You only get one chance to make a first impression, and the opener to the 2024 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour is revving up to be a spectacular one.
The Tire Rack Phoenix Solo National Tour at Arizona Motorsports Park, taking place Feb. 24-25, 2024, has everything an opener should have. It’s a fantastic new site, hosted by an incredible new Region, with a view of incredible mountains and a likely buzzing of the tower by a supersonic stealth jet fighter.
Oh, and it’s likely going to sell out, so sign up now.
Let’s take a closer look.
What’s this about a new site?
Arizona Motorsports Park is located in Litchfield Park, AZ, which is a suburb of Phoenix. There’s a fun little road course there, but (most importantly for our purposes) it has the largest driving pad of its kind in the southwest – an 800 by 800 foot skid pad that makes for great autocross courses. We know it’s...
Wait, hang on – did you say supersonic stealth jet fighters?
Well, we weren’t finished talking about the autocross site yet, but yes: Arizona Motorsports Park sits at the corner of Luke Air Force Base, which is home to the 56th Fighter Wing. That’s the largest F-35 Lightning II wing in the world, and it’s also one of two F-16 training bases. Can we get back to the site information now?
Yeah, I do want to hear more about this. It’s a good site?
The Phoenix AZ Solo Region is SCCA’s newest Region, and as the name implies, the Region’s focus is primarily on autocross. Considering Regional and Divisional events regularly sell out there, not to mention that the Region earned the Medium Sized Region of the Year at this year’s SCCA National Convention, it’s got to be good. The asphalt is in great shape, and...
Hold up just a second, because I keep thinking about this. These F-35s and F-16s just fly over us while we autocross?
Sigh.
This article is about the Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour season opener, but…I mean, we can’t guarantee there are going to be fighter jets flying in and out. But considering fighter jets tend to, you know, fly – they’re not driving in an out of the base.
So anyway, it’s a great site and a beautiful location. The White Tank Mountain Regional Park is just to the west, with 30,000 acres of the rugged White Tank Mountains to hike in the days before or after the Tour.
Can we see the jets while we hike?
Again with the jets?
Look, they’re jets. If they’re going somewhere, they’re obviously going over the mountains – so yeah, you can probably see them. The F-35 program is estimated at $1.7 trillion over the life of the plane (or just a little bit less than Red Bull spent on its F1 program last year – we kid!), so they’re really planning on it being in the sky.
But you can also see all of your West Coast autocross friends on the ground, at the event. We have to point out a couple of things that you should know, though.
Is it the jets?
Now you’re just messing with us, right?
No, the first item we need to discuss is that there’s a hard cap of 200 on site for this event. That includes guests, so the entry cap for this stop on the Solo National Tour has been set accordingly. You will be asked to include guests when you register.
The second thing is that Arizona Motorsports Park has a 96 db(A) sound limit at 50 feet. It is enforced, and you’ll have to pass the test before competing. The sound limit for cars on course is 93 db(A) at a fixed county meter.
Buuuut, there are potentially 144 of the F-35s flying overhead without a sound limit?
Yes, the irony is not lost on us.
As always, the story is more nuanced, but it’s a generous limit and a great site and we’re playing by the rules. We just didn’t want anyone to be surprised going into the weekend.
So how do I sign up to see the jets?
I swear, if you mention jets one more time…
If you want to register for the Feb. 24-25 Tire Rack Phoenix Solo National Tour, you’re in the right place, and the red button below is the best place to start.
You can Google the information on the fighter jets yourself.
Map image © Google Earth. F-35 image by DigiFX.
