang). Bradbury initially took the upper hand, setting the fast time on Course One in the all-Ford battle. Feighner cut the fastest time on Course Two, but Bradbury had done enough to secure the 0.170-second win.
The Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour — running the traditional National Tour format — has wrapped up the regular season campaign. The next stop for all soloists is The Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships, beginning Sept. 3 in Lincoln, Neb. More information on The Tire Rack SCCA Solo Program is available at http://www.scca.com/Solo.
More information, including results, from The Tire Rack Solo Northern States Championship is available here.
Follow SCCA on Twitter @SCCAOfficial, or like the Club on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SCCAOfficial.
Wilmington Championship Tour
2013 marks the 65th running of the Detroit Region Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Press On Regardless Rally? (POR), the oldest continuously run rally in North America. More than twenty teams of drivers and their navigators will compete over 525 miles of mostly unpaved roads near Indian River, Michigan during the two-day event September 6-8, 2013. This TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) rally is NOT a race, but rather a competition involving precision driving and teamwork between a driver and a navigator.
The roads on POR will be mostly unpaved, fun and challenging. it’s not a “car-breaker”rally, but vehicles with low ground clearance are not recommended. Running the event after dark allows for increased levels of safety.
Press On Regardless? first ran in 1949, with entries including an SS100 Jaguar and a 1936 Duesenberg. That first POR started in Dearborn, and took competitors to Battle Creek and Flint before returning to the start. The first winners drove a 1949 Studebaker. Since that first presentation, POR has been a unique event, going from an SCCA-sanctioned National Rally, to a “brisk”24 hour Time-Speed-Distance event and then to a closed road performance event patterned after the European Championship rallies. After several years as a FIA listed event, it became the first World Rally Championship Rally in the United States in 1972. When SCCA initiated the Pro Rally series, POR joined that series and was generally considered not only the oldest but also the longest, toughest and meanest event on the schedule. Finally, in 1994, the Detroit Region decided to return the event closer to its roots, and it once again became a TSD event.
The challenge of a TSD rally, such as POR, is to follow a set of route instructions, which describe both the route to be followed, and the speed at which the car should be traveling. Periodically, competitors encounter checkpoints — unknown to them — where the rally car is timed precisely. The difference between the actual time the car arrives and the time the car should arrive, based on the route instructions, becomes the competitor’s score. A perfect score is zero, indicating the car arrived exactly on time. Cars are penalized for each hundredth of a minute they arrive early or late. The 64th running of POR will award points for the SCCA Detroit Region, Great Lakes Division, and National Tour Rally Championship, and the overall winner’s names will be added to the “GENE HENDERSON MEMORIAL TROPHY”along with all of the past winners since 1949.
For more information, see the Detroit Regions web site at http://www.detroit-scca.org
Laps to Conquer MS Double Bonus National
