It’s the third of four Tire Rack SCCA® Solo® National Championships competition days and a second group of competitors is out on one of two courses at Lincoln Airpark attempting to carve out a victory. Nearly 40 different classes are running in this second half of the Sept. 7-11, 2026, meetup in Nebraska’s capital city of Lincoln.
Developments from the final two days of Solo Nats action can be tracked in real time with an East Course live audio broadcast found here, and the West Course live audio broadcast here. Live results can also be monitored at the Solo Nats Timing webpage.
Special Awards Announced Wednesday Night
Wednesday evening’s party in the giant Tire Rack Event Center (TREC) tent is a big draw every year. That’s because the annual Tire Rack Solo Awards Celebration occurs at that time, which is a gathering that includes great food, beverages, comradery, laughter, and a whole bunch of fun.
The celebration is where the year’s first set of Solo Nats winners are announced and lauded. The occasion is also when recipients are announced for several major Solo Program awards.
The Heart of Solo Award was given out last night for only the third time. It recognizes those from the Solo community who have had a profound impact on their class, Region, and Solo community. Recipients will have created a welcoming environment for all and lived SCCA’s core values of excellence, service, passion, team, experience, and stewardship. The recipient for 2026 was Tom Holt of SCCA’s Lone Star Region.
Holt is an unofficial pied piper of the Road Trip Racing Team, which is better known at RTRT (pronounced “rut, rut”). He is the heart and soul of the group that arrives at Solo Nats each year from Texas and constructs the compound those competitors call HQ for the week. Equally impressive is the fact that he works on many of the RTRT cars, several of which perform quite well every year.
“I can’t thank you all enough. This is certainly unexpected,” Holt said while carefully carrying his trophy. “We’ve always had the motto that if we’re good enough for you, you’re good enough us. That applies to everyone that is here. We’d love to see you in the ‘rut, rut’ beer garden any ol’ time.”
The 2026 Driver of Eminence is Ron Williams of SCCA’s Kansas City Region. This award goes to Solo competitors who consistently demonstrated excellence behind the wheel, and an exemplary degree of sportsmanship, dedication, and unselfishness. The winner is selected by the Solo Events Board (SEB) from nominations submitted by the membership at large.
A Club member since 1994, Williams is in the Solo Nats Silver Circle with more than 25 appearances at the event. He has claimed 10 wins all told, and those victories are spread across eight different classes. On top of being a fierce competitor, he is also very involved within his Region.
“The people who have won this award just amaze me,” Williams said. “To be part of this is crazy. I appreciate it.”
The Solo Cup Award has been presented annually since 1978 and honors SCCA members who have made an outstanding contribution to the Solo events program. Winners are selected by the SEB from nominations submitted by the membership at large. The 2026 recipient is James “Jamey” McDaniel of SCCA’s Kentucky Region.
McDaniel, a Club member since 2001, has been in attendance at Solo Nats for a number of years serving as Chief of Safety. He does not compete; he just wants to be on site to help the Solo community. He’s an integral part of the huge event and his dedication is very much appreciated.
After receiving his award, McDaniel was offered the microphone to say a few words to the large crowd in attendance. Struggling to control his emotions, McDaniel simply shook his head and mumbled, “I can’t. I can’t.”
One very special moment occurred during Wednesday night’s ceremony when the Club awarded a red SCCA Solo National Championship jacket posthumously to Derek Feyerherm, the former Vice President of Operations and Development at the Chamber of Commerce and Visit Lincoln. You can read more about Feyerherm’s contributions to Solo Nats here, but he recently passed away and those within the Solo community wanted everyone to know how much he meant to them.
Accepting the honor were Visit Lincoln Executive Director Jeff Maul and Visit Lincoln Director of Sports Derek Bombeck. The framed jacket will hang in the offices of Visit Lincoln for a bit before being delivered to Feyerherm’s family.
“On behalf of Derek, Derek’s family, and all his friends and co-workers, thank you very much,” Bombeck told the crowd. “Derek put his blood, sweat and tears into everything that he did for Lincoln and Visit Lincoln. This event was no exception.”
Earlier in the week, Johnson Spirit of the Sport Award and Dick Berger Perseverance Award winners for 2026 were lauded.
The Johnson Spirit of the Sport Award is presented annually by the Royal Order of the Sheep to a member of the flock who upholds the spirited virtues of fun, camaraderie, and tomfoolery. Recipients of this award are selected annually by the three previous winners; and the co-winners in 2026 are Jeff Jacobs and Tony Savini.
Finally, the Dick Berger Perseverance Award recognizes someone each year who is undaunted by limited success over many National Championship events but keeps coming back to enjoy the camaraderie and community. The recipient of that honor for 2026 was Frank Wietharn.
Read more about Jacobs, Savini and Wietharn here.
Follow the Fun from Lincoln
Whether you’re in Lincoln or not, enjoy the fun and competition of Solo Nats through the Tire Rack SCCA Solo or SCCAOfficial pages on Facebook. Discover even more content on the SCCAOfficial Instagram page and the SCCAOfficial TikTok page.
Even more coverage will be posted to YouTube’s SCCAOfficial page. And don’t forget to check out SCCA.com for daily articles, with multiple articles posting per day during the Solo Nationals. Also sign up for the weekly SportsCar® News newsletter if you’d like those articles to end up in your email inbox.
Photo: Left to right are Solo award winners Ron Williams, James “Jamey” McDaniel, and Tom Holt
Photos by Philip Royle
