The third of four competition days has come to an end at the Wild West-themed 51st Tire Rack SCCA® Solo® National Championships taking place Sept. 3-6, 2024, at Lincoln Airpark in Nebraska’s capital city.
Drivers swap courses Friday to gallop around entirely different trails that will be new to them – they’ll either close the deal tomorrow or they’ll be headed back to their ranches with only fond memories from a fantastic experience – which is actually a pretty sweet haul when you think about it.
Catch up on the day’s action at the Tire Rack SCCA National Solo and SCCA Official Facebook pages. If you’re at Solo Nationals, be sure to tag your social media posts with #SoloNatsHasStarted and #funwithcars so others can enjoy the event from afar no matter where they’re camped around the globe.
Wild Wednesday West Course Action
Jason Bucki was undoubtedly disappointed with last year’s Super Street (SS) results. In 2023, he entered day two’s SS competition with the lead, but cones on his second and third runs left him sitting on his first go-round – and that wasn’t good enough. This year, he’s back, and based on day one’s results, he’s on target to claim his first SCCA National Championship title. But James Yom – who benefited from Bucki’s cone strikes a year ago – is in pursuit, just 0.085sec back.
When you win in C Prepared (CP), the question seems to be whether you can back that up at least two more times. Since 2008, only two drivers have won the class and then not won the following year. All other winners in that timespan, meanwhile, have won at least three in a row. Robert Lewis is the 2022 and 2023 CP National Champ – and based on his day-one performance, he’s planning to join the three-peat club, finishing Thursday’s competition with a 0.866sec lead over second. The problem is, Tommy Pulliam is the driver in second, and considering he’s one of those drivers who previously won three consecutive CP titles (2018, ’19, and ’21), we know he’s capable of stopping Lewis in his tracks.
2024 marks Riley Heaton’s 14th trip to the Solo Nats. In that time, he has earned eight Nationals trophies, three of which were supplemental wins or National Championship titles. And guess what? He’s only 23! When it comes to driving skill, Heaton proves that age ain’t nothin’ but a number – and this year’s number after Thursday’s Street Touring® Sport competition is 0.401sec, which is the margin by which Heaton is leading the 36-car field. With Solo Nats rookie Rich DeMarco in second, three-time Solo National Champion Eric Stoltz third, and seven-time Nationals winner Mason Herrick fourth, plus more talent behind them, this class is one to watch on Friday.
If you were to put money on anyone winning F Modified, you’d be foolish not to bet on Jason Hobbs. With five wins and five other trophies in the class since his first F Mod appearance in 2013 (and two in a row coming into the 2024 Solo Nats), he’s the class powerhouse. So it’s no surprise that Hobbs ended Tuesday competition on the West Course 0.398sec up on Brad Smith, with Matt Feeney another 0.651sec back. The hitch is this, though: Last year, Hobbs led the FM field by 1.426sec at the end of day one, so suddenly that sure thing might not be as safe a bet as you thought.
Mark Daddio was named SCCA’s Solo Rookie of the Year in 1988. Over the years, he’s earned the Driver of Eminence award (2022) as well as 31 Nats trophies – 13 of which came with a National Championship jacket. In other words, that Rookie of the Year award was no fluke performance. This year, he returned to D Street (DS) with unfinished business. You see, while he earned a trophy in DS last year, he was seventh, which was a far cry from the DS win he earned in 2022. But it won’t be easy, as his 0.139sec lead over Alex Piehl is tenuous at best, with Alex Muresan just 0.090sec further afield in third. Hot shoes DJ Alessandrini, Ken Roller, Mark Scroggs, and Chase Helm are all in the hunt too, with fractions of a second separating the front grouping in this 59-car field.
D Street Ladies (DSL) is another story of redemption. This is Kasey Gintner’s second Solo Nationals, her first being last year where she finished sixth in DSL, one spot shy of the trophies. Perhaps that lit a fire that’s burned for 365 days, because by the end of Thursday’s competition on the West Course, she was leading the eight-car field by an impressive 0.585sec. Emily Whitaker and Jo Jadeke sit in the remaining trophy spots, and there’s no doubt they’ve set their sights on claiming that top position come day two.
Meanwhile, on the East Course …
The 43 entrants of Solo Spec Coupe are working to claim one of the 12 trophies on offer this year. Joey Green currently leads the field in a 2015 Subaru BRZ after posting his best time on an opening run. Only 0.292sec behind is Matt Morhardt in a 2015 Scion FR-S, and 0.051sec further back in third is John Hunter driving a 2014 Scion FR-S.
One heck of a rodeo is going on in Solo Spec Coupe Ladies (SSCL), too. Jennifer Bedell, in a 2016 Scion FR-S, holds a slight 0.093sec advantage on co-driver Chris Peterson in the 14-entrant field. Defending SSCL National Champion Bedell has won the class in four of the five years it has been part of Solo Nats, but she’ll certainly have a target on her back come Friday.
Langlee Clark, driving a 2019 Mazda Miata, leads the 10-entrant C Street Ladies (CSL) field by 0.083sec over Casey Coughlin in a 2020 Mazda Miata. Clark’s best time came on her first run, while reigning CSL Champion Coughlin posted her best time on the third and final run.
F Street Prepared, with 15 entrants, is currently led by Matt Jones. His co-driver, Danny Gross, is only 0.212sec off the pace, with both men sharing a 2008 Mazda 3. This year marks the 10th Solo Nats appearance for Jones, and when he took to the East Course on Thursday, it marked his sixth different class since his first Solo Nats appearance in 2014.
Super Street Prepared (SSP) is turning into a battle of Champions as Jeff Wong, in a 2019 Chevrolet Corvette, is 0.317sec faster than Mike Kuhn in a 2015 Porsche GT3. Kuhn is the reigning SSP Champ, and Wong won in 2022. Wong was fastest on his opening run, and Kuhn dialed things in to be quick on his third pass Thursday.
With 57 competitors posting times, there are plenty of folks gunnin’ for the 16 trophies up for grabs in C Street (CS). Andrew Pallotta, in a 2023 Mazda MX-5, leads that herd by 0.186sec over Julian Garfield in a 2022 Mazda MX-5. Garfield came out swinging and held the top spot after opening runs. But Pallotta, who was the 2018 CS National Champion, cleaned things up to turn the quickest time on his third and final try on the East Course.
More to Come Friday
Don’t miss the final day of competition from the 51st running of Solo Nats. The wagon train is slated to get rolling at 8 a.m. Central Time, and by day’s end, the second set of winners for 2024 will be known.
Get your day off to a great start with the Solo Nationals Morning Show, a daily video broadcast at the SCCA Official Facebook page that begins about an hour before cars head out on course. That’s where you’ll find knowledgeable hosts interviewing special guests. If you missed any of those previous segments from earlier in the week, they are archived at the SCCA Official Facebook page as well.
Throughout the rest of Friday, track the competition online at sololive.scca.com where you’ll find live timing/scoring, as well as audio coverage during the final day. Don’t forget to also monitor the Tire Rack SCCA National Solo and SCCA Official Facebook pages on social media for updates and photos.
If you’re sitting around the campfire and need more Solo entertainment, there’s always journalist Brian Bielanski’s special Inside the SCCA segments from Lincoln posting to The Racing Network YouTube page. And while you’re checking out the content there, go ahead and subscribe to that YouTube channel. If Bielanski reaches 1,100 subscribers by Sept. 25, he will give away a free entry to the 2025 Solo Nats extravaganza.
Photo: Matt Jones led F Street Prepared Thursday in a Mazda 3. But co-driver Danny Gross was hot on his heels.
Photo by Andy Shultz
