Solo Report

Wow, can’t believe it is already October!

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.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Loewe Photography

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/

Kent Weaver
Cincy SCCA Solo Chair