TOPEKA, Kan. (April 5, 2016) – The Tire Rack® SCCA® ProSolo® Series will begin its 2016 season April 8-10 on the old runways of El Toro Airfield in Irvine, California. This year’s 11-event calendar runs from April through September and concludes with the Tire Rack ProSolo Finale held at Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Howard Duncan, SCCA Senior Director of Solo and Rally, said each event is capped at 275 competitors. And just like the Tire Rack SCCA Match Tour and Solo Championship Tour, no major rule changes were made to ProSolo this season. However, a new STP class was created as a place for mildly prepared Pony cars to compete on street tires. So drivers now have 33 Classes in ProSolo to pick from when it comes to competition.
During ProSolo events, drivers face off, side-by-side, at a “Christmas Tree” start before launching down a straightaway and into mirror image autocross courses. Three heats of Class competition give drivers 12 total runs, six on each course. Like other Solo competitions, runs are timed to 1/1000th of a second and knocking a cone down means a two-second penalty added to a time.
Opening runs determine Class rankings and also set the qualifying order for the second part of the event which determines the overall winner. The top qualifiers enter into single-elimination brackets and conduct runoffs until only one driver remains: The Top Eliminator. Additionally, the Ladies Challenge pits top female qualifiers against one another, while the Super Challenge features the top 28 Open Class competitors in a winner-take-all battle. There is even a Bonus Challenge where randomly selected, non-qualifying drivers can compete for prizes and bragging rights.
Competitors earn Class and Challenge points throughout the season that count toward the Overall Ladies and Open ProSolo Championships. Class National Championships and the Overall ProSolo Championships are determined by combining regular season points with points earned at the ProSolo Finale in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The full ProSolo schedule for 2016 is as follows:
- Tire Rack El Toro ProSolo; April 8 - April 10; El Toro Airfield; Irvine, CA
- Tire Rack Crows Landing ProSolo; April 29 - May 1; Crows Landing Air Facility; Crows Landing, CA
- Tire Rack Wilmington Spring ProSolo; May 6 - May 8; Wilmington AirPark; Wilmington, OH
- Tire Rack Washington DC ProSolo; May 13 - May 15; Fed Ex Field; Greater Landover, MD
- Tire Rack Lincoln Spring Nationals ProSolo; May 26 - May 28; Lincoln Airpark; Lincoln, NE
- Tire Rack Mineral Wells ProSolo; June 3 - June 5; Mineral Wells Airport; Mineral Wells, TX
- Tire Rack Toledo ProSolo; June 10 - June 12; Toledo Express Airport; Swanton, OH
- Tire Rack Packwood ProSolo; July 15 - July 17; Hampton Mills Old Lumber Yard; Packwood, WA
- Tire Rack Wilmington Summer ProSolo; July 29 - July 31; Wilmington AirPark; Wilmington, OH
- Tire Rack Blytheville ProSolo; August 5 - August 7; Arkansas Aeroplex; Blytheville, AR
- Tire Rack ProSolo Finale; September 2 - September 4; Lincoln Airpark; Lincoln, NE
For additional information on Tire Rack SCCA Solo, visit www.scca.com/solo.
Image: Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Drivers start their season this weekend at El Toro in Southern California.
Credit: Rupert Berrington
