Due to the very high interests for our Test and Tune and Spring Fun Event #1, we are trying something a little different for this event registration.
The Registration for the Spring Fun Event 2 and PE1 will be opening on Friday, Mar. 19 at 8PM.
Registration will be on “https://cincyscca.motorsportreg.com”
This Fun Event will have limited cap of 75 entries to ensure plenty of runs for all entrants, so please register early!
If you select the 2 day registration and are placed on the waitlist for the Saturday fun event, your entry is confirmed for PE1 (unless PE1 were already sold out as well). Please note even though you have a confirmed registration for Sunday Points Event #1, your name will not appear on the entry list due to MSR limitations. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Welcome to the 2021 Cincinnati Region Solo Season!
Registration is now open for our Season Opener Test and Tune (Sat. Apr.10) and Spring Fun Event (Sun. Apr.11), on CincySCCA.MotorsportReg.com.
Test and Tune is a VERY LIMITED ENTRY event, and will sell out very fast! If you plan to attend, please register soon!!
If you are placed on waitlist, your will hear from us the day after registration closed for your entry status, depending on if there are any cancellation or not. There will be no walk up registration for this event.
When you register, you can sign up for the speed waiver (Online Waiver). Please register with your cellphone number, and you will receive a text message to complete the waiver process. Please have the completed speed waiver page (or screenshot) ready when you arrive at the waiver gate on the vent day. You must sign new speed waiver for each event weekend.
Please remember you must be 18 or older to sign speed waiver. If you are a minor, please see the waiver requirement on registration page carefully, and compete your minor waiver. If you have any questions, please contact us.
I cannot believe it is almost March, that means we are 5, make that FIVE weeks from our first event!!! Registration will be opening soon thanks to the Great and Powerful Tact. (I know, I promised two paragraphs of praise, but one line is really enough…)
The 2021 solo schedule has solidified a bit, with the Starting Line now being July 10th meaning the Autocross 101 will be Aug 21st. The SCCA national office has recently added three more national level events to the 2021 schedule, including the Toledo Pro. Check out the area schedule at the bottom of our 2021 schedule page to see when other neighboring region/club events are, national level events, CAM events, etc.
We are planning a solo trailer cleaning/organizing party the weekend of March 27-28, watch for details on the fb solo page. We are investigating the possibility of holding an annual tech inspection that same day for those who qualify to come early and get their car tech’d so they don’t have to wait in line at our first few events. Remember, that doesn’t mean your car doesn’t need tech’d before each event, it means you need to check it before the event.
Great news, we are working with a local asphalt company to investigate professional repairs to the bad parts of the lot which have been developing over the past few years. Will let you know more as we do.
Lastly, we are planning a solo committee meeting, probably by zoom one evening, day and time tbd.
Holy heck, I cannot believe it’s February already!!! We are nearly two (2!!!) months from our first event of the 2021 Cincy Solo season. If you haven’t seen our Facebook solo page posts or our website, our 2021 dates are fairly well set. I am happy to let everyone know we will be returning to Traders World International Speedway. Things could change as SCCA schedules additional National Championship Tours or ProSolos in the area, but so far our dates still seems good. I say that, but as you will see we still need to confirm the Starting Line date with SCCA and confirm the Evolution Performance Driving School events.
2021 SCCA National Convention
Hopefully you have been able to attend the various solo related topics from the SCCA National Convention virtually via Whova and possibly other non-solo sessions. There have been a number of interesting topics such as the Junior Driver Program, Course Design, SCCA Solo Safety Steward training, etc. Sessions continue through Feb 21st. Along that line, Cincy will submit a package to be considered one of the 5 to 10 regions the national office will use as trial regions across the country. Please let me know if you are interested/planning to bring junior drivers to our events in 2021 so I can give SCCA a feel for how strong of a Jr Driver Program we would have. Thank you to all of you who took the SSS training, also please let me know if you did.
2020 Year End Trophies
If you were identified as a 2020 Cincy Solo Championship Series solo trophy winner, I have tried to contact you via the email address you or phone number you have used to register for our events in MotorsportReg. If you have not seen those, please go and check. We are offering a number of choices of trophies: A plaque with an embossed photo of your choosing; an embroidered backpack, duffel bag, two-color jacket, or hooded jacket. We are also offering the opportunity for you to purchase any of the additional items at cost, $38. Many of you have already answered, I have finalized the additional ordering process, you will be able to place your order for additional items directly through the Solo Performance Specialties (SPS) website. I am still trying to figure out when/how we can present them safely since we had to cancel the Awards Program, but worst case they will be available at the first event. Direct shipping can be made at an additional cost.
Interested in ordering Cincy SCCA Apparel?
Even if you didn’t win a trophy last year, you can still purchase a trophy, duffel bag, backpack, or jacket with your name and Cincy SCCA logo embroidered on it. Heck, you can even get your finishing position on whatever you choose too. They can be shipped to me and delivered at events or at separate meetings or can be shipped direct at an additional cost.
Solo Planning for 2021
Lastly, we are planning to have a solo planning meeting in the Feb/Mar timeframe to discuss plans for 2021. If you are interested in helping us guide/plan the future of making Cincy Solo be the best and most fun it can be for everyone, contact me and I will make sure you are invited. You two can be part of the solo committee. Part of the plans include replacement of our Cincy SCCA trailer, possibly with a motorized vehicle, upgrade to timing/scoring, event trophies, event flow, etc.
Time for the final solo report of 2020. Going to keep it simple.
Thanks for a fantastic 2020 Cincy SCCA Solo season! As you’ve undoubtedly heard, a tough and correct decision was made to put the health of our competitors and their families ahead of getting together en mass for a formal banquet on Feb 1. Plans to celebrate and present trophies by a safe and alternate means are being worked. An announcement on 2020 Year-End Solo trophies will be coming out shortly.
In the meantime, we have a very tentative, draft schedule listed on our website along with a local area schedule of other major events. The dates are subject to change and out there for comment. Please go review the schedule and let me know if you have additional information or corrections.
I made the first part of this as a post a week ago or so after our last points event but feel it’s worth repeating.
I want to take this moment to say “Thank you!!!” to all the entrants and your family/friends who made this season not only possible, but in my opinion, very successful. Thank you!!!
It certainly started off shakily with COVID-19 constraints where we weren’t confident we would even have a single event. As the state started opening things back up, working closely with the city, the police, and county health dept. we were able to host our first events on Jun 6/7 – a mere nine weeks later than planned. Of course we had to tweak how we did things, like pre-register prepay only, no loaner helmets, online SpeedWaiver, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, “water boy” position, etc. – some which may become permanent as they worked so well and some of which I hope go away period. With all your help in practicing social distancing, wearing facial coverings, etc. we were able to complete our 2020 season successfully with all eight (8) points events (incl two make-ups), a T&T, the Southwestern Ohio Autocross Challenge, a Novice 101 school, and the Great Lake Solo Series events.
I also want to personally thank the Solo Committee for all your help in crafting this season, volunteering your time, making it happen, and having it go so well. Without you it wouldn’t have been so successful. Thank yous go out to:
Anthony Bodnarik, Rob Clark, John Custer, Jo Dziengel, Myke Dziengel, Bill Hughes, Nick Isaac, Nick Maludy, Shari McCoy, Tom Mills, Mark Minge, Terry Prand, Nathan Roberts, Dan Steele, Tact Takagi, Glenn Thompson, Jim Zeisler, and Krzysztof Zielinski.
Thank yous also go out to others who are not on the committee but also volunteered their time working hard to making this go well, such as: Nicole Clary, Ashley Ervin, Christian Moist, Danny Popp, Ben Weaver, and a few others I’m sure I’m missing and will kick myself for not remembering once I post this.
To step back a bit, we had two events in Oct to end the 2020 Championship points season. First was Points Event 8, normally the last points event of the season. We had 156 entrants and were able to get everyone five runs. Unfortunately for those running fourth heat the r-stuff came about an hour earlier than forecasted so both they and the course workers had less than favorable conditions to say the least. The course was not a “normal” course for Traders World as it had a near counter-clockwise loop off the start, a fast-flowing set of three cone walloms along the back, and two big 180 sweepers to the finish. Thanks go to John Custer, Jo Dziengel, and Tact Takagi for the inspiration. As far as results: the top 3 cars on PAX were all Hondas (Chris Rudy, Dave Rudy, Jack Burns); the top 7 on PAX were DS, GS, and CS; and top raw time went to Kumar Viswalingam in his SSM Miata. Closest battle was in the 10 entry CS class with Shari McCoy edging Charles Totten by a mere 0.012 secs.
Photo courtesy of Fan Shen
Our last points event was originally intended to be a fun event but instead became a make-up for Points Event 2. This one had 157 entrants braving the cold weather for one last dance. The course finished the season with another great albeit atypical course, this one a vision (hallucination) of Danny Popp’s which seemed to favor those who enjoyed 180s. In this case, the top ten (10!) cars on index were street class cars (HS, DS, and HS) with Chris Rudy edging out Jack Burns and James Rector (the lone HS car in the top 10). The top five in raw were headed by Paul Curley in the borrows LS powered FRS of Joel Spitsnaugel, Marshall Reinert setting the time to beat in the first heat and holding until the fourth, Terry Prand in his STU Golf, Bill Hughes in his new CAM-S Corvette, and Austin Adams in his SSM Miata. In class battles, there were quite a few where the margin of victory was 0.103 secs or less, such as SSM, STX, SMF, CAM-C, Novice All Other, Street Open, and Pro. However, the closest was the battle of the Matts in STX where Matt Fuller edged Matt Davis by 0.010 secs.
photo courtesy of Fan Shen
Now, onto new stuff:
IFF (if and only iff) the weather is nice and we have enough entrants, we have added a year end fun event for next weekend on Nov 8. Registration is open, hopefully the weather is great!
Year end points are posted and should be updated soon with final trophy positions indicated. Stay tuned, but here’s the link. Congrats to all! Not sure what the year end trophies will be, one year they were plaques with embossed pictures of the competitor’s choosing with 3D add-ons, one year it was a choice of jacket or duffel bag, last year it was a cool wooden/plexiglass trophy. Open to suggestions.
As many of you have seen, we are likely to establish sound limits next year to address the many complaints we’ve gotten over the past couple years and protect our fellow competitors hearing. We measured sound levels at our past few events and posted them for full disclosure so no one feels targeted. No idea what the sound level will be but due to the site geometry and higher ambient noise levels it will be higher than the standard SCCA levels. If we can hold the fun event we will measure sounds there too if possible.
There will also be many other behind the scenes improvements you may or may not notice like probably a different timing software.
The 2020 season, although certainly unique has been a lot of fun. I can’t wait to celebrate this season at the Awards Banquet on Feb 1st and for the 2021 season!
September was a crazy month for our autocross program, with our Southwestern Ohio Autocross Challenge (SOAC) event on Sept 5 & 6 and our Great Lakes Solo Series events on Sept 19 & 20.
Southwestern Ohio Autocross Challenge (SOAC), Sept 5 & 6
When the SCCA National Championships were cancelled, there was an opportunity to host an event so all of us who would normally be making the 14 hr trek to Lincoln had something to take our minds off of missing them. We posted a survey on our Facebook page and people not only loved the idea but also had some great suggestions, one of which was to incorporate a challenge bracket. Sep 5 & 6 seemed like the perfect weekend except MVSCC had an event scheduled that weekend so after discussing options with them, we chose to host a combined event. MVSCC used each day as separate points events for them, Cincy was a non-points, combined-time, two-day event, and Sunday was to include a 32 driver challenge bracket based on top 10 or so pax positions from each of the heats on Sunday. Saturday we had 116 entrants and were able to get everyone seven (7) runs. Sunday we had 114 entrants and got everyone five (5 runs) with plans to run the challenge. Unfortunately, we had our timing/scoring software crash during the 3rd heat which erased most of the first heat runs and corrupted many others. As a result we had to cancel the challenge brackets but opened the course for fun runs. Due to Herculean efforts by Myke Dziengel and Mike Wolf, results were finally reconstructed about the time we had to leave the site. All in all, even with the disappointment of not being able to hold the challenge, everyone had a great time. Look forward to redoing the challenge in the future.
Great Lakes Solo Series (GLSS) Events, Sept 19 & 20
We had the ninth and tenth events of the GLSS scheduled early on, but with Nationals being cancelled the national office and various regions worked together to schedule a number of Championship Tours and ProSolos across the country in Sept, Oct, and Nov. Unfortunately, a Championship Tour was scheduled opposite our event in Toledo. We explored various options for moving the event date but in the end chose to leave it as scheduled for the many competitors who had bookmarked this weekend and wouldn’t be able to change it. Unfortunately that meant we lost a number of competitors and key members of our solo committee. That said, our other committee members and other volunteers stepped up to make things go off extremely well. We had 113 drivers on Sat and 165 on Sunday after turning away another 15 or more who had registered on the waitlist hoping to get in. Event went very well, we were able to get everyone 6 runs on Sat and five runs on Sunday with entrants getting back on the road by 4:00 or 4:30. We have been asked to repeat in 2021 with the finale events if possible. We had great support from our series sponsors. Continental Motorsports returned after being away the Labor Day weekend providing fantastic on-site support for all your racing goodies, helmets, gauges, etc. AutocrossDigits was there providing many number sets for and free GLSS sticker shaped magnetic vinyl cut outs our competitors. Summit Racing also came on board as a series sponsor and provided many door prize goodies!
October events
Points Event #8 is this coming Sunday, Oct 4. As of right now, we have 160 entrants with 16 on the waitlist even with temperatures forecast to be in the 50s and potential for rain. We will obviously see how it goes, but should be a great time.
Our last event for 2020 will be Oct 25, it was a fun event but now will be a points event, and count as Points Event #2. Entries have not hit the cap yet, but you can almost certainly count on it happening by Oct 18 so register early. If you have registered and it turns out you cannot make it, please go into MSR and cancel so others on the waitlist can make it in. https://cincyscca.motorsportreg.com/
2020 Cincy Championship Series Point Standings
Finally, our 2020 Cincy Championship Series Year-End Points are posted to the website. You need a minimum of four (4) events to qualify and your best five (5) count toward year end points. Trophies are primarily based on how many drivers qualify in the class along with some solo chair discretion to account for things like extremely close battles. Last year we awarded 63 trophies at our “Year End” Banquet – Look for future announcements, should be in the Feb 2021 timeframe. http://cincyscca.com/autocross/2020-solo-schedule-results/
