The sun has set on the first day of Solo Nats competition, and Solo Town’s Wild West-themed paddock now clamors with cowpokes re-shoeing horses, securing saddles and stirrups, or overseeing trailside alterations more extreme before relaxation around campfires commences prior to Wednesday’s experience.
In other words, they’re prepping their cars for their final day of competition on Wednesday.
That’s how the story goes most nights, Sept. 3-6, 2024, at Lincoln Airpark in Nebraska’s capital city during the 51st Tire Rack SCCA® Solo® National Championships. Riders switch courses Wednesday to face entirely new trails. Some will meander paths, others fire through as if on rails. Either way, by Wednesday evening, the first set of 2024 SCCA National Champions will be known.
If you’ve missed things, catch up on the day’s action at the Tire Rack SCCA National Solo and SCCA Official Facebook pages. Other nuggets of gold can be found through storytelling guided by Brian Bielanski at special Inside the SCCA segments posting to The Racing Network YouTube page.
Want news from ranch hands on site? The Solo Nationals Morning Show, a video broadcast at the SCCA Official Facebook page, starts about an hour before cars head on course each day. That’s where you’ll find expert hosts interviewing special guests about their experience. Plus, those segments are archived on Facebook so tenderfoots wakin’ up late can bring themselves up to speed.
So what happened during Tuesday competitions? Boy howdy, there were some battles…
Tuesday East Course Action
She’s a veterinarian, an Olympic-caliber Modern Pentathlon athlete, an NCAA referee, and a multi-time SCCA Solo Nats Champion. But not even Jordan Towns could show up at Nationals in the STRL class for the very first time, in a borrowed Mazda MX-5, and walk away with a great performance. Ha! Just kidding, Towns opened this year’s event by leading the class in Heat 1 on the opening day by 0.211sec in her hunt for a third National title.
There was a comment on Facebook during the 2024 ProSolo® Finale that asked if Bartek Borowski even has to make his runs, or if they just hand him the winner’s trophy once he arrives? Well, “Pete from Greenville,” no one told Mitchell Welker about this plan! Welker leads Borowski by 0.359sec after the first day in the 38-entrant E Street class that filled up the Heat 2 grid out East.
Supplemental doesn’t mean the competition is any less fierce. The first year of Club Spec MX-5 at Solo Nationals brought 14 competitors, and Jeremy Scotton leads the way. Jon Krolewicz, driving the SCCA staff-built Miata, is second just 0.705sec back.
Todd Roberts was impressive in his Mazda-powered D Prepared car, where he launched to an opening-day lead of 0.805sec. Kelsey Karanges did him a second better in STUL, where she led a host of mid-engine Porsches through the East Course.
A total of 40 drivers in STR were among the Heat 5 groups that wrapped the day on the East Course, and Billy Davis led the way – but just barely. He holds a 0.076sec lead over Daniel McCelvey. It’s far from a two-horse race, though, as nine drivers landed within a second of Davis and will want a crack at him on the second day of competition.
West Course Tuesday Action
Pardners, the scene out West is something those back East can’t even imagine (at least, until they swap courses on the second day of competition…which is how the Solo National Championships works).
You just never know what you’re going to see. Some wild thinking cowboy says electricity is the present, while another tries to wake the heavens with a rotary-powered engine. We’ll have to wait until Wednesday to decide who has the best idea, but for now, Cameron Goode’s Tesla Model 3 leads the Street Modified class over the Mazda RX-8 of John Vitamvas, but only by 0.2sec. The top five in the class are inside a second, and the first heat brought a lot of downed cones, so anything can happen on Wednesday in this shootout.
Heat 2 out West was the place to go for variety. F Street, led by Tom O’Gorman, has Camaros and Mustangs battling it out. The Civics – specifically the one driven by Kinch Reindl – make up the front of the H Street field, but there are a variety of hot hatches in the group. And the Club Spec Mustang class is 19 deep in its debut, where David Hedderick leads the way.
Shelly Monfort figured if the covered wagon is crossing the prairie, there’s room for another trophy. Monfort now leads A Street Ladies in the hunt for a 14th National Championship.
Christian Patrick didn’t really make his co-driver, Michaias Wilson, quit autocrossing, but Patrick did lay down a scary enough run to top Stephen King by 0.206sec in CSP. But the competition is tough, with less than a half-second separating the top five drivers as the field heads into day two.
E Street Prepared left the day with three drivers, in three very different cars, less than a tenth apart. AJ Whitaker leads the way in a Honda Civic Type R, with Mark Canekeratne’s BMW 330 Ci just 0.01sec back, and Clint Griest’s Mazdaspeed 6 just 0.08sec from the lead.
Wednesday Trail Guide
The opening half of SCCA’s 51st Solo Nats cattle drive, featuring some of the finest autocross hoofers north of the Rio Grande, wraps up on Wednesday, Sept. 4. That’s a development that can’t be skipped, so follow along in real time at sololive.scca.com for up-to-the-moment timing/scoring, as well as audio coverage throughout the day.
Frequent updates can also be found at the Tire Rack SCCA National Solo and SCCA Official Facebook pages, too. Check back with SCCA.com as well for additional stories from one of the largest events SCCA conducts each year.
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.
Photo: Dan Simms leads the 42-entrant A Street class in a 2009 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 after the opening day of competition at the 2024 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships.
Photo by Jeff Loewe
