(Click on image to view larger)

If there was a most frequently used word for the week, the word would be OPR.  It stands for "Other People's Rubber" and became the official term for all the discarded rubber on course that often was picked up by race tires.  The solutions ranged from putty knives and heat guns to this device, designed to remove laminate flooring.  The local Harbor Freight sold out of them in record time. Every championship is sweet.  Toby Larsson's however, may have been the sweetest of all.  Larrson claimed the F-Prepared National Championship over one of Solo's greats, John Thomas.  Thomas had won the class the last 5 years,with a 11 year championship run previously in E-Prepared, but this championship belonged to the Southern Californian with the orange BMW and ear to ear grin. Chris Dorsey put together one of the most dominate performances of the week in his  Corolla, dropping 7 seconds on the E-Prepared field.  Dorsey time would have won any of the Prepared Classes except for X-Prepared, where he would have been 3rd. Competition was not limited to the courses, as there was a "big wheel ProSolo" course set up in the Texas/Spokes compound on Thursday evening.  Despite the aero advantage expected from the "corn hat" Troy Acosta was able to edge out Stephen Ingram to win the round. The paddock vehicle getting the most attention was the "cooler kart" built by SEB member Dave Hardy.  The kart consisted of a scrapped race kart chassis, a hand-me-down aluminum cooler and race "lock and latch" seat belts to hold the two together. 2011 was one of the hottest Solo Nationals in recent memory.  So hot, it even caught up with "Fast Freddie" White. Kevin Youngers' West course featured no less that 32 slalom-able cones.  Some in the form of walls, some as offsets... many of which were hit, often. Many women have elected to compete in open classes over the years, but until this year only two had been able to win.  2011 added another name to the list, Brianne Corn took the top spot in B-Modified in the Le Grand Dragon.  Even more impressive, she did it as the tire warmer. Street Touring Roadster (STR) was given a challenge by the SEB, bring 51 drivers to Nationals and you can have Nationals Class status.  Not only did they meet the goal, they were the largest class at Nationals with 68 total drivers in open and ladies.  STR also delivered the tightest competition of the week, with 4 drivers in the first tenth of a second and only 1.8 seconds covering the 17 trophy spots lead by 21 year old Robert Thorne. Solo Nationals saw another strong influx of rookies in 2011, most of whom, including Aditya Madhavan, were all smiles, helmet on or helmet off.

Click here to see all of Perry Bennett's photos from the week