May 4, 2017

The SCCA National Tour is returning to Grissom Air Force Base in Peru Indiana! (June 2-4) With a Little less than a month to go the SCCA Peru Match Tour is shaping up to be another great event. The site is in exceptional shape and is as grippy as ever. Indy Region SCCA member and SCCA Peru Match Tour course designer Will Lahee has promised a fast, fun and challenging course on the unique concrete pad. The competition is guaranteed to be exciting as the preregistration ranks are filling until we hit the event cap of 200 for this event. As of right now we have eight states and two provinces of Canada representing. There are a few classes needing more entries but right now the battles are definitely shaping up in a lot classes. CAM-S currently has 8 entries, mostly Corvettes with a lone Solstice joining the ranks. C-Street has seven competitors so far all in a four banger or rotary Mazda’s, will a trunk kit FR-S appear before the event cap is hit? FSP has six registered with a mixed bag of makes and models which will be a blast to watch, there is a twenty-two year spread from the oldest and latest model cars as of right now. Street Mod, E-Street and G-Street are up to five and A-Street, B-Street, STR and CAM-C are all at four competitors so far. Seven other classes only need one more competitor to make a class of at least three, so come join the fun!

Its been a few years since the SCCA Match Tour came to Grissom AFB and you do not want to miss out. For a lot of us this is as close to testing for the National Championships as we can get without going to Lincoln. The site features a very large concrete pad that was once home to bombers and refueling planes waiting on standby. If you have never been to an SCCA National Tour this event is an excellent opportunity to test your skills against some of the best drivers in the area and get a taste of high grip concrete. The weekend starts off Friday with an Evo School (separate registration required, found here: http://evoschool.com/ ) followed by a Test and Tune with tickets for TnT course on sale until 2pm day of with course open from 11am to 4pm. Saturday the Action kicks off with a full day of class battles followed by Awards and Trophy presentation and to conclude with dinner provided for all competitors, family and crew. Sunday begins with Challenge Qualifying followed by the Challenge Competition with an awards presentation to follow. Complete breakdown of the SCCA Match Tour found here: Sports Car Club of America

The site an active military base so there are some very strict rules to follow, including no trash can be left behind and no alcohol is permitted on site. There are quite a few dining options and hotel/motels in the surrounding towns of Peru, Kokomo & Logansport and always keep in mind your SCCA member discounts available to you. Camping is also available at the Grissom Air Museum for a ten dollar donation per night. We hope to see you there and help us burn some rubber and make some great memories like only an SCCA Match Tour can.

SCCA Match Tour Peru is coming at you FAST don’t miss out, register today!

Over 200 drivers representing nearly half of the states in the nation are slated to take to the concrete at the Tire Rack Blytheville ProSolo in just a few days. While the weather forecast promises mild temperatures and a low chance of rain for competition on Saturday and Sunday, experienced Midwesterners know that this could change with a simple shifting of the winds. Weather has already wreaked havoc on the area in the form of torrential April rains, causing flooding and road closures encompassing much of southern Missouri just to the north of Blytheville. Travelers are cautioned to check their route for possible closures and detours before hitting the road. A map of road closures in Missouri is available on the Missouri Department of Transportation website at http://traveler.modot.org/map.

Weather notwithstanding, the atmosphere in Blytheville promises to be festive this weekend. Besides the celebratory air that a ProSolo traditionally supplies, this weekend is graced by two additional holidays — Cinco de Mayo on Friday and the first Saturday in May, Derby Day, considered a major holiday by Kentuckians and other fans of Thoroughbred racing. Rumor has it that competitors may be trading their Friday sombreros and serapes for more stylish (or absurd) headgear for an impromptu Derby hat competition during Saturday course walks.

The most exciting sub-two minutes in motorsports this weekend will be featured in a variety of well-subscribed classes. The Street category is thriving with a full roster in all classes from AS through HS; Super Street at three entrants being the only class in jeopardy of not making a full class. AS leads the way among all classes with 18 competitors signed up, mostly in C5 and C6 Corvettes with one Saturn Sky thrown into the mix for good measure. It promises to be a good battle from around the country, with a pair of last year’s Tire Rack Solo Nationals AS Trophy Winners, David Entz of Tennessee and Laurence Casey of Maryland, looking to duke it out with perpetual threats Michael “Junior” Johnson of Virginia and Chris Harvey of Indiana. John Laughlin and Michael and David Potocki may also be out for vengeance on dry pavement after facing each other in the wet at last weekend’s Pitt Race Match Tour.

C Street boasts 11 drivers, all fighting to see who has the fastest Mazda, with 10 drivers choosing the new ND Miata and one piloting the familiar RX-8. E Street is likewise a two car contest featuring a nearly equal distribution of NB Mazda Miatas going up against Toyota MR2 Spyders in this 12 car field. Speaking of two car classes, STS fields the expected showdown of the EF Honda Civic and CRX Si against the NA Miata. Mark McKnight, Ron Williams, Sean Greer, and Gerry Terranova head up the Honda side. They will face setup guru David Whitener who, despite boasting previous national championships in both a CRX and a Civic, has chosen to develop a Mazda Miata this year. STR mirrors the STS Honda versus Miata showdown, in this case with S2000s waging war against ND Miatas. Look for Jed Peterson, Ricky Crown, Kerry Coughlin, Vivek Goel, and Robert Carpenter to be jockeying for the top spot in this 13 car class.

On the R compound side of things, SSM is anybody’s race. Expect a close battle and blistering fast times from Matt Glagola, Carter Thompson, Randall Wilcox, and Eric Anderson. Among the index classes, R2 features an impressive 15 driver field. It is sure to capture the interest of any gear head, with fresh builds squaring off against proven championship cars, classics from the 1960s and 70s going head to head with modern automobiles, and front wheel drive hatchbacks doing battle with rear wheel drive roadsters. The Ladies’ Index classes are likewise stacked. Cumulatively, the drivers in L1, L2, and L3 own enough national championship jackets to fill a very generously sized walk-in closet. L1 and L2 are especially thick with stout competition, featuring 8 and 15 drivers respectively; the winners of these indexed classes will likely be determined by who’s driving style and car happens to click best with the courses and conditions.

If you can’t make it to this thrilling event in person, be sure to tune in to all the Tire Rack Blytheville ProSolo action via UStream and Solo Live. You won’t want to miss Round 4 of the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Series action!

Words by Laura Harbour

There are many reasons to attend the Tire Rack Mineral Wells ProSolo June 2nd-4th, all of which have been covered by previous years’ 5toGo articles. Yes, Texas puts on great party. Yes, the BBQ is plentiful and tasty. Yes, the hospitality is amazing and the town of Mineral Wells encourages and supports our growing sport.

But let’s be honest. There is really one amazing, huge, overwhelming reason you need to be there.

Click here for the reason.

Have you see the site? It’s huge! The Mineral Wells airport used to be a training base for helicopter pilots and 1540 ft X 1080 ft. of aged asphalt awaits soloists. The courses promise to be some of the longest ProSolo courses on the tour with some big elements expected, so practice your looking ahead! The Texas Region host club has done a fabulous job of cultivating the relationship with the city and we have access to one of the best sites in Texas.

Vorshlag is back with their sponsorship of the Friday evening welcome party and with this event being the last event of the 2017 season south of I-70, it’ll be one of the last chances for those in the southern half of the country to score points and get qualified for the Finale. Also, don’t forget about the Saturday evening BBQ party! Traditionally, this part of the event is sponsored by the Mineral Wells Chamber of Commerce, so don’t forget to stick around for some TX ‘Q and all the great post-racing discussions that go on after Day 1 of a Pro.

Call it a hidden gem, because the Mineral Wells Tour sees lower attendance than the other coasts. Given that several multi-time jacket winners use this site for testing, this is a great opportunity to tune a car and collect some valuable points in preparation for the ProSolo Finale.

Be sure to open up your schedule and make the trip as it will be well worth the drive for some great hospitality, competition, and fun!

The SCCA membership and event system is being updated. Beginning at 6 p.m. CDT on Monday, May 8, the entire system — including membership renewal, member information and payment status — will be inaccessible for a little more than 12 hours as the upgrade process takes place. External processes that link to membership data will also not be available, and data changes made by members to SCCA.com accounts will not be updated until maintenance is complete.

Regions utilizing links through AMS.SCCA.COM, those links will no longer work after the update. The resources, however, will become available afterwards through the SCCA profile page.

Once the update is complete, please contact [email protected] with any questions.