First Day of Solo National Championships Starts Wet, Ends Dry

TOPEKA, Kan. (Sept. 25, 2007) — Three dozen Soloists have one sleepless night ahead of them, as they
are halfway to a Championship at the 35th Tire Rack® SCCA Solo National
Championships.The opening day of competition for the Solo National Championships threw some competitors for a loop, when drivers in the first heats had to adjust for a damp course in light morning rain. By the afternoon however, the sun was bursting through the clouds and the convertible tops were down.Four-time Champion Erik Strelnieks has a hearty 1.353-second lead in Street Modified 2 over his own Mazda 3-Rotor RX7 Turbo co-driver Randall Noll. Wife Beth McLure-Strelnieks also leads Street Modified 2 Ladies in the same car.Street Touring® S2 has a very tight battle going on between Ian Baker’s Honda CRX and Rick Cone’s Mazda Miata. The two are separated by only 0.066-second after day one, and Solo Nationals rookie Eric Sienkiewicz is putting in a stellar performance, currently sitting third in his Honda CRX.Last year’s STS2 winner Andrew Canak is currently running second in F Prepared behind the wheel of a Datsun 240Z. Canak trails defending FP Champion John Timothy Thomas in another Datsun 240Z by 0.874-second.Street Modified is shaping up to be an epic battle between Solo heavyweights Mark Daddio and Vic Sias. At the helm of a BMW M3, Sias is regretting his coned third run, giving him one more cone penalty than Daddio and a 0.179-second deficit to the Mitsubishi Evo driver.Wednesday’s action gets underway at 8 a.m. (CDT) as the classes switch courses from West to East and East to West. Today’s best times, along with Wednesday’s, will be added together to determine the class Champion.For complete results from the event, click the “see more about this event ” link at the bottom of the page.