Monday, September 17, 2012

Gratz to NER nationals winners!

The big dance in the world of autocross is the SCCA Solo National Championship. It's the largest competition in all of motorsports, with over 1200 competitors. It happens every year. I dream of going go even though my car isn't very well prepared for the class. Ok in my dreams my car IS well prepared, but nevermind...

Any one can enter, but nationals is held in Lincoln Nebraska.

Unfortunately that makes it very unlikely that I will get to go any time soon. It's almost 24 hours of driving to get there, and driving my car that far would generate a huge amount of wear and tear on my car (not to mention my butt!). The alternative is to trailer it, and I have neither a trailer nor a tow vehicle, and that will also add 50% to the gasoline costs. Gas alone is likely to run almost $400 each direction. Plus a fresh set of hoosiers is $1000, plus taking time off of work that competes with my wife's desire to go on vacations is a problem... all of which adds up to "not likely to happen any time soon".

However, it's still fun to dream and to root for the folks I know who went, and so here's the list of folks who won trophies this year.

Place Class Name Car
1 SMF Bryan Mancuso 1993 Honda CRX
1 SML Lana Tsurikova 1995 BMW M3
2 BS Nick Barbato 2008 Honda S2000 CR
2 CS Bud Collins 2007 Pontiac Solstice ZOK*
2 ES Eric Chiang 1993 Honda CRX
2 FS Mark Daddio 2012 Ford Mustang
2 SM David White 1995 Nisan 240SX
2 RTA Andrew Barrette 2011 Subaru WRX
3 SSL Stephanie Zadrozny 2003 Corvette Z06
3 DSP Nathan Whipple 1993 BMW 325is
3 SMF Don Kuehl 1993 Honda CRX
3 AM William Goodale 1998 Dragon F1
4 AS Paul Kozlak 1999 Chevrolet Corvette
4 BSP Hank Wallace 1995 BMW M3
5 STS Ben Wagstaff 1991 Mazda Miata
5 CSP Billy Davis 1999 Mazda Miata
5 SM PJ Corrales 1995 Nissan 240SX
6 DS Todd Kean 2011 Subaru WRX
7 SS Grant Reeve 2003 Corvette Z06

Wow! 19 trophies to NER!! and, yes.. the little blue CRX won two of them. It's a fast car. That much is now proven. And the driver is also a national trophy winner. Makes me feel a little bit better about getting beat by him. It will also make it that much more special when I finally start beating them....

Ok, so that's also not going to happen very soon either, especially given the cost of adding the required upgrades. Hey, If I can dream of going to nationals, I can dream of that too can't I?

Oh and how awesome is a sport where you can race against the best in the country any time you want... Imagine being able to play basketball with Kobe anytime you wanted, or stepping up to the line to measure yourself against Usain Bolt...

Only in autocross. Just show up, and you can race against whomever you like!