Florida Event Added to Start of 2017 Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Season
TOPEKA, Kan. (December 21, 2016) – After much effort, the SCCA National Solo Department proudly announces the addition of an event near Fort Myers, Florida, which will allow for an earlier start to the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo season.
The new event planned for March 10-12 at Buckingham Field in Lehigh Acres, Florida, will be hosted by the Gulfcoast Autocrossers Club (GAC). Howard Duncan, SCCA’s Senior Director of Rally/Solo, said no ProSolo event has taken place at that venue since 2003, and no SCCA National Solo competition has occurred there in a decade.
“We have been working with GAC for the last few years about returning to Buckingham Field, and I sincerely appreciate the efforts of GAC’s Craig Ellis and SCCA member Darrin DiSimo in making this happen,” Duncan said. “This year we were able to work out a plan where we can start the 2017 Tire Rack National Solo season with two events in the south on back-to-back weekends; the Ft. Myers ProSolo and then the Dixie Champ Tour in Cecil, Georgia. This should allow the Solo community to not only get two events for one trip, but to also tie in a Florida vacation as a bonus.”
Competition at Buckingham Field will require more stringent sound restrictions due to the unique nature of that venue. Specific decibel levels for the ProSolo event will be decided and announced at a later date.
The new ProSolo calendar is now a 10-event, regular season schedule -- now running March to August -- that leads to the Tire Rack ProSolo Finale in early September. The 2017 schedule is as follows:
- March 10-12: Tire Rack Fort Myers ProSolo; Lehigh Acres, Florida
Buckingham Field
- April 7-9: Tire Rack El Toro ProSolo; Irvine, California
Orange County Great Park (formerly El Toro Air Station)
- April 21-23: Tire Rack Crows Landing ProSolo; Crows Landing, California
NASA Crows Landing Airport
- May 5-7: Tire Rack Blytheville ProSolo; Blytheville, Arkansas
Arkansas Aeroplex
- May 19-21: Tire Rack Northeast ProSolo; East Rutherford, New Jersey
MetLife Stadium
- May 25-27: Tire Rack Spring Nationals ProSolo; Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln Airpark
- June 2-4: Tire Rack Texas ProSolo; Mineral Wells, Texas
Mineral Wells Airport
- June 9-11: Tire Rack Ohio ProSolo; Swanton, Ohio
Toledo Express Airport
- July 14-16: Tire Rack Packwood ProSolo; Packwood, Washington
Former Hampton Lumber Mills Packwood
- August 4-6: Tire Rack Oscoda ProSolo; Oscoda Township, Michigan
Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport
- September 1-3: Tire Rack ProSolo Finale; Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln Airpark
With the revised schedule, the first stop on the ProSolo competition calendar now takes place at Buckingham Airpark near Ft. Myers, Florida. After that, it’s off to Orange County Great Park for an event hosted by the Cal Club Region. The series then heads to Northern California for the San Francisco Region event taking place on the concrete runways and taxiways of Crows Landing, a former NASA installation.
The fourth event of the year moves back east to Blytheville, Arkansas, for a weekend put on by both the Arkansas Region and Mid-South Region. This venue typically features longer courses thanks to the immense size of the site. From Arkansas, the series pops up north to the asphalt lots of MetLife Stadium for a weekend hosted by the New Jersey Region with the New York City skyline as a backdrop.
May closes out with the Spring Nationals ProSolo at Lincoln Airpark hosted by the Nebraska Region with a course that will be a variation on the popular 2016 Tire Rack ProSolo Finale layout. Then the Texas Region gets June going with the Texas ProSolo that includes long courses on asphalt and mouthwatering BBQ meals.
The Tire Rack ProSolo series continues with a jaunt up to Toledo Express Airport for what will likely be another well-attended event hosted by Northwest Ohio Region. That is followed by a weekend in the shadow of Mount Rainer hosted by the Northwest Region in Packwood, a site featuring a covered paddock, grid and Impound/Tech space.
The regular season then concludes this year with a return to Oscoda, Michigan, for a weekend hosted by the Detroit Region at a resort area beside Lake Huron. The Tire Rack ProSolo season then concludes back in Lincoln, Nebraska, for September’s Tire Rack ProSolo Finale.
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 set the qualifying order for the second part of the event which determines the overall winner. The top qualifiers enter 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 Overall ProSolo Championships are determined by combining regular season points with points earned at the ProSolo Finale in Lincoln, Nebraska.
For additional information on Tire Rack SCCA Solo, visit www.scca.com/solo.
The Sports Car Club of America, Inc., founded in 1944, is a 67,000-member motorsports organization that incorporates all facets of autocross, rally and road racing at both club and professional levels. With headquarters in Topeka, Kansas, the SCCA annually sanctions over 2,000 events through its 115 Regions and professional subsidiary. Much of the SCCA’s activities are made possible with support from the following Official Partners: Chevrolet, the Official Truck of the SCCA; Garmin VIRB, the Official Camera of SCCA; Hawk Performance, the Official Brake Products of SCCA; Mobil 1, the Official Oil of SCCA; SafeRacer, the Official Safety Provider of SCCA; Sunoco, the Official Fuel of SCCA; and Tire Rack, the Official Tire Retailer of SCCA. To learn more, please visit www.scca.com.
Photo Credit: Rupert Berrington
