The Tire Rack SCCA® Finger Lakes Solo® National Tour at the Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, NY, was the grand finale to this year’s Solo National Tour “regular season,” and many who attended that event will head off to Lincoln, NE, for the Sept. 1-5, 2025, Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships with stars in their eyes.
The Finger Lakes event was hosted by, as you might expect, SCCA’s Finger Lakes Region, led by event chairs Scott Moller and Mark Krueger (with an assist from Emilio Moran). Course Designer Tom O'Gorman laid out two challenging but fun courses that provided two different driving experiences – Saturday was very technical and tough to get right, but incredibly rewarding when you did. Sunday was fast and flowing and required a healthy mix of bravery and precision.
The “welcome party” was more than a solitary gathering – it stretched throughout the entire weekend. Finger Lakes Region provided delicious BBQ prepared by Nick Pasternack and Carrie Goetz with assistance from the SCCA Assistant Equipment Manager Chris Kunkel, and other Finger Lakes Region members. Goetz cooked for two days to prepare without even competing in the event – showing it takes a village of dedicated volunteers to put on such a good show (and good eats).
The weather was near perfect in the Finger Lakes, as it tends to be this time of year. It was dry all weekend with sunny skies, temps in the 50s and 60s in the mornings, getting into the 70s and low 80s in the afternoons. This was a pleasant change from the oppressive heat and humidity competitors have experienced for the majority of this season.
Class Battles
DJ Alessandrini and his co-driver Alex Piehl were the main attractions in D Street, with Alessandrini taking the celebratory spray for winning the class in their shared Toyota GR86. Alessandrini was 0.465sec up at the finish to taste victory.
Just 0.489sec separated the winners in Super Street Touring®. Grant Reeve’s Corvette Z06 led the way on Vitour tires, followed by the Bridgestone-shod Corvette of Mark Ponusky.
E Street Touring was exceptionally tight. Matt Huchro and Eric Scholz separated from the field in their NA-generation Miatas, with Huchro scoring the win by 0.274sec.
Ladies Street Tire Bump was a battle between two A Street Touring MX-5s, pulling any indexing out of the final decision. Jen Fox was 0.091sec quicker than a charging Langlee King Clark over the two days to win the class – Clark’s performance was incredibly impressive when you consider she didn’t score a cone-free run at all on Saturday. Then a scant 0.058sec back in third sat Emily Whitaker
Jen Fox’s performance as the fastest in the Ladies index class landed her the SCCA Women on Track Pay It Forward award, which allows her to invite a female from her Region to experience a National Solo event, with Women on Track covering that entry fee.
Catch all the other action from the weekend in the class results.
Next Up: The Big One
All that’s left for the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour this season is the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships at Lincoln Airpark, running Sept. 1-5. There, more than 1,200 competitors (likely, more than 1,300) will be on hand for the four-day celebration of autocross that crowns National Champions in each class.
More information is incoming as the event approaches. Look for that, and coverage from the event when it happens, at scca.com.
Photos by Chris Yoder
