We are quickly approaching Memorial Day weekend during which we will honor those who died fighting for our country. Apparently, the best way to honor our veterans is with motorsports. This weekend will host Formula 1 on the historic streets of Monaco, the Coca-Coca 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 100th running of the Indy 500, and of course, SCCA Solo Spring Nationals at Lincoln Airpark.
Here are some of the storylines we can look forward to at the 2016 Lincoln Championship Tour:
In the Street Category, C-Street boasts the highest attendance this year. The class will be dominated in numbers by the Scion FR-S. 2015 CS National Champion David Ogburn III must have a BBQ planned for Sunday and isn’t making the trip up from Texas. But 2013 CS National Champion Daniel McCelvey is returning to the class in a 2016 Mazda MX-5 to prove if that will be the car to beat in the class. Attention should also be paid to Mike Bronson. Mike continues to participate at national level despite regularly be confused for Mike Brausen. This type of burden could strain most human beings but Mr. Bronson powers through.
E-Street brings a significant number of 2015 National Championship trophy winners. Chris Bailey (2nd Place at Nationals), Michael Ron (3rd), Eric Peterson (4th), Azmath Mohammed (7th), Paul Brown (8th) and Mark Groseth (9th) are attending. This class pits the Toyota MR2 against the older model Mazda Miata. Looks for some very close times at the top of the class.
The largest Street Prepared Class is SSP. Three of the top four finishers from last year’s National Championships are participating. Joe Tharpe and his Z06 Corvette will attempt to fend off Alek Tziortizis and Ryan Johnson yet again. Personally, I hope to get a look at Stan Whitney and Su Brude’s 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo, they had one of the best looking Porsche Caymans around and upgraded to the 911 Turbo this year.
As with most events, STR is the largest class at the Lincoln Championship Tour with 27 registered drivers. The class has long been the S2000 class but this year a few 2016 Mazda MX-5s are appearing. Ricky Crow leads the list of S2000 drivers but he will have former D-Prepared National Champion Ron Bauer chasing him down in a 2016 MX-5. Now every region has that young fast kid in the crappy car, who mooches rides in other cars until the point his head is so swollen with his own abilities at the regional level that the veterans around him deem him fit for retraining. Houston region will be offering up ours, Landon Thompson, to the STR masters for a brief lesson in the big fish small pond theory of autocross performance.
Street Modified and Super Street Modified will have a few interesting attendees. Eric Hyman will bring his insane GT-R to Street Modified, and I’ll keep it brief because I’m sure Mike Brausen has drooled all over it in his “Lincoln ProSolo Tune In”, but it is worth watching this car on the course. In SSM, Eric Anderson and Randall Wilcox will bring a car I describe as “The Most Fun You Can Have In A Miata With the Windshield On”. And just because anyone who autocrosses a McLaren MP4 needs a mention, try to follow Jess Driggers in SSM.
Prepared is the category closest to my heart, and the largest class in the category is C-Prepared this year. Mark Madarash suffered some engine problems in his Trans Am during Nationals last fall, but spring should bring him a win in the class on Lincoln concrete. Look for Wayne Atkins and Chris Cargill to be competitive at least with each other while co-driving Wayne’s beautiful red 1985 Camaro. Erik Strelnieks is bringing his FP Porsche Boxster to the event this year (and hopefully his RX7 parts because I sometimes need them) and should take the class, although Mike Brausen actually thinks he has a chance if he doesn’t break his Evo during the ProSolo.
E-Modified is the class you end up in when you go off the deep end in autocross. RX-7 too heavy? Put a rotary in an Austin Healy Sprite. Your Camaro too to big? Make it shorter, narrower, and more powerful. Jeff Kiesel dominates EM so effectively, that he comes to the National Championship with the year already printed and ready to add to the back of the car. Jason Minehart has been continually developing his Stalker (a modernized Lotus 7 on steroids) and was rewarded with a close second place at Nationals. Third last fall was Ron Ver Mulm in what happens to be the only work of art/autocross car in existence. All three will be at Spring Nats, and if you like highly modified cars they are worth paying attention to.
Only competition will show what the real stories will be from this event, so be sure to tune in on Sunday/Monday and see how your favorites are doing.
SCCA Solo events focus on competition and having fun with cars, but as any competitor knows, they also improve driving skill. This is a principle that autocrosser Eric Peterson is applying to his day job. Since 2000, Peterson has headed the Town of Hillsborough, N.C.’s Slower Is Faster police driving safety program. The program focuses on decision-making behind the wheel and was recently awarded the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s Destination Zero 2016 Officer Traffic Safety Award. Destination Zero focuses on initiatives to lower the risk of officer injuries and death.
Since April 2000, the town has had only three at-fault collisions with major damage involving Hillsborough officers. No citizens were injured in collisions with police in that timeframe. “The bottom line is that the HPD officers deserve a lot of credit for implementing what they’ve learned in training — to exercise caution and good decision-making,” Peterson said. “This is not easy to do when under stress and feeling the urgency to get to calls.”
The Slower Is Faster program covers a wide array of driving skills and challenges officers’ decision-making while engaged in high-stress driving. Braking, navigating turns and correcting skids are covered during in-car training, but they take a back seat to decision-making, situational awareness and skills that allow officers to remain in control and avoid collisions. Training courses for the program include “decision stations,” which are a series of unpredictable challenges or obstacles that require officers to decide what to do based on visual cues down the road, encouraging officers to look ahead. Distractions also are placed around the course to encourage officers to practice visual scanning techniques. Some training is held at a go-kart track to assist with the focus areas.
Over the past four years, the Slower Is Faster program has grown to include officers from 52 agencies through the two days of driver training sponsored by the League of Municipalities. The insurance provider reports seeing a 20-percent decrease in vehicle-related insurance claims among those agencies.
More information on the Hillsborough Police Department’s efforts can be found here. For more information on Destination Zero, click here. Below is a video from this year’s training.
We’re just a couple days away from our first return to Lincoln since the 2015 Tire Rack Solo Nationals. The Tire Rack ProSolo Series is about to hit the best site in the country, Lincoln Air Park in Lincoln Nebraska. Hosted by the local Nebraska Region SCCA, this event has been a pre-Nats staple for people from the East, West and even Central coasts to get early testing done on the site of our National Championships. Here’s what you have to look forward to:
The change of street tires in stock hasn’t scared away all the Hoosier hopefuls, as we see the return of Jeff and Denise Cashmore to a Corvette in A-Street. The last National event they were in a Corvette was when their previous C4 Vette was a top contender in A-Stock). Maintaining the family theme are Marcus and Jennifer Merideth in their brand spanky new Shelby GT-350 Mustang (Make sure there aren’t any curbs or crowds!). Get set to watch these dueling couples to square off in a battle of V8’s and big rubber.
R1: Making the drive up from Central Florida Region is past F-Mod National Champion Darren Seltzer in a new car since his pair of jackets in 2013 and 2014. Driving the car he won those jackets in will be none other than Zak Kiesel (with many championships to his name in FJ). After some recent sorting and repair, the Kiesel Pod Racer seems to be near top form and ready for this Lincoln battle. Father Jeff will have his E-Mod somewhat-of-a-Sprite there. This car has enough jackets that they could be sewed together and made into a car cover for the vehicle that won them. Not to be shorted in the FM battles is Jason Hobbs who is the returning Champion in the class. From the center of the country come Dave Whitworth and Ron Ver Mulm sporting two opposing companies monster V8’s (ponie and bowtie respectively). These two V8 monsters together are sporting more power than every other car in the class combine. It’s been said that these two aren’t allowed to line up against each other because all the glass in Lincoln would shatter at once. Hopefully we get to find out. From the South out of Lone Star Region is last years E-Mod runner up Jason Minehart in a V8 Stalker. All of these hopefuls will be going against Clements Burger who put a hurting on R1 in Wilmington just a few weeks ago. This battle could be a hint of what might happen in September for the Championships.
ES will for this event be known as “2007’s C-Stock”. Michael Ron sporting what was the car-to-have on R-comps, the Mazda Miata Sport Package. The big change and new breed of street tires has flipped the table making the previously less competitive Toyota MR2 Spyder the recent car de jour. With some Pro wins already under his belt in said car, Paul Brown looks to keep the points streak going in his 2003 model. Not willing to admit the old model is out, Chris Bailey will be there in his 1993 MR-2 loaning a co-drive to Miata.net’s favorite Alien, Andy Canak. If you’re not familiar with the car, it’s a bit of a town bicycle having been in the hands of Jeff Cashmore, Robert Carpenter and possibly many others. This car has it’s fair share of jackets.
FSP is empty this weekend. Oddly missing one Sir Van Townsend… I’m sure he figured if he didn’t show up that he could escape a mention in SoloMatters. Not so lucky sir! Known for his wild outfits, and odd car choices (Chevy Piece of Sprint), Sir Townsend of the Townsend clan of Dorset has been a staple of the Solo scene since his arrival many fortnight ago. The event will sadly have to continue on without his presence.
If you haven’t noticed the trend, SSR tends to be some of the best drivers fighting in a very tight class. This weekend isn’t any different. Recent gold chain and Corvette purchaser Adam George received his first taste of SSR and it was a bit of a rough one. Don’t expect his competitors in Lincoln to be easier. Past champ Tony Savini will be making the trip out from Philadelphia region with co-drive Jeff Jacobs. Also showing up is Driver of Eminence, Brian “freaking” Peters. Oh yeah, it’s gonna be fun!
It’s going to be one heck of a weekend with the Tour following. Tune in starting on Thursday to both SoloLive and UStream for all the action!
The start of the Formula 4 United States Championship powered by Honda series has been pushed back due to continued delays in manufacturing, SCCA Pro Racing has announced.
The F4 U.S. Championship is scheduled to have its inaugural race weekend July 1-3 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Previously, the series was to kick off June 10-12 at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, New Jersey.
Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) regulations require a minimum of 12 cars for each championship event. The car count for FIA regulations would have been met, however, the manufacturing schedule had only allotted one car per team.
Teams like JDX, a race team from Colorado with three drivers entered in the series, have multiple drivers, meaning that competitors would have had to share cars or sit out the entire race weekend.
“The decision to postpone the race was a decision we ultimately made in consultation with the team owners and partners,” said Derrick Walker, SCCA Pro Racing President and CEO. “After talking to each team owner individually, the consensus was that they didn’t want to even consider New Jersey if each driver was not yet able to compete due to the late arrival of race cars. All the teams are supportive of the decision. We appreciate the loyalty they have shown us and want to do this right.”
Debuting the F4 U.S. Championship at Mid-Ohio means the course will now feature two race weekends for the series. Mid-Ohio was already scheduled to host the F4 U.S. Championship on Aug. 12-13.
“There’s no question Mid-Ohio is a classic road course as it is ideally suited for our F4 U.S. Championship race cars and provides all the challenges our drivers need,” Walker said. “Scheduling the debut for July allows time for the additional orders to be fulfilled so all teams and drivers can compete.”
Adding the F4 U.S. Championship to the Mid-Ohio schedule in July has opened-up the series to race with three other formula series that it would not have had the chance to otherwise. Fans will now be able to watch the F1600 Formula F Championship, the F2000 Championship, the Atlantic Championship Series and the F4 U.S. Championship during the Fourth of July weekend. All four divisions are sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing.
“It’s going to be an absolutely great weekend,” Formula Race Promotions co-owner Al Guibord said. “Open wheel fans are going to see all levels of cars from the new F4 U.S. Championship to the pinnacle Atlantic Championship. Our series has been racing at Mid-Ohio for a decade now. The history and pedigree of the track makes exciting opportunity for our drivers and the F4 competitors.”
The F4 U.S. Championship will reschedule the race slated for New Jersey Motorsports Park at a track and date to be determined to maintain a five-event championship series, which is required by FIA regulations.
For more information on the SCCA Pro Racing F4 U.S. Championship, visit F4USChampionship.com.
