2002 National Sched

[NoCones]

Just got this from scca.org...tentative, of course:

Tour:
Feb 23-24 Ft. Myers, Fla. (Buckingham Airfield)
Mar 16-17 San Diego, Calif. (Qualcomm Stadium)
Apr 20-21 Houston, Texas (Gulf Greyhound)
May 4-5 Atwater, Calif. (Castle Airport)
Jun 1-2 TBA - NorthEast USA
July 6-7 Peru, Ind. (Grissom Aeroplex)
Jul 27-28 Seattle, Wash. (Bremerton Spdwy)

September 9-13, 2002
The Tire Rack Solo II National Championships

ProSolo:
Round 1 Feb 16-17 Ft. Myers, Fla. (Buckingham Airfield)
Round 2 Mar 23-24 Lake Forest, Calif. (El Toro MCAS)
Round 3 Apr 13-14 Topeka, Kan. (Forbes Field/Test & Tune)
Round 4 May 11-12 Atwater, Calif. (Castle Airport)
Round 5 May 25-26 Petersburg, Virg. (Virginia Mtrsp. Pk)
Round 6 Jun 29-30 Oscoda, Mich. (Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport)
Round 7 Jul 20-21 Wendover, Utah (Wendover Airport)
Round 8 Aug 10-11 Lubbock, Tex. (Reese Center)
Round 9 Aug 17-18 Peru, Ind. (Grissom Aeroplex)

Finale Sep 7-8 Topeka, Kan. (Forbes Field)

Couple of questions:
1. What happened to the Meridian Tour event?
2. Any guesses on the TBA tour location? Ayer? Harrisburg?

[preparedcivic]

Two things maybe.......

My educated guess as to why both snowbird SEDIV events are at Fort Myers is to attract suckers like me that don't have any vacation time, who would drive down, run the Pro, park at the airport Sunday night, fly home, work work work during the week, then fly back Friday and run the Tour, and drive the 1250 miles home afterwards and be home by Monday evening. Potentially, only two days of vacation spent. Buy one get one free in the time off dept.

The other reason is somewhat similar, except instead of working Monday to Friday, just stay in south Florida and take a real vacation. I have a hard time imagining what one would be like. I've only had two in the 15 years since I discovered autocrossing. One was my honeymoon; the other was a family trip to Disney.

As for the Northeast, the Farm Show in Harrisburg is off-limits due to construction expansion of the complex. I think New England Region is willing to put the event on at Ayer, but that site is a little problematic with course layout, and has never drawn the entry that most other Tours around the country have, I suspect due to it being kind of way up there. I had heard Philadelphia Region was looking to possibly make a bid. NEDIV is a little short on suitable sites.

[nxracer]

the truth is...... from Howard
The Meridian Tour is held at an active airport and they cannot allow the use of the site for security reasons.

Next year this may change.

[Mas]

Well I guess I won't get to go to any tour events unless I want to drive 20+ hours. :sad


Oh well, I guess I won't be able to find out if me and the Ceilca can be competitive on a national level.

You'd think the SCCA could schedule 1 event for some of us located in the midwest.

[autxr]

Mason-

So far I don't have a co-driver for any events. Let me know if you want to try and work something out.

With someone helping cover the cost of Hoosiers I will run them. Otherwise I will probably be on Kuhmos.

Bryan (NoCones) might be interested as well. You can just fly out and drive. Really it won't cost much more than driving out.

I'm planning Ft. Myers, and probably the East cost event (rumor is that DC region has about a lock on the East coast event). I might also get talked into Peru.

I'm most certainly going to be at the Petersburg ProSolo as well.

Scott

[nxracer]

Mid-Div must not have requested a Tour. They had one in 2001 and 2000. Or the have the same problem Meridian has, no site

[B1mmer]

Since we're talking schedule, I will probably only run the Celica at one or two National events: Petersburg Pro and Peru Pro. I worked out a co-drive (tire boy) deal with Eric Petersen to drive his Spyder for 2002. I'll get my first run in it in January at the NASA event and then we'll be running the Ft. Myers Tour, NE Tour, Peru Tour, and Nationals. I expect to get my ass handed to me in the new CS, but it's worth the experience. Plus to be able to give Tim Aro crap about how I'm going to run him down will be worth it!:D - Aaron

[Mas]

Scott,

Thanks for the co-drive offer but I don't think that I can make the Ft Myers or the one around June 1st. I've got most of my summer planned out and then a wedding the week before Nationals so I guess I'm SOL for this year. I was hopeing to at least get to attend a Tour event this year (Colorado had one last year), but that's life.

Thanks again,
Mason

[nxracer]

How far is Peru?

enter this address into MapQuest.com

Grissom Aeroplex
1525 West Hoosier Blvd.
Peru, IN 46970-3645

[Mas]

For me it's:

Map Quest:

Denver, CO to Peru, IN
US US

Total Distance: 1132.76 miles
Total Estimated Time: 20 hours, 24 minutes

[preparedcivic]

Gee, the way I usually drive to and from events Denver-Peru would be about 16 hours flat. :D

[B1mmer]

Mason, my Dad lives north of Boulder, so I understand your concern with driving times. If you want to hit a National event, you should do the Topeka Round 3 Pro. The talk is that even though they've set it up as a test and tune for the new rules, it will be announced soon that it will be a full fledged ProSolo. From Denver to Topeka is less than an 9 hours (539 miles), which 95% of your trip will be I-70 East. Think about it, 500 miles on 1-70 with speed limits ranging from 65-75 mph, means you could be there in under 7.5 hours. That's nothing compared to my 18 hour one way to Topeka.. ;) - Aaron

[Mas]

Aaron,

Yea I'm thinking the Pro in Topeka and the Pro in Wendover might be "do able". I like pro's but I just don't think I've got enough dragracing experience to make me competitive.

We had a prosolo "test and tune" here a month back. I made the 16 bracket race (it was a random drawing) and "broke out" by .5 second each round all the way up to the final race.

It was fun but my clutch, tires and brakes were very tired afterwards.

Mason

PS. Aaron I sent you a Private Message yesterday did you get it?

[B1mmer]

I just got it... I'll respond in a second. Last year, the Petersburg Pro was my 1st National event ever. I've never drag raced either. I went there expecting to finish last. Did the practice starts on Friday afternoon (you buy tickets in order to line up with the tree and launch for practicing reaction time along with 60 ft times). Saturday morning, I was really nervous. By the end of Saturday, I was in 6th place out of 16. I still figured I'd move backwards on Sunday. I didn't. I actually was only .085 sec. out of a 5th place trophy. I was the fastest 2 wheel drive car in G stock. Granted, I was fortunate to drive well, but I'm one of those people that takes me 6-8 runs to really get everything out of a course. With 6 runs a side, it helps a lot. I swear you'll like it more than Tour events, even if you know you'll be down .5 sec at 60 ft to most AWD cars. Just go there and have fun. I guarantee you'll want to do it again. - Aaron

[NoCones]

Mas, I wouldn't worry for a second about lacking drag experience for a ProSolo. The same event Aaron is referring to was my first ProSolo. I didn't even do practice starts on Friday and managed to get thru the weekend without a red light. Doesn't matter how quick you are, as long as you're within that 0.5 sec window. My co-driver was in his first Pro (and only his 2nd autox in my car) and didn't red light either.

Bryan

[NoCones]

Scott--I'd be interested in flying down to Ft. Myers to co-drive with you. I'm not sure how well it will fly with the family, though...let me check.

Bryan

[autxr]

Bryan-

That's be no problem. I wasn't planning on Hoosiers for that event, but we can always work it out (I could swing splitting a set of Hoosiers i think).

Scott