The Tuesday Morning Set -- Morning runs have produced our first set of leaders at the Tire Rack SCCA® Solo® Nationals Championship. Sue Eckles leads CML, Billy Davis leads CSP, Zak Kiesel leads FM, Olivia Hammac leads JB, Deana Kelley leads SSML, John Price leads FSAE, Denise Cashmore leads FSL, Adam Benaway leads SSC, Bartek Borowski leads ES, Laney Blume leads HSL, Todd Roberts leads DP, Nicole Wong leads ESPL, and STR is led by Mark Shrivastava. Follow all the action with live timing and audio at http://sololive.scca.com/, or keep track of the competition at the SoloMatters Facebook page. Event updates will also be available periodically each day at SCCA.com.
More Car, More Fun -- Needless to say, you’ll find a wide range of car makes and models at the Tire Rack Solo Nationals. Of the nearly 1,300 entries anticipated this year, 18 percent are Mazdas, 17 percent GMs or Chevrolets, 11 percent Hondas and Fords, and 9 percent are Toyotas. What you don’t see a lot of are station wagons, but that’s exactly what Chris and Jack Heideman, members of SCCA’s Great Lakes Region, brought to Lincoln with them. The 1967 Ford Falcon Wagon was found in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a lot of “go fast” parts have been added to the vehicle competing this week in the CAM-T class.
“This thing is so much fun,” Jack said about the car has he prepared to make another pass Tuesday on the Solo Nats East Course. “It’s different and it’s an animal to drive.”
Talking Courses -- As usual, the competitors at the Tire Rack Solo National Championships will make runs each of two days with the best time from each day counting towards the final results. The courses are officially known as east and west, but lovingly called the plane side or the corn side to refer to the Lincoln Airport runways bordering the east of the site, and the cornfields which cradle the setting sun on the opposite side.
Jason Frank Designed the 25-input West Course made up of tricky mixed-radius sweepers with “better get it right” slaloms keeping drivers – and the rear ends of cars – on their toes. That course is paired with the busier East Course where course-designer Michael Feldpusch combined rhythm-challenging 90-degree corners, fast narrow transitions and 31 direction changes and a hang-it-out switchback finish to put an exclamation point on each run.
Roughly 350 drivers will tackle each course each day this week to crown the 2019 SCCA Tire Rack National Champions.
Photo: Jack Heideman working on his CAM-T 1967 Ford Falcon Wagon.
