Thursday-Friday pictures

Text, text, text ...


Oh hai, ur no. 1!!


Jason Becker in grid in his SSM BMW M Coupe.


i am at ur solo nats, stealing ur downforces.


Jason Huepenbecker, Lee Piccione and Terry Baker watch Holly Schwedler hit the course in Lee's Kao-lifornia Special Shelby Mustang.


Shane Chinnon-Rhoden works the camera on Jason B's BMW.


Team Ziptie chillaxing in grid.


Sam Strano advises Learic Cramer: "Go that way really fast. If something gets in your way, turn."


Josh Luster, Sam and Shane help keep Learic's tires nice and cozy.


Allen Kugler advises Brian Karwan: "You make a gnarly run like that and girls will get sterile just looking at you."


Jeff Jacobs (center) and Big Mike Snyder (right) try and figure out who dumped oil on the east course on Friday.


1,200 horsepower combined between these two cars. But in the rain, they rarely went flat out.


In the long run, I'm not sure if this was such a bright idea. The Garfield kids make adults look slow as it is driving little karts -- what will it be like when they drive real cars?


When you're fast, people want to talk to you.







For more pictures and hi-resolution images, see my collection on flickr.

New National Champs!

In addition to Julian Garfield in FJA from Tuesday-Wednesday competition, the SCCA just crowned three more WDCR members as Solo National Champions. Mike Stanley won in FSAE, Brian Karwan won in SMF in his first appearance at the Solo Nationals, and Sam Strano won (again) in F Stock. Well, Brian is just a "Class Winner" since SMF is still in the inception phase (even though there were more competitors than A Stock ... and that's all I have to say about that).

More details and photos to come. Probably more on the photo side.

Solo Nationals Report from Thursday

After being shutout from Tuesday-Wednesday competition, Autocrossers, Inc., members are finally making some noise. Sam Strano is leading F Stock with the 4-5-6 trophy spots occupied by Jason Hopenprayer, Lee Piccione and Big Mike Snyder. Wow, it's like FedEx Field has moved halfway across the country! (And gotten really flat and a lot more grippy.)

As for the rest of the WDCR members, Mike and Mike with the University of Maryland FSAE car are puttin' a hurtin' on the rest of the competition. Stanley leads Cook by 0.902, and Cook is ahead of his next closest rival by 1.6 seconds.

Brian Karwan has almost a two tenths lead in the SMurF class. Nobody knows who that is in the faaaaassssssssssst little white Civic except us. Hopefully he can keep it up on Friday.

Brian was running in the third heat on the west course on Thursday, and it was interesting because there were three other WDCR members in the same heat. Learic Cramer and Holly Schwedler came through on their final runs to move into second place in C Stock Ladies and F Stock Ladies, respectively. Learic is two tenths out of first while Holly is three tenths out, so both of them definitely have a shot on Friday. Jason Baker was also running in that same heat and after hitting multiple cones on his first two runs, he pulled out a clean run to move his BMW M Coupe into 12th place in Super Street Modified. There is A LOT of firepower in that class.


Speaking of firepower, in ASP, Courtney Cormier is in a trophy spot in fifth place but coned a run that would have had him in second behind his co-driver, Junior Johnson. ASP ran in drizzling conditions that had most of them running about a second off their faster times on their third runs.

In C Stock, the Robeson-Thomas Mazda RX-8 is attracting attention from the cones, but I think both of them are just happy to be driving after 2-3 days of sitting around and watching everybody else drive.

Don't forget, things kick off Friday at 9 a.m. EST, and you can keep track of the action at http://sololive.scca.com. Results have been posted in near-real time -- many competitors can be seen in grid staring intensely at their phones as they figure out where they are standing in class.

WDCR Solo Nats F125 Injury Report

There are less than 10 days left before the F125 class takes on some evil course designers in Lincoln. What's better than reporting on the currently injuries/disabled news for the F125 National participants? Here is the latest:

Mike Kline - Fear of commitment and predicted overdose. Mike is having trouble committing to his new kart, and the predicted Sonics overdose on the way to Lincoln is a foregone conclusion. (Same goes for Josh Luster, those dudes need some serious help) Mike is still wishy washy on whose kart to drive, just like any politician.

Justin Neal - Suffering from power hungry symptoms and mounting problem. After I've been telling him all year that he has a horsepower problem, it took a broken motor mount before Justin realized his motor is underpowered compare with others. Now he is power hungry and looking for a mount, just like any politician.

Edwin Liu - "Over worked" and completely lack of focus. Edwin has been using "working" as an excuse to miss the last 2 1/2 karting events. But the reality is he has been playing Starcraft 2 instead of "working". It doesn't stop Edwin though: He won every race he entered after he stopped karting regularly. Saying one thing and does the other, just like any politician.

Lisa Garfield - "Oh, it's a small leak". It starts out from a simple sentence from Marshall Cone: "Lisa, your spindle is loose". It leads to replacement of a spindle, which leads to a seized front brake caliper, followed by a rear brake bleeding disaster, then turned into a completely corner weighing problem, which resulted to a four hour camber/caster/toe/camber/caster/toe camber/caster/toe/camber/caster/toe/camber/caster/toe adjustment session, then leads to a disastrous ride height adjustment session which leads to a busted spindle bearing on the side of the spindle that was working. This finally ended with Brian to announce: "I want my life back".

(No politician reference needed on this one)

Brian Garfield - "Suffered injuries that can't not be disclosed in public". This afternoon, Brian suffered an injury that we can not disclose in public. I can only summed up as a "typical politician injury".

Danny Kao - Always go left, having problem turning right. Danny is suffering a tweaked chassis so he can turn left very easily, but impossible to turn right. It's kind of fixed, but now my front end is all crooked it. Well, just like any politician.

This concludes the F125 injury/disabled report.

Danny Kao, WDCRSoloNats News.

Back again for 2010

The troop of bloggers will be back again this year to post the shenanigans and other important stuff from the Solo Nationals in Lincoln, Neb. The Pro Finale will be Sept. 4 and 5, with the regular Solo Nationals competition taking place Sept. 7 through 10.

With the deadline for the $150 entry fee passing yesterday (you can still register but the fee is now $300), it's time to look at who of the 1,170 entrants are from the WDCR and heading to Cornhusker land in three weeks:

Tuesday/Wednesday

BS
Pat Griffith, Pontiac Excitement Solstice GXP
Clyde Caplan, Mulletproof Corvette
Eric Kriemelmeyer, Solstice
Brendan Bengermino, Corvette

GS
Andrew Baker, Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V OMG WTF ASAP PDQ
Kenny Sorensen, ditto

STS
JohnV, Mazda Beer Keg
Ian Baker, Honda CRX

STU
Rod McGeorge, Subaru Impreza STi
Shane Chinonn-Rhoden, Subaru Impreza STi
Josh Luster, Subaru Impreza STi

STX
David Ogburn, Mini

Formula Weedwacker
Typhoon Danny, Swiss Hutless Toxic (WTF does that mean?)
Mike Kline, CRG Road Rebel (seriously, there are different karts?)
Edwin Liu, Tony Kart Krypton (they all look the same)
Brian Garfield, CTS Honda (like motorcycles or something)

Formula Weedwacker Ladies
Lisa Garfield, CTS Honda (a-ha, a duplicate)

Formula Junior Weedwacker-A
Julian Garfield, Arrow AX-9 4S (I think they make this up)

Formula Junior Weedwacker-B
Carson Garfield, CRG Cadet/KT100


Thursday/Friday

CS
Andy Thomas, Mazda RX-8
Robert Robeson, Mazda RX-8

CSL
Learic Cramer, Nissan 370Z

FS
Big Mike Snyder, Mustang of some flavor
Sam Strano, Mustang of some flavor
Terry Baker, Shelby Mustang
Lee Piccione, Shelby Mustang Kao-lifornia Special

FSL
Holly Schwedler, Shelby Mustang Kao-lifornia Special

ASP
Courtney Cormier, Chevy Corvette

SSM
Jason Becker, BMW M Coupe

Smurf
Brian Karwan, VTAAAK!
Little Mike Snyder, Honda Tartan

FSAE
Mike Cook, Terpmobile
Mike Stanley, Terpmobile


For the Pro Solo Finale, WDCR is r3pr3s3nt3d by:

FS
Mike Snyder
Sam Strano
Lee Piccione

GS
Andrew Baker
Kenny Sorensen

STS
JohnV
Ian Baker

ASP
Courtney Cormier

SSM
Jason Becker

Smurf
Brian Karwan

F125
Lisa Garfield
Mike Kline
Justin Neal
Brian Garfield

FJA
Julian Garfield

FJB
Carson Garfield

L1
Holly Schwedler
Learic Cramer

Be sure to check back during Solo Week!