Solo Spectacular -- Carolina Motorsports Park

Kershaw, SC August 10-11

CCR SCCA held its second annual Solo Spectacular at Carolina Motorsports Park, in sunny Kershaw SC August 10 and 11. Martin Bartlett, Steven Rankins, and Kevin Hoff functioned as event chairs. Held on a 1-mile section of the normal road course, the event was a major departure in both size and speed from the regular CCR parking lot autocross. Due to the unusual setup, we did not allow first-time novices and first-year drivers needed approval by the event chair. Despite the oppressive August heat and higher cost we had seventy competitors on Saturday and eighty on Sunday, with most attending both days. Most competitors received 11 runs over the two days. Concurrent with the Solo II, CCR held a Southeast Divisional Solo I on the other mile of track. That event, reported separately, satisfied forty competitors need for speed with anywhere from six to eighteen three-lap runs on the other mile of track. We allowed entrants to run both events as long as they didn’t skip their Solo II work assignment. Three tireless souls took the plunge and attended both events.

Setting up a safe autocross course on a road course can be quite difficult. What looks good on paper can end up either much tighter or much faster than expected. On Saturday, the team of Bill Crummett and Bill Repucci created a surprisingly technical course that drove well for most everyone. To keep speeds down, this course had a 9-cone 65-foot slalom, a devious Chicago box, and a complex set of offsets on the three straights. On Sunday, Kevin Hoff and Martin Bartlett designed a course featuring open lead-ins to the road race turns designed to put drivers on a nearly ideal road race line. The shorter straights had simple maneuvers that helped lead the drivers into the corners. The long straight had a giant 100’ slalom leading to a difficult offset and braking zone. The Sunday course was right at the limit of many comfort zones but the day ended with no damage and only a few spins. Everyone was impressed with the level of control exhibited by our members.

Saturday was cut short after the Cox’s Miata decided to imitate a British car a bit too closely and dump all of its oil on the track during the last run group. On Sunday the only mechanical was one of the FJ karts. It threw a chain on turn 12. To make up for the truncated Saturday the entire third group ran an extra three runs Sunday morning. One of the benefits of Kershaw’s rural location is the minimal mandatory quiet time. The only time racing isn’t allowed is between 11:00 and 12:00 on Sundays. This hour was used for lunch and free low-speed lapping of the Solo I course in muffled cars. Many Solo II competitors took this opportunity to learn the race line from some of the Solo I competitors.

Class results:
In his Zink FM, Brian Powell won FTD both days with a 58.336 and 54.129.

In SS, Rob Houser (Boxster S) and Andrew Ewing, of South Carolina Region SCCA, (C5 Corvette) swapped lead several times. The win finally went to Rob Houser by 0.6 on Saturday and 0.3 on Sunday. This effort also earned Houser FTS both days. In CS, Ed Brackney won on both days with a 59.203 and 1:04.645 over Bill Crummett’s 1:00.575 and 1:05.081. ES, with the old 1.6-l Miatae and early RX-7’s has been close and competitive all season. Joey Sutton and Mike Grumbles split wins over the weekend. Joey won by 1 second on Saturday and Mike won by .061 on Sunday.

Buck Marchant won FTSP and ASP both days in his beautiful Porsche 993 with a 1:01.373 and 55.455. John Messenheimer (VW GTI VR-6) showed DSP how it’s done with his dominating 1:02.455 and 57.572, both about 2 seconds faster than second place. On Sunday, Geoff Zimmer clocked an impressive 57.652 on old Sumitomo street tires in his FSP Rabbit. Prepared class is small in our region but those who do appear are strong. Matthew Douglas, Dean Furr, E. Todd Hopkins, James Farris, and Casey Holzman reminded the other competitors what a real racecar on slicks looks like.

In the other classes, Travis Wesley was unbeatable in his nearly stock STS E46 325Ci. Saturday was 1:05.788 and Sunday was 59.818. Between the nice horsepower, great stock suspension and HUGE tires the new 3-series is a very good DS and STS car. Travis runs in STS because he has performance street tires instead of R tires. Kent Davis dominated SM in his shockingly fast Mitsubishi Eclipse. Kent complained all weekend about a lack of power. Methinks he knows not of what he speaks. Try driving an 8v Jetta sometime! In expectation of his (since installed) turbo, Mike Martin has been running SSM. He ran unopposed both days while posting very respectable times of 1:03.548 and 59.431. Formula Junior has been a great success in CCR. We had 4 FJ drivers Saturday and 6 Sunday. These very brave kids wound their karts out both days with times that put several drivers of full size cars to shame. TJ Austin won on Saturday and Drew Tompkins won on Sunday.

Any review of this event would be remiss without thanking the many members whose hard work made all the fun possible. Among others, Martin Bartlett, Steven Rankins, E. Todd Hopkins, Bill Crummett, Bill Repucci, and the CCR board deserve special thanks for a job well done. This writer is looking forward to next year’s Solo Spectacular already, and has a fun new course design in mind…

--Kevin Hoff
CCR Webmaster