SCCA Solo Triad

from SCCA.com (credit Rupert Berrington)

SCCA press release on the Solo Triad winners for this year. Very proud to win this in my first year of running the Scion FR-S in C-Street and to be in the small company of drivers who won it this year.

http://www.scca.com/articles/1998174-six-racers-take-home-solo-triad-awards

Colorado Championship Tour this Weekend at PPIR

We are headed to CO this afternoon for my first Colorado Championship Tour in the FR-S. Slight setup change (different front bar) from Mineral Wells to try something new, but the main purpose is to have some fun and practice for Solo Nats. As usual, C-Street is one of the biggest classes. Here is the entry list for this weekend:

CS Runs first heat and the format will be same as Solo Nationals - 3 runs Saturday and 3 runs on Sunday. 

Live timing: sololive.scca.com/

Live audio/video: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/SCCASolo

Registered for the Colorado Championship Tour

I like Colorado so it's hard to pass up a National SCCA event at PPIR if I have room in the schedule. Ali and I will be heading to Fountain, CO the weekend after the Mineral Wells ProSolo making it three out of four weekend running the C-Street FR-S. We have 10 entries in the class so far and we are looking forward for our trip to mountains.

The ESP Camaro was Workin' at the College Station Championship Tour

The 2014 College Station Tour wrapped up last weekend. The event was a huge success and reached it's goal of over 200 entries which should help secure it's future on the SCCA calendar. Big congrats to all involved in planning especially Todd Farris who I personally saw work his a$$ off all weekend. Our weekend started with the Friday practice day before the Tour where my Dad took the Evo Advantage class and got some quality (very very very high quality) seat time and instruction in the Camaro. I instructed along with Brian Burdette and Dave Whitener at my first Evo School. I really enjoyed it and appreciate the opportunity by Junior and the Evo School team. I instructed students in a wide variety of classes - AM, STR, BS, STU, and DS with some students taking home some hardware at the end of the weekend! Great job guys. 

Got to drive this amazingly fun and loose A-Mod car

ESP lined up in Heat 1 along with CP and SM. We only had 4 in class with one driver dropping out or changing classes last minute. We didn't find out until we got to grid so there went the chance to win some more HoHos...oh well. Some overnight rain made for tricky conditions in Heat 1. The CP guys did a great job of clearing as much water as possible before we started running but the track was still pretty wet as you can see in the video. This meant the competition was basically a one-lap shootout on Run 3 as it would have much better conditions than the 1st. Luckily, I was able to get a flyer in on my 3rd run with a 66.528 which surprisingly ended up being good enough for top PAX for the day. Like in Blytheville, the ESP Camaro was dialed in. My Dad had a great 3rd run to finish in P3 after Day 1.

I had a healthy lead going into Day 2, but you never know with the stiff competition in ESP. There was no rain overnight so all of the high horsepower cars of SM, ESP, and CP had much better conditions Sunday morning. I laid down a really solid 2nd run with a 67.231 which would have been quick enough to win CP had it not been for one darn cone. For my 3rd run, I was not able to get back to my 2nd run pace as the tires had cooled during an extended break to remove a broken CP car from the course and I just needed a solid, clean run in the bank to preserve my ESP lead. I finished with a 67.917s run with no cones. This gave me the win in ESP by 3.2s win due to some cone trouble by my competitors. I also just snuck away with Top PAX for the event by 0.080s over Lane Borg my former co-driver in his B-Street Corvette. This was my first Top PAX finish at a National Event. 

Here is onboard video from my quickest runs on both days:

Day 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5gdVWz5ij4

Day 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb5p2rqZp9w

Despite the success we have had over the past few weeks, the College Station Tour and the bright yellow 99 decals displayed on many racecars were a sobering reminder that there are more important things than being fast between the cones. With the recent passing of beloved, Championship winning driver Tommy Saunders, clearly the focus needs to be on spending the time we have with great friends and family and having some good old-fashioned fun. I did not know Tommy well, but I do know that he was loved by many in the Solo community and it was always great to see him and his family at the races. The best part of the past 10 days was just spending two 12-hour drives with my Dad back and forth to Arkansas. That's the important stuff.

2014 National SCCA Solo Schedule Released

The SCCA recently released a preliminary schedule for the 2014 National Solo series. My Dad and I will be contesting the Texas ProSolo and Championship Tour in addition to the Spring Nationals over Memorial Day. The big shows will be the ProSolo Finale and Solo Nationals over Labor Day again in Lincoln. I may try to hunt for some co-drives next year for fly away events but we'll have to see how the begging works out next year!

Onboard Video from the 2013 College Station Championship Tour

SCCA PR Summary from the College Station Tour

I got my first mention in an SCCA race summary press release after the College Station Championship Tour. Here is the link: http://www.scca.com/news/index.cfm?cid=51359 

For Immediate Release   Tire Rack SCCA Championship Tour, RallyCross Open In Texas   COLLEGE STATION, Texas (March 27, 2013) – The Tire Rack SCCA Solo® Championship Tour and the RallyCross® National Challenge opened last weekend just miles apart, with at least one driver – Brianne Corn, of San Marcos, Texas – taking wins in both events.   Corn split time between the Solo site at Texas A&M and the RallyCross site at Texas World Speedway, bouncing back and forth to get in her required runs at both locations. The effort paid off, with Corn taking the B Modified win in Solo in her Janco/Hoosier Le Grand Dragon as well as the Modified All Wheel Drive class win her Brianne Corn Racing/Rally Ready Driving School Subaru Brighton.   More than just wins, Corn also turned the fastest overall times at both events – a 111.278 combined time of her two best runs on the Solo pavement, and a weekend best 770.505 aggregate of all 12 runs on the RallyCross dirt.   Corn’s performance wasn’t the only notable one of a weekend that featured 157 drivers on the Solo course.   In C Stock, Kenneth Baker ran the best class time of the final day to close the first-day hole in his Autcross.com Mazda MX-5, but fell just 0.030-second shy of Daniel McCelvey’s JFA Racing/TrackTime Performance Nissan 370Z.   Like McCelvey, Mark Madarash opened up a lead in his class, then fought to keep it through Sunday’s runs. Madarash was the quickest E Street Prepared machine on Saturday, then posted a time in his Pontiac Trans-Am on Sunday that left him just 0.116-second ahead of Sunday’s quickest-in-class car, the Goodyear Eagle RS/Strano Parts Chevrolet Camaro Z28 of Dave Ogburn.   It was, however, possible to take a victory from behind on Sunday. Andy Hollis led the opening day of Street Touring R, behind the wheel of the Thanks Kyung and Michael Mazda Miata. With a prophetic team name, Jason Minehart erased that deficit in the Team Underdog Racing Mazda MX-5 to just sneak out a 0.095-second victory in the 14-car class.   On the RallyCross dirt, all 12 runs are combined for the final time. That makes the 2.963-second margin of victory that Kevin Corn’s Brianne Corn Racing/TexasRallySport.com Subaru Impreza in the Prepared All Wheel Drive class agonizingly close. Corn had consistently completed the course faster than runner-up Yohanan Harvey’s Norman’s Tire Service Subaru Impreza, but had 14 seconds in cone penalties – compared to just two for Harvey – to narrow that gap and nearly cost him the win.   The Tire Rack Championship Tour – running the traditional National Tour format – moves immediately to this weekend’s Pacific Southwest Championship at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. More information on the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Program is available atwww.scca.com/Solo. More information, including results, from the Tire Rack College Station Championship Tour event is available athttp://www.scca.com/events/index.cfm?eid=5453.   Information on the RallyCross National Challenge program is available at www.scca.com/RallyCross. Details on the SouthWest Division National Challenge at Texas World Speedway, including final results, can be found at http://www.scca.com/events/index.cfm?eid=5599.   Follow SCCA on Twitter @SCCAOfficial, or like the Club on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SCCAOfficial.

Close Muscle Car Battle in College Station This Past Weekend

The 2013 SCCA Solo Championship Tour opened this past weekend in College Station, TX. It also kicked off my season of National SCCA competition. The forecast called for rain showers on Saturday with the weather clearing up for Sunday’s action, but we ended up with a dry, windy weekend and “cold-for-Texas” temperatures. We had 5 competitors in E Street Prepared Class and ran in the last heat which gave us the best course conditions, especially for r-comp tires, on both days.

As with last year, Vivek Goel designed a great course for the grippy but inconsistent Texas A&M Riverside Campus concrete. All of my events this year have been on the low grip, very coarse surface at the Mineral Wells Airpark so it was nice to race on a surface more representative of the Lincoln concrete. When we took to the track on Sunday, I coned my first run, then cleaned it up on my 2^nd run trying to stay within reach of ESP pacesetter Mark Madarash. He finished with a 63.479s run, and I was able to improve by about 0.5s on my last run to trip the lights with a 63.880. This was certainly better than the College Station Tour last year where I put myself in a 2.7s hole after the first day, but was hoping to be a bit closer to the top. However, I was solidly in P2 and had nothing to lose on Day 2. 

Trying to find speed before Day 2

The higher-grip concrete in College Station changed the balance of my car vs Mineral Wells, so I made an adjustment after Day 1 to free the car up. Sunday’s runs were my best heat so far in the ESP Camaro. I drove well, the car felt good (could be better though….), and I had a nice battle with Mark for the win. My 61.933 2^nd run gave me the fastest ESP run on Sunday by 0.3s and put me 2^nd in PAX overall for Sunday. I had a chance on my 3^rd and final run to take the ESP win by dropping my lap time a tenth, but was not able to improve leaving me in P2 in class by 0.116s....so close! I finished 3^rd in the Overall PAX ranking for the weekend. My Dad and I will be racing again on April 13^th and 14^th in the Mineral Wells ProSolo event. Hopefully we can find some more speed in the meantime! 

I am working on editing the onboard video and will have it uploaded soon. The class and PAX results are below:

Final ESP Results 

Day 2 PAX Ranking - P2!

Final Combined PAX - P3 Overall