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.