SCCA Solo Nationals It is getting closer to the 2006 Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals - which starting this year will be held at Heartland Park Topeka (HPT) race track. Because it is a new venue and because it is very different from past Solo Nationals sites, there seems to be much speculation and many wild claims flying around the internet and Solo events around the nation. I hope to address some of these speculations and claims in this article.
I should probably also mention that Karen Babb and Kevin Youngers, arguably two of the nation's best Solo course designers, have been assigned as the Course Designers for the 2006 Solo Nationals. All of us arrived a day prior to the 2006 SCCA National Convention to visit the site for mapping and planning purposes. The following is taken from some excellent corre¬spondence recently received from Karen Babb, and I wholly agree with her observations and comments: "I have never seen this good of a blacktop surface anywhere. Very close to flat, very smooth. "The HPT site is logistically completely different from Forbes, "New-Salina", or "Old-Salina" in that the courses will in essence be side-by side with a "buffer zone" between them, making it somewhat conceptually akin to a typical Pro Solo layout, but rather larger. "Yes, the overall square footage available to each course is not what it was at Forbes, particularly in compari¬son to Forbes-North. However, it must be remembered that only a fraction of the Forbes area was actually usable. Typically layouts had to tiptoe among the land mines, trying to use the best (or least bad) of the available surface. Routes were constrained, as were in most cases widths and directions. The actual usable square footage was probably less than 25% of the total area at the North end. The need for overlap and separation had to be dealt with as the surface allowed. "At HPT there are no such issues. No grates, poles, peaks, valleys, holes, frost heaves, snakes, etc. So the course can be routed wherever it needs to as the desired elements and separation requirements dictate, not as the sur¬face dictates. This offers considerable freedom in what ele¬ments can be used, how they can be connected, and how they can be oriented, even within the constraints of needing the Start and Finish on a particular end of the available area. This type of openness makes possible the use of a variety of space-saving methods that can if necessary compensate for a somewhat smaller overall area. "The route length on my 2003 South course was approximately 3650 feet; available route lengths in prelimi¬nary sketches on the left side of the HPT pad have yielded lengths of 3500-4000 feet. It's largely a matter of being able to make the best use of the available space. Many details (e.g. Grid locations and ingress/egress points) have yet to be finalized, but it looks pretty good at this point. "It should be remembered that a very big complaint year after year from members at the Town Meeting was about the deteriorating Forbes surface. The move to HPT was largely driven by this input. It seems counter-productive for members to assume the worst about getting something they asked for, even before they see the actual hands-on results of the change. "At this point I'd just ask that people stay tuned and have a little faith in the event Chairman, the course design¬ers, the Nationals event officials team, and the National Staff to provide a Solo Nationals that won't beat their car to death, and will offer improvements they can all appreciate. Yes, it will be different. No, it won't be perfect. Yes, it will evolve. That's all fine with me." - Karen Babb I would like to add to her comments that holding the Solo Nationals at a purpose built race facility, instead of a location designed and meant for other uses, really makes a positive impression. Everything at the site is about racing and competition. This means that HPT has erected buildings designed solely to function for the needs of automotive com¬petition. For example, the scales are permanently mounted and located inside tech/impound building - out of the weath¬er. There are real toilets (flushies!), a paddock wide public address system, garages for rent, a registration building/park¬ing lot that is on the way in. There is also a beautiful track that surrounds the paddock and Solo course area. Who knows - there may even be cars running the track while we are there! All of this adds greatly to the overall competitive feeling and gives credibility to what we do. It only seems fit¬ting that the Solo Nationals be held in a purpose built race facility instead of a parking lot - a place where the Nation's best will compete for a chance to earn their 2006 Solo National Championships. If I may steal a line from Karen's correspondence above, I think it is worth repeating: "Yes, it will be different. No, it won't be perfect. Yes, it will evolve. That's all fine with me." See you at the 2006 Solo Nationals Roger H. Johnson (Houston, TX) Solo Nationals Event Chairperson Chuck McAbee SEDIV #16 The above letter was scaned from Washington DC Region 'Straighpipe" _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
