With nearly 250 drivers on site, the SCCA® National Solo program held its 11th event of the 2023 points series with the Tire Rack SCCA Finger Lakes Solo National Tour on July 28-30 at the site of the Seneca Army Depot. Saturday started cool and mostly cloudy, but just past the start of the third heat, the skies opened up and flooded the runway in what was described as “the 12th Finger Lake.”
Rain continued on Saturday, but Sunday cleared and remained in the low 70s for the remainder of the event.
Alex Piehl designed the courses for Seneca Army Depot’s smooth, grippy asphalt, and the Finger Lakes Region did a phenomenal job hosting the entire event and the welcome party barbecue on Friday night – including the JXB Performance-sponsored ice cream social. As has become tradition, attendees have begun utilizing the grass on site to camp, making this one of the most fun-filled event weekends on and off the course.
Class Competition
D Street came out of the box hot to open the day of action. Ken Roller led after day one, but Alex Piehl, Will Koscielny, Paulo Gabriel, and Anthony Nadeau-Poulin were all within three tenths of the lead. Roller locked it down on the second day, however, and escaped with a 0.521sec victory in the class.
Despite cone troubles on his last two runs (and a scratch time nearly two seconds faster than his best clean time), Billy Davis took 0.911sec victory in STR. Josh Luster had the fastest clean time in class on Sunday to take second, with Jacob Glover and Trevor Blackwell scoring trophies.
Tamra Krystinik threw down the only sub-50 second scratch time of the day in B Modified, but unfortunately she tagged a cone in the finish slalom on that run. Still, her fastest clean time of 50.297 was FTD for the day and left her with an impressive 6.293sec win over husband Andrew Krystinik. Evan Fish took home the final trophy in a borrowed DM Sprinto, compliments of Steve Hayward.
Day one Street Touring® Sport leader Kevin Gu waited until his last run to retake the lead from his co-driver Christopher Heideman, whose blistering first run on Sunday held up for top time in class. Gu escaped with a 0.149sec win over Heideman, while Matt Huchro put a Miata on the podium.
Dan Olesinski may have only been fourth fastest in a close CAM-C battle on Sunday, but his strong drive in the rain on day one gave him enough of a buffer to hang on for the win over Mikey Albacete by 0.145sec.
There was more – like Cody Hunt’s tight battle in Solo Spec Coupe and Sam Strano’s triumphant weekend in F Street. For that and more, check out the event results…
Looking Ahead
The time has come – the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour’s “Road to Lincoln” has wrapped. While there are two events post Nationals, the full attention of the Solo National Tour turns to Lincoln Airpark and the 2023 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships. It’s the 50th running of the event, Sept. 5-8, with a number of bonus activities and celebrations for the wait-listed championship.
Visit the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships event page for more information.
