LINCOLN, Neb. (May 31, 2012) – With 376 competitors spending their Memorial Day at the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Tour, the competition was bound to be as hot as a summer day in the Midwest. The Lincoln National Tour at the Lincoln (Neb.) Airpark didn’t disappoint.

The event, part of the second annual Spring Nationals that combines the Tire Rack ProSolo on Friday and Saturday with the National Tour on Sunday and Monday, was up 12% from a year ago as drivers got a preview of the 40th Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships at the same location, September 4-7.

For a while, it looked like the weather may play a factor in the final results. With temperatures stretching into the 90s with high wind on Sunday, fears were for a spring thunderstorm that chased competitors off of the end-of-day course walk. Overnight storms left a very wet course for Monday’s second day, but the sunshine helped to dry the concrete during heat one and the mid-70s temperatures were a popular outcome for the rest of the competition.

Anthony Savini, who won the Gumout Super Challenge during the Tire Rack ProSolo event during the first half of the weekend in his A Stock Stranparts.com/Evo School Chevrolet Corvette, was denied the double by Lane Borg. The San Angelo, Texas, resident drove his Goodyear Eagle RS Chevrolet Corvette to a 1.128-second win in the class during the National Tour.

James Yom was a semi-finalist in the ProSolo event, and drove his Evasive Motorsports/HardRace Honda S2000 to a 0.230-second B Stock win on Monday. The 14-car class had one of the closest margins of victory, with Yom topping Ricky Crow’s Honda S2000 for the win.

Topping even the B Stock class battle was Street Touring Ultra. With both drivers running nearly identical lap times, Jake Diehl, from Lees Summit, Mo., drove his Mitsubishi Evolution to a very narrow 0.083-second win over Mark Hill (Jayhawk Racing Mitsubishi Evolution).

ProSolo runner-up Tim Aro kept his momentum going throughout the weekend, but at the end of the National Tour event fell just short again in his SoloPro Driving School Mazda Miata. Matt McCabe, of Omaha, Neb., won C Street Prepared in his 949 Racing/ProEFI/Meyers Auto Mazda Miata by just 0.102-second over Aro.

The Gumout Collegiate Shootout, open to area Formula SAE schools, continued during the Lincoln Solo Tour with a head-to-head match-up between the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska. While Jeff Dickerson, from the University of Kansas, was the quickest driver behind the wheel of the Gumout/Black Magic/BFGoodrich Tires “Use Your Motorhead” Project Volkswagen Golf, the event did exactly what it was intended to do – opening up a relationship between the two programs for cooperative assistance at future events, including the upcoming Formula SAE event in Lincoln.

Also at the event, Mobil 1 The Grid – a worldwide motorsports television show – got to witness firsthand the “3 C’s” of SCCA Solo: competition, camaraderie, and community. The magazine show, which regularly covers motorsports events around the world, will tell the story of the paddock and the cooperative attitudes of the entrants in a future episode.

The Tire Rack Solo National Tour returns to action with another combined event with the Tire Rack ProSolo Series, June 10-11 at the Arkansas Aeroplex during the Blytheville National Tour. More information on the SCCA Solo program is available at SCCA.com/solo.

Results from the Lincoln National Tour are available at http://www.scca.com/events/index.cfm?eid=3601.  

2012 Lincoln National Tour; Central States Championship