Randy Pobst is a multi-time SCCA® Solo® National Champion, multi-time Runoffs® National Champion, multi-time Pro Racing champion, and (to top it off) an SCCA Hall of Famer. His motorsport adventures have led him to being a factory driver for Porsche, Volvo, Mazda, and Audi, and he’s been the chosen wheelman for a number of amazing opportunities, including driving a wild Tesla Model S Plaid in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Pebble Beach Concours.
It all began on an autocross course some 45 years ago in the Southeast, and continues to this day, with Randy’s SCCA roots laying out a lifetime of #funwithcars.
Reaching the 45-year mark for SCCA membership is incredible — and to be nonstop active and downright competitive through those years is utterly astounding. Consequently, we couldn’t help but ask Randy how his motorsports adventure — which began with SCCA — has been going, and what’s on the horizon.
“I’m still on track almost every week, somewhere, including the SCCA Double Regional at Daytona,” says Randy. “My buddy Jack shared a ride in his ’04 Pontiac GTO. I saw so many long-time friends, like Sherri and Phil Croyle, racers and now stewards sharing the wisdom of ‘The Vortex of Danger Appendix P’ to reduce crashing. And Corvette Hero Butch Kummer. And stalwart SCCA supporter Fran Martin. And many more.”
Randy’s also working with Hagerty on numerous YouTube shows, including Icons, Drag Race, and Lap Battle with Jason Cammisa.
And don’t forget what’s in his garage: “There’s The Randit ’77 Trans Am®, a 38-year barn-find GT1 ’76 Corvette, and even my original first race car VW Cup ’85 Golf,” he says. “Yeah, I’m overwhelmed but get a lot of help from some terrific partners.”
Randy’s next adventure is one that’s really fascinating.
“Very soon, I’m off to The Rock, for Targa Newfoundland, a week-long tarmac rally on closed public roads, taking place Sept. 11-18,” he explains. “Three hundred miles of timed stages, and 1,200 miles of transits between them, make for a truly epic competition adventure like almost nothing else on Earth. For me, nothing beats the thrill of legal street racing, winding across the beautiful countryside, then into a tiny fishing village, past homes, churches, and stop signs. Feels like Stirling Moss in the Mille Miglia.”
Targa Newfoundland requires smart driving.
“The pavement can be rough and dirty, weather varies, and most of us get no practice; we rely on our navigators and the route book, rally style,” he says. “You must drive at a pace to make the finish, leaving margins, because the risk of damage is everywhere. But that challenge raises the rewards of the drive. A lot. It’s intense, and long, and there’s no option to go off or even drop a wheel. It’s just too risky for that. My pulse races as I write, and I can’t wait to get back up there.”
It wasn’t long ago that Randy participated in another Targa, this one in the Georgia area and hosted by SCCA.
“I ran an SCCA Targa event in an Exocet open car with Jason Owens, twice, before I got to the big daddy Targa Newfoundland up north,” he says. “In SCCA’s Targa, we did track daytime trials, autocross, and rally for four days and 1,100 miles, in a car with no doors, top, or even windshield. And loved it! Why sit staring at your computer when you can live life magnified?”
SCCA Targa events give a taste of the traveling competition adventure of Targa Newfoundland. The variety, camaraderie, and endurance elements all add up to a new kind of decathlon of many skills, Randy explains. Still, the extreme element of Targa Newfoundland is like nothing else.
“At Targa Newfoundland, we’ve won both of the last two years we’ve run,” Randy adds. “In 2023, we had a 2013 Mini GP. I worried it wasn’t fast enough, but my highly experienced teammate John Hume said it’s the perfect choice: light, agile, balanced, and reliable. It’s a long week and you’ve got to make it to the finish. The high-power cars have trouble with the tight turns and low grip of many stages. The Mini is a quick and steady pony you can trust. We did have a skid plate, but we only banged it a couple of times in all those miles. On the other hand, it only takes one good shot to the oil pan and you’re done. I recommend a skid plate.”
Last year, Randy got an offer from a St. John’s local and Targa alum, Paul Abbott. His entry? A 1989 Porsche 911 Targa. “A Targa for Targa,” Randy exclaims. “Only 200 horse, stock with just a set of shocks, and 35 years old. Paul had it really well prepped and it was a pure joy.”
Randy will be back at Targa Newfoundland this Sept. 11-18 in the Mini GP. Forty-five years into his motorsports career — which all began with SCCA Autocross — and as fast and enthusiastic as ever.
That’s the Randy Pobst we know and love.
Photo by Rupert Berrington
Those about to rock Solo® Nats — (FIRE) — we salute you as the 52nd running of the rock ‘n’ roll themed Tire Rack SCCA® Solo National Championships tunes up for its Sept. 1-5, 2025, blowout in Nebraska’s capital city at Lincoln Airpark.
Rock ‘n’ Roll is a concept wide and varied, making it similar to SCCA Solo itself. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees span Dolly Parton to Peter Frampton, and The Band to The Beach Boys. Solo Nats participants are equally diverse, arriving from all around the U.S. to have #funwithcars in everything from a Mazda to a McLaren.
With slight hyperbole thanks to this year’s one-off theme, Solo Nationals is a sort of concrete Coachella for SCCA autocrossers. It’s a loud festival with camping, food, beverages, and two featured stages. But unlike the well-known music festival, Solo Nats has plenty of convenient parking and everyone gets to perform.
As showtime nears, keep in mind that those afar can follow the competition online at sololive.scca.com, which includes live timing/scoring, as well as audio coverage during each day. Be sure to monitor the Tire Rack SCCA National Solo and SCCA Official Facebook pages, too, for updates and photos over the next four days of #funwithcars.
If you want the full Solo Nats rock ‘n’ roll experience, be sure to catch the Solo Nationals Morning Show. That’s a daily video broadcast at the SCCA Official Facebook page that starts about an hour before cars head out on course. That’s where you’ll find knowledgeable hosts interviewing special guests that bring everyone up to speed on the experience.
Not enough Solo tunes to get you through the work week? Well, journalist Brian Bielanski will be chatting with participants around the paddock to uncover slice-of-life stories for special Inside the SCCA segments posting to The Racing Network YouTube page. And at SCCA.com, additional stories and updates will roll across like guitar licks during one of the biggest events SCCA conducts each year.
If you’re lucky enough to have tickets to SCCA’s ‘Solo’palooza, remember your presence doesn’t count if you don’t share it on social media. Tag your posts with #SoloNatsHasStarted and #funwithcars so others know you’re awesome and they could’ve been.
Two Stages Designed to Dance Around
Great stage design is integral to any successful rock ‘n’ roll show. Thankfully, this year’s Solo Nats has two fantastic course creators who poured on the showmanship for an experience sure to generate pyrotechnics!
One layout is positioned at the southeast edge of Solo Nats’ facility map. That course is known as being on the ‘plane side’ since it’s along a airport runway. Just west of that sits the second Solo Nats competition space, labeled the ‘corn side’ because it’s next to farmland. So, the East Course is nearest the airport, and the West Course leads to the rest of Nebraska.
This year’s East Course was devised by Ken Houseal and has been named School of Rock. Since joining the Club in 2013, Houseal has competed in more than 500 autocrosses, with this year being his seventh visit to Solo Nats. He started exploring course design in 2014, then got serious about that particular skill in 2019 before becoming Chief of Course Design in 2021 for SCCA’s Philadelphia Region.
This is Houseal’s very first Solo Nats course design effort, and he’s hoping participants find the layout an enjoyable experience with a flow that is relatively easy to follow but tricky to perfect.
“I’ve given you room to make mistakes … and give up time to other competitors,” he said. “I tried to make a course that is fun, but also rewarding if you do it right.”
With creative help from his wife, Amy, sections of Houseal’s School of Rock layout have been labeled with song lyrics. Amazingly, those lyrics actually offer a hint as to how each segment should be approached by drivers. For example there’s Baby, We Were Born to Run, Go Your Own Way, and I Can See for Miles.
The West Course for 2025 was developed by Charles Krampert and is titled Hold the Line after a song by the band Toto. Krampert, from SCCA’s Tennessee Valley Region, has been a Club member since 2015 with more than 200 autocross events under his belt over the last two decades. That history includes two Solo Nats victories in seven appearances, and one Solo Triad honor in 2021.
A mechanical design engineer by trade, Krampert has been doing course design ever since he started autocrossing. This year, however, is his first Solo Nats effort, so he set out to generate a design that is exciting for participants.
“I like a course that is easy to see but will be challenging at the same time,” he said. “I don’t like doing too many gimmicks.”
Opening with a section deemed Off to Never-Never Land, followed by Livin’ On a Prayer and I Can Feel It Coneing In the Air Tonight, Oh Lord later; Krampert said, “I think drivers are going to want to look to keep their speeds up by driving wide lines” if they want to be successful.
Now that both layouts are available for walking at Lincoln Airpark, click the links below to check out the two different course maps.
East Course Map West Course Map
Activity Playlist for Solo Nats
There better be lots of fun and parties if you’re holding a rock ‘n’ roll festival. Sure enough, Solo Nats got that all week beginning Monday at 2 p.m. local time with a Mazda Cornhole Tournament in the Tire Rack Event Center (TREC) VIP Backstage Tent, a space welcoming everyone unlike other rock ‘n’ roll gatherings. That’s followed at 5 p.m. with the annual Welcome Party in the same location. That’s also were attendees have a chance to participate in a free cone toss to earn raffle tickets for a giveaway of two Tire Rack Podium Drumkits later in the week. After that, everyone flows out to partake in Solo Nats’ Battle of the Bites.
North of the TREC VIP Backstage Tent, Solo Main Street will be hemmed by mouthwatering delicacies appealing to the finickiest of rock stars. Various meats marinated or smoked await at the Battle of the Bites, along with tasty sides and deserts. There will be some beverages, too, as well as live music carrying across the paddock thanks to the Backroads band performing in the Mazda Motorsports Tent.
Next on the can’t-miss schedule is the Tire Rack Solo Awards Celebration starting at 5:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Sept. 3, within the TREC VIP Backstage Tent. Free food and beverages will be on offer, as well as adulation for the year’s major Solo award winners. That is followed by the annual Sunset Remembrance Toast taking place at 7:45 p.m. local time near the impound scales located between the two Solo Nats competition courses.
Yet more fun comes Thursday, Sept. 4, with the Vitour Test ‘N’ Tune Challenge taking place between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the test ‘n’ tune course found just north of the Solo Nats entry gate. Then the whole shebang comes to a close Friday, Sept. 5, back in the TREC VIP Backstage Tent after 4 p.m. with a Tire Rack Solo Awards Celebration celebrating the day’s victors and more.
Of course, there’s lots more going on over four days of Solo Nats’ rock ‘n’ roll festival in 2025, such as endless paddock parties and social gatherings. Click the link below for an ‘official’ rundown of events; then keep your eyes and ears open for the ‘unofficial’ happenings.
Solo Nats Action Plan
Run/Work Reminder and Other Important Stuff
A very unique rock ‘n’ roll show where 1,300 people get to take the stage and play requires support from all involved, just like any other SCCA Solo event. As such, here’s a reminder that the show can’t go on, or run smoothly, without your help. Below is a link to the Run/Work program and assignments over the next four days. Please be prompt, or even a little early, with worker check-in so this concert runs without a hitch.
Lastly, tickets to this Solo National Championships rock ‘n’ roll show would’ve been a lot pricier if not for support from valued SCCA partners. So, for starters, we’ve got to thank Tire Rack as the longtime Official Tire Retailer of SCCA. Tire Rack has supported SCCA since 1995, which technically makes them a member of the Solo Nationals Silver Circle.
Then there’s Hagerty, the Official Insurance Partner of SCCA since 2019; and Hawk Performance, the Official Brake Products of SCCA since 2003. Thanks also goes to Sunoco, the Official Fuel of SCCA since 2001, which is coursing through the systems of many competition and tow vehicles throughout the paddock.
Mazda Motorsports is part of this rock ‘n’ roll experience, too, with support for competitors in many ways, including sponsorship of Monday’s SCCA Women on Track Brunch.
We certainly can’t forget SCCA tire partners Vitour, Goodyear, Falken, and Hoosier. These manufacturers can be spotted in the paddock, with Solo Performance Specialties on site in partnership with R&S Racing to support service for both Vitour and Hoosier.
Run/Work Schedule
Photo: The 2025 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships got off to a damp start Monday.
Photo by Philip Royle
The Tire Rack ProSolo® Finale wants to know, have you ever seen the rain? They will assure you, you’ve never seen rain like this.
From the quickest machines through Paul Durr’s Kart Modified runs, the rain piled up all day Saturday on the opening day at the Lincoln airpark. Those lucky enough to get a couple of runs before it began tended to top the charts in a way that is often the luck of the draw in autocross — the conditions giveth and the conditions taketh away.
Of course, the massive amounts of rain meant the entire season was thunderstruck – the finale was also the final chance to earn points in the season long competition for classes as well as the Johnson Clarke-Johnson Cup (for open competition) and the Fletcher Cup (for Ladies classes).
At the end of the day, Billy Davis had the best season and did everything possible to secure the JCJ Cup for the first time. Kim Whitener earned a record eighth Fletcher Cup, and had to march all the way to an event win to pull it off.
Both titles were well earned and well deserved; as were each of the class winners. All class winners and full standings can be found here.
Lincoln Class Competition
Between the rain and a (most definitely related) surface repair on Sunday morning, tne drivers that made the most of their opportunities were the ones at the top of the charts.
Francois Langelier and Charles Krampert both fit that bill — unfortunately for Krampert, they both did it in B Street. The two Supra drivers essentially matched times, but at the end Langelier was 0.036-second quicker to take the class win.
D Street was a similar situation, with Alex Piehl trying to play “Man in Black” to Mark Daddio’s alien status. At the end of the runs, it was Daddio blasting off to a win in his Subaru BRZ, with Piehl’s Toyota GR86 just 0.034-second behind.
Daniel McCelvey entered the weekend as the closest to Davis in the season long JCJ Cup points, but his A Street Touring® battle was even closer. In that class, Vivek Goel topped the charts by just 0.009 over McCelvey and 0.099 over Will Teller in third.
Challenges At Lincoln
In this case, we don’t mean the challenge behind the wheel with a full field of top level drivers — we mean the actual end of weekend bracket challenges that decided the winners.
We mentioned Whitener’s victory already, which helped her to the Fletcher Cup. She needed every bit of that win, including advancing over Laney Blume in the semi-finals in a match-up that ultimately clinched her point lead. In the finals, she went head-to-head with nearest rival (in points, not life!) Nicole Wong. With her victory over Wong, she also clinched the Cup by 20 points, with Wong second and Blume third — just as they ran on track.
In the Super Challenge, the focus changed to the event win once the top contenders for the JCJ Cup finished outside the top eight in qualifying. Instead, Matt Morhardt marched his way through a stout field, taking down Trevor Renson, Duston Grubbs, and finally Andrew Pallotta in the final to give the SSC-prepped machine victory and get the week of Lincoln underway.
Full ProSolo class and challenge results are here.
Shootout Invitational
Don’t forget, in addition to the ProSolo was the Tire Rack SCCA® Lincoln Shootout invitational. In the same vein as the ProSolo, class runs help set the grid for a final shootout — this time with the focus on a few select classes.
Jonathan Griffith took home the Xtreme Street Shootout victory in Lincoln; top prizes also went to David Hedderick (Spec), Dennis Sparks (Street Touring), Emily Skoglund (Ladies), and Gregory Anthony (Race/Street).
The CAM® Shootout took three rounds to decide a winner, but in the end it was Brandon Nelson in a CAM-C Ford Mustang that took the top spot, with Ryan Mathews in a CAM-S Corvette sitting second.
Full Shootout Results are here.
Still a Week To Go
Officially, the Monday holiday is a quiet day in Lincoln as more arrive ready for Tuesday/Wednesday runs at Lincoln for Tire Rack Solo® Nationals. If you’re not there (and why not?), you can follow along at home by clicking here — all week — with audio and timing.
