The West course at the 42nd Tire Rack Solo National Championships opened on Wednesday with the some fast classes, some smiles, and lots of heartbreak, especially in the Junior karting supplemental classes.
Clemens Burger, of Noblesville, Ind., captured his fourth B Modified National Championship after battling back and forth with co-driver Daniel Stone in the No. 140 LeGrand Mk 18. Burger trailed entering Wednesday, but set clean times in his early runs and eventually won by 0.585-second.
“I was sitting second yesterday, behind my co-driver, which made me happy for him,”Burger said. “It was the first time for him that he was in possession [of the lead], but I wasn’t going to let it finish that way.
“I spent a lot of time coaching him, and I didn’t discontinue that, but he had an unfortunate cone on the first run which messed him up a little bit. It changed his strategy a little bit, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Both of us drove as hard as we can, as fast as we can, and whoever was the fastest in the end wins.”
Diane Bollenbeck, of San Diego, Calif., took the Street Touring Ultra Ladies class by just 0.336-second with a strong second run in the No. 98 Winmax/Cusco/ChaseCam/Cobb/Girodisc Subaru STI for her first National Championship. Bollenbeck needed every bit of the cushion she built on the first day to stay ahead of Mina Ingraham’s No. 77 James Dooley Racing/Johnson Tuning Subaru STI.
“I am so excited right now, I was crying before I went out on my last run,”Bollenbeck said. “I feel good, this is my fourth year autocrossing, this is my second nationals, and I’m just so excited.
“I knew Mina was going to be tough, and it was tough. I feel great right now. She was quickest today, and I knew she would be.”
Kate Regganie, of Joliet, Ill., expanded her day one lead in Kart Modified Ladies to take her first National Championship. A graduate of the Formula Junior program running in the same heat, Regganie was on the edge to post her best times on the way to the title in the No. 21 Honda kart. it’s just the second appearance in a shifter kart at Solo Nationals for the 17-year-old.
“I’m very excited. This is my first time winning, so I’m loving it,”Regganie said. “I feel this course was easier. it’s more similar to what I run at home, and I was more comfortable. The other course had bigger shutdowns, and I’m still learning how to get through those.”
The drama was intense in the Formula Junior ranks, with both Junior A and Junior B coming down to the absolute final runs of the class.
In Junior A, Riley Heaton, of Omaha, Neb., set the time to beat in his No. 99 Birel Kart and then had to sit and wait for the second driver runs to finish to know where he stood. Day one leader Kevin Jung fell just 0.208-second short on his final run in the No. 79 Ciro Racing/7th Gear Tony Kart, but Heaton still didn’t have time to breath. Zak Kiesel followed almost immediately in the No. 194 seventh-gear.com Tony Kart, with a time that gave him an opening, but cones negated the run and relegated him to third.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I’m excited,”Heaton said. “That was my best run [the last one]. I kept it cleaner and kept it tighter through the finish, which I thought was faster. Seeing Keisel and Jung coming through the lights, my heart was really beating.”
Alexander Nelson, of Amherstdale, W.V., nailed his best time on his final circuit in the No. 99 “Mom and Dad”Birel Kart, then sat back and waited on Tuesday leader Johan Yost to complete his final run. Yost crossed the stripe at the finish and everyone held their breath as the computers did the difficult math. Yost had fallen just 0.002-second short of Nelson’s time.
“I really couldn’t tell. I was just looking at that board, staring at it, waiting,”said the 10-year-old, who was very pleased with his win. “[The second run] was almost the same as before, but I came around the last turn and I hit four cones. On the last run, I went around the finish and went a little wider and I think that stopped my tires from sliding around and I got a better time.”
The Junior A class impacted the last run for National Champion Shawn Kiesel, who was able to take home her seventh National Championship with the E Modified Ladies win. Kiesel had to make her last run just after her son Zak fell just short of his title.
“The last run, I cried actually after watching JAs,”Kiesel said. “So I cried pretty much the whole run, and I don’t know if I went faster or not. The times were almost identical, but I didn’t even check.”
The Tire Rack Solo Nationals continues through Friday. More information can be found at SCCA.com/SoloNationals.
2014 Solo National Championship
Heat two on the West course of the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships in Lincoln ended with National Championships for Street Touring Roadster, F Street Prepared, and C Prepared Ladies.
After years of being seemingly snake bitten, Nick Barbato, of Whethersfield, Conn., finally pulled out his first career National Championship behind the wheel of the No. 191 KARCEPTS/Adidas Motorsports Honda S2000. Barbato conquered the 41 car class by 0.604-second over Matthew Braun, with Colin Fielder just another 0.015 back in third.
“Oh, man, I’m so happy,”Barbato said. “I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders after just missing it the past few years. I’ve won heats, I’ve finished second three years in a row, I’ve lost by two thousandths of a second after hitting the last cone on the course in 2011 to Robert Thorne, I coned away the win the past three years. This year, it was a focus on getting the car right, get the set up right, take away the variables so you can just focus on the driving. If you’re thinking about anything else at Nationals, you’re going to get left, especially in a class as deep as STR.
“I’m so happy, this is one of the best moments in my racing career.”
David O’Maley scored the FSP championship for his first career title after trying in a number of classes. The Greensboro, N.C.-native co-drove the No. 95 Starting Line/EvoSchool.com Mazda 323 with Justin Barbry, and walked away with a 0.084-second win after nailing his best run on his third and final opportunity.
“When I started autocrossing, I decided I wanted to do this,”he said of his National Championship. “I’m pretty stubborn, and regardless if it seemed like it was something I was going to be able to do, I’m hard headed enough to keep pushing. Justin asked me to drive this, and I thought it had a decent amount of potential. We changed something on it just about every weekend all year. All day both days, it was awesome.
“Justin’s a good friend, and he wanted the car to do well more than anything else. If one of us did well it was good, and I felt the same way. I’m just glad we could prove that he can build something pretty good.”
Tracy Lewis scored her C Prepared Ladies win by 0.258-second in the No. 38 Lewis Speed Shop/MCS Ford Mustang. Lewis, of Tallahassee, Fla., led the opening day over her co-driver and daughter Alyssa, who ended the competition just behind second-place Donna Bartling.
“I’m pretty happy right now,”Lewis said. “it’s the first time I’ve ever led at Nationals. We got the car together the day before we left. We made a lot of changes this season. To come out here and win is pretty amazing.”
The Tire Rack Solo Nationals continues through Friday. More information can be found at SCCA.com/SoloNationals.
2014 Solo National Championship
Heat three on the West course during the Tire Rack Solo National Championship at the Lincoln Airpark brought Street Touring Ultra, Kart Modified, and the Classic American Cam classes — a diverse group running in one heat.
Brian Peters, of Litchfield, Ariz., laid down three times on Wednesday that were quicker than the class runner-up, and took home his fifth SCCA Solo National Championship in STU. Peters was the overnight leader in the No. 192 ProParts USA Nissan 350Z, and held on for the win.
“I’m feeling good,”Peters said. “This year has been a lot of work, and I’m glad to see the results went in my favor. it’s always a challenge, coming out and adapting to this unique surface. it’s a long week of helping others and making sure you get your own stuff done. it’s great to run against a lot of people from across the country that you read about and maybe watch some videos on, and now you get to run heads up.”
Paul Russell had the week of any autocrosser’s life on his way to his sixth straight championship, and seventh overall, in the Kart Modified class. Russell’s title in the No. 101 seventh-gear.com Tony Kart Honda came by 1.043 seconds, a tremendous margin.
“it’s the most incredible week I’ve ever had in Solo racing in 25 years,”Russell said. “We won literally everything we could win. We won the Pro class, the year end point class, the Super Challenge and the year end point Challenge, and then come out at Nationals and led both days.
“We make a lot of preparations. We know the setups out here now, this is our sixth year. We had a little stumble with setups yesterday, but we corrected it. That was it, we didn’t change the kart at all today. We just left it.”
The Classic American Muscle classes — Contemporary, Sport and Traditional — ran as supplemental classes this year in the first year of eligibility in the Tire Rack SCCA Solo program. Scott Fraser, of San Jose, Calif., topped his co-driver and car owner of the No. 118 AC Cobra by 6.470 seconds in the CAM S class, with Mike Dusold, of Corinth, Texas, taking the win behind the wheel of the No. 57 Dusold Designs Chevrolet Camaro by 2.361 seconds in CAM T.
Keith Lamming, of Kansas City, Mo., drove his No. 23 Chevrolet Camaro to the top spot in the inaugural performance of the CAM C class. It was a welcome first visit to Lincoln for Lamming.
“This year, I’ve been running CAM all year,”Lamming said. “This is the first year, obviously, of CAM, and I was pretty happy with being in the lead yesterday. I’m glad I got the lead yesterday because I wouldn’t have held it today if it wasn’t as big as it was. I’m super jazzed about it, I’ve got the jitters, the whole thing.
“Last year was my first year [of autocross]. I raced less than half the year, and then this year so far I was at all of the events but two. I’m really only a year in, so I’m pretty excited about that.”
The Tire Rack Solo Nationals continues through Friday. More information can be found at SCCA.com/SoloNationals.
2014 Solo National Championship
C Prepared, E Modified, G Prepared, F Street Prepared Ladies and Street Touring Roadster Ladies wrapped the day on the West course in a diverse group that was as entertaining as any.
Michael Maier, of Livermore, Calif., had to work for his seventh CP National Championship after the Mark Madarash, an eight time champion in E Street Prepared, shifted his No. 91 Janco Pontiac Trans-Am to the class for this season.
Maier’s No. 136 Maier/JRI Ford GT350 led the opening day, but Madarash came charging back on the West Course. Madarash set the class’s fastest time of the day on his final run, but Maier still held the slimmest 0.028-second advantage.
“I feel good,”Maier said. “it’s not the way you want to win, you want to smash both days. But a win is a win, and five years down the road, as much as you want to win by a second or two seconds, that’s pretty picky at Nationals. This is a typical Nationals when you’ve got pure, top talent and if you can beat the best of the best, you can go home feeling good. But I tell you, it’s going to be a great next couple of years.”
Steve Bollinger’s sixth career National Championship may have been the most unexpected. Bollinger, of Granger, Ind., took the top spot by 0.607-second in the No. 94 Austin Healey Sprite, but until recently hadn’t even expected to attend.
“It was a good week, moreso than most people are aware of,”Bollinger said. “Until two and a half weeks ago, I wasn’t planning on coming. We’ve had a very distracting year to keep us from being able to participate in events, and we kind of wrote it off that we weren’t going to be able to give it the effort we want to. That changed, and we were scrambling trying to get in practice events. We broke the car, and had to get it fixed, it was just a long sequence of events. But we tried to get it into a position where we could put our best foot forward and play our best game, and I think we did that. I’m just real thrilled, and glad we had some good competition, and that’s what’s important.”
What was expected, however, was Jeff Kiesel’s ninth straight National Championship, and eighth in a row in E Modified. Kiesel, of Poway, Calif., drove his No. 143 Avon Tire/Roger Kraus Racing KFR Turbo Sprite to a 4.882 second lead, with the biggest question just how much he might win by.
“I set a goal today of a 51.7, and I fell short of that with a 52.0,”Kiesel said. “But I’m happy, the car was good, there were no issues there, and I didn’t hit a cone all week so that’s great.”
Not even a cone could stop Laura Campbell, of Paducha, Ky., from taking the STRL National Championship. Campbell’s best run on Wednesday in the No. 98 Honda S2000 included a two-second penalty for hitting a cone, but still left her 4.896-seconds in front for her first National Championship.
“it’s amazing, I can’t believe it,”Campbell said. “This is my second Nationals, and I’m just so thrilled that it happened. It still hasn’t really hit me, but it will later, I’m sure. The car was awesome, it’s Jeff Walker’s car, and he set it up awesome. He and Matthew Braun and Randall Wilcox gave me so much great driving instruction, so I really owe it all to them.”
Lisa Krueger-Burgess, of Midland, Mich., was positive that her 10th National Championship (in a remarkable 15 tries) was out the window when she couldn’t improve on her final run in the No. 80 Mike’s Cat Ranch Volkswagen Rabbit. The run actually came on a re-run, but a cone penalty cost her a best time. With Jamie Yost’s No. RiptideHosting.com/BMW2002.com/PerformanceShock.com BMW 2002 just 0.196-second behind and getting faster, she may have been right. What she didn’t know is that Yost had hit a wall of cones, negating that run and leaving Krueger-Burgess to take the top spot.
“I was nervous, because [Jamie] is good,”Krueger-Burgess said. “She had me by three tenths on the first run.
“It [the re-run] was kind of a gift, but it was kind of a nightmare because I hit the cone. At that point, I didn’t know who was ahead of me and who wasn’t. I thought, ok, that was pretty stupid. But, it turned out all right. I didn’t know she had hit the wall, my husband never tells me any times. I went out running because I thought I had to go for it, and when I hit the cone, I thought I was done.”
The Tire Rack Solo Nationals continues through Friday. More information can be found at SCCA.com/SoloNationals.
2014 Solo National Championship
LINCOLN, Neb. (Sept. 4, 2014) — The world’s largest motorsports event is even larger in 2014 as the second wave began competition at the 42nd Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships on Thursday at the Lincoln (Neb.) Airpark. A total of 1,185 drivers have taken runs in the week-long event to crown the country’s best autocrossers.
The mark, set when an additional 44 classes began their first day of competition on Thursday, bests the previous high water mark of 1,157 at Heartland Park Topeka in 2007.
On the West course, A Street and A Street R both set up tight competitions for Friday’s final. Mark Daddio, of Beacon Falls, Connecticut, set the pace in the No. 27 Chevrolet Corvette on his third run, and leads Ryan Otis’ No. 80 LocketsByLacey.OrigamiOwl.com Chevrolet Corvette by just 0.085-second.
Paul Kolzak (No. 97 Redhaus Racing Chevrolet Corvette), of Litchfield, Maine, and Tony Savani (No. 132 StranoParts.com/Hoosier Tire Chevrolet Corvette), of Cochranville, Pennsylvania, are even closer in A Street R, separated by just 0.015-second on the opening day.
Laura Harbour, of Stamping Ground, Kentucky, is locked in a duel of her own with Omaha’s Julie Heaton in G Street Ladies. Harbour’s No. 96 Secondhand Celica Accessories and Such Toyota Celica is just 0.023-second ahead of Heaton’s No. 98 MAZDASPEED Protege, with Harbour taking the lead on her final run of the day. Each of the two are looking for their second National Championship.
Ron Williams, of Topeka, Kan., leads Street Touring Compact in the No. 98 Toyo Tires/Southwest Auto Service/Honda Racing Honda Civic with a 0.076-second margin over David Whitener, of Fort Worth, Texas, in the No. 199 Black Armor Helmets/Texas Track Works Honda Civic. A championship for Williams would be his fifth; Whitener is searching for his third.
The less technical East Course played heavily into the hands of drivers with plenty of horsepower at their disposal. In Super Street R, G.J. Dixon, of Scarsdale, N.Y., finished his opening day of competition in the class lead. Driving the No. 186 Monticello Motor Club/Grand Prix New York Porsche GT3, Dixon’s fastest run was his final of the day and proved to be the class-leading lap. Heading into the overnight break, Dixon holds a 0.073-second lead over Josh Luster in the No. 92 G-Fab/Stranoparts.com/SJF Performance Chevrolet Corvette.
Carter Thompson, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., stopped the timing clocks with the quickest time in Super Street Modified. Carter, the two-time defending SSM champion who drives the No. 116 KAAZ USA/LMS-EFI.com/HPP Mazda RX-7, built himself a 0.254-second gap to Brian Johns in the Tweakit Racing/1220 Exhibits/Run Cool Mazda RX-7. Both drivers wasted little time in going fast, as Johns’ quick time was a result of his first run and Thompson’s class-leading time was a result of his second run.
After the dust settled from Thursday’s racing, Ian Baker found himself as the leader in Street Touring Sport by a razor-thin margin of 0.007-second over Andrew Canak. Driving his No. 177 Toyo Tires/Strano Parts/SSC Tint Honda CRX Si, Baker is in the best possible position to complete his first National Championship run.
Follow the action through live timing at http://www.sololive.scca.com, live audio from the east course at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/solo-nationals-east and from the west course at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/solo-nationals-west, on the SCCA Facebook page at Facebook.com/SCCAOfficial, or on Twitter @SCCAOfficial.
More information on the Tire Rack SCCA National Championship is available at http://www.scca.com/solo.
2014 Solo National Championship
