The Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour marched to zMAX Dragway on June 9-11, 2023, for the sixth event of the 2023 points season for the Tire Rack SCCA Charlotte Solo National Tour, with 264 drivers recording runs in the competition.
Ever-changing weather played a factor during the weekend. Throughout Saturday, competitors were met with mostly sunny skies with highs in the 80s. Sunday temperatures started warm, then cooled off with increasing clouds and rain moving in during the fourth heat. Unfortunately, the storm brought lightning with it, abbreviating the fourth and fifth heats.
As always, the ZMax Dragway site is a popular one, and Central Carolinas Region took advantage of the great layout and the smooth, grippy asphalt surface. That included utilizing the track campgrounds for Friday night’s welcome party and barbecue.
Competition Highlights
Regardless of what the weather was doing, the competition was hot all weekend.
In D Street, the twins of Mike Casino (Subaru BRZ) and Alex Piehl (Toyota GR86) pulled in front of Chase Helm’s Honda Civic and then battled it out amongst themselves. Piehl bit off more than four tenths of a second on his final run, but fell 0.030sec short of the win – with Casino taking the top spot.
The top five of Solo Spec Coupe were within a half second after Saturday’s runs, but Bill Bostic slammed the door on his final run of the weekend. Bostic dropped a half-second in his Scion FR-S to top co-driver Cody Hunt by 0.555sec.
It seems those little hot rods make for good autocross machines, as Street Touring Xtreme featured a pair of Scion FRS in the battle for class supremacy. Steven Hughes outpaced Jonathan Mudge by just 0.029sec after the pair went back and forth all weekend.
It wasn’t all momentum machines at Charlotte. Caitlin Dunlap used her American muscle in Street Touring Ultra, winning the Open class in a Chevrolet Corvette by 0.240sec over Donour Sizemore. It was even closer in Super Street, where Laurence Casey’s Porsche GT4 topped his co-driver Patrick Gaffney by 0.208sec in a small but mighty class.
The Porsche and the Corvette came together for Super Street Prepared, and the Porsche 911 GT3 of Mike Kuhn held on by just 0.292sec over Bryan Carbon and his Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
Find the complete event results by clicking the button below.
Point Made
Like every event on the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour, Charlotte awarded points towards the season-long 2023 Solo National Tour point chase. Competitors score points for a specific class during each Solo National Tour event from March to November, with the opportunity to also earn points at the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships in September. An individual’s three best-scoring performances in the same class during the year count toward the season total.
Points at Solo National Tour events are awarded on a performance-based scale using a specific formula. That points formula is: 100 - (900 x ((Entrant’s Time - Class Winning Time) / (Class Winning Time)).
Participation in the same class at the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships is required in order to qualify for the season-long points title. To resolve a points tie, finishing position at the Solo National Championships will be used to decide the winner.
Click here to learn more about the scoring system and check out the current point leaders.
Coming In Hot!
If you’re looking for Solo National Tour action near you, your time is likely coming. Though only one event remains in June (the Tire Rack Peru Solo National Tour, June 16-18), July is chock full and comes in a rapid-fire way. July features Tire Rack Solo National Tour events at Bristol (July 1-2), out west in Packwood (July 7-9), and in the middle of the country at Route 66 Raceway in Chicagoland (July 14-16), before ending the month in the Finger Lakes at the Seneca Army Depot (July 28-30).
Get more info on all of those events on the Solo National Tour webpage.
Photos by Peter Bruschi
