Brady Dohrmann – SCCA Solo National Championships Intro and Sunday
SCCA Solo National Championships
Intro & Sunday Practice Day
Welcome to the first edition of what will hopefully be a stream of updates from my trip to Kansas, where IÂ’m participating in the SCCA Solo National Championship event. For those of you out of the loop (pretty much everyone due to my lack of communication mostly!), I am in Topkea for a week, covering the national championship event for Modified Magazine and will be writing a feature article about all the happenings. That of course means, yes, I have to compete in order to get the full effect of what it means to participate in the national championships, so I dragged my Acura Integra Type R 1200 miles across the United States to help out with that part. On Friday morning running about four hours later than planned (welcome to racing, everyone) I jumped on the freeway and took off.
The Type R, stuffed with stuff. I stuffed the Integra with six Hankook Z214 race tires, a suitcase, air tank, toolbox, parts, chairs, a car cover and three different cameras to use for my Modified Mag article. Aside from a few strange moments along the way on Highway 54 (see the below picture), the drive up was rather uneventful. Driving along at 4500rpm in the Type R with a noisy muffler didnÂ’t do any favors for my hearing ability, but the ringing has finally stopped, on Sunday, with a day or two to recover before doing it all over again!
Sunday Practice day at Heartland Park
The first event of the Solo National championships was the Sunday practice day at Heartland Park (HPT). Since this is my first time at HPT for the Solo Nationals, I decided to arrive in Topeka early and run the practice day to get acclimated with the surface, the ype R which I have limited Solo seat time in, and the Hankook Z214 tires. Starting at 5am on Sunday was no field trip by any means. As if driving for 15 hours the day before wasnÂ’t tiring enough, Sunday started before the sun came up, and ended well after it went down. Before I left for this trip, many friends hassled me for this little vacation I’m on in Topeka. I donÂ’t know about you, but a daily schedule like this wake up at 5am, change wheels/tires on the Type R, walk the Solo course for 45 minutes, stand in the sun and work for an hour, drive in the practice day, walk around and take pictures for the magazine article, change the wheels/tires back, walk the next days course, go back to hotel and download 400 pictures, work on the article, eat dinner, do homework back at the hotel, check work emails, and so on is no fun, let me tell you. It’s work to be here.
The weather on Sunday was horrible: raining, temperatures in the 50-60deg range, heavy winds, overcast.. walking outside to get in the car was bad enough. I was getting confused at this point, because it was 80-90deg the day before. I spent a few hours in the morning going through tech inspection, registration and putting about 20 stickers on the exterior of the Integra. Let me tell you – good results or not, the Acura Integra Type R #72 sure looks fast!
Starting grid area Since the weather was so bad, accordingly, the track surface at Heartland Park was no treat either. After watching a few cars slip and slide around, I told myself, “Oh, those guys just canÂ’t drive, that wonÂ’t me be!” On my first lap in the Type R, I spun out. Partially due to the brand new Hankooks that needed to be scrubbed in, the surface itself was terrible and it was covered in gravel from the ProSolo events the week before. Surprisingly, I managed to get some heat in the tires after just one run and the car gradually improved. I did a total of three practice runs and really didn’t gain anything from it due to the weather conditions, but the Hankooks were scrubbed in and ready to go for the competition days on Tuesday and Wednesday. After my runs were finished, Brian Peters jumped in the Type R for a lap so I could take some pictures for the magazine piece. Other than that, Sunday was pretty uneventful day.
Monday was a day off for the Solo National. Most everyone will be at the HPT site walking around the course, then attending the Evolution driving school in the evening. Competition for my class, D-Stock, starts on Tuesday around noon. I will have an update once Tuesday is finished. See you next time!
-Brady
Here are the links:
1. “Roof Cam” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnV7VxLbcOI
2. “Wheel Cam” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIRKSPW3c8M
3. “Driver Cam” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_1Rc6JmtaY
