OOPS! Bill G launches one with Tom Saunders in the background

This year SFRE was finally back at the Solo Nationals. After 2 years of the championships being back to back with the Runoffs, SCCA granted us an extra week of space between these two events. This meant that there was time to drive to Topeka not just once, but twice! Ho,hum, just your normal 3000 mile commute.

To get us to the track and help our customers, we had a larger trailer than usual, graciously lent to us by Solo stalwart Mark Chessick. This meant that we had the space to transport the over 1000 lbs of customer gear that let other NER drivers compete at the big dance. That’s right folks….850 lbs of race car and 1000 lbs of additional cargo.

Bob Barone and I made the trip to Topeka ahead of the Hurricane predictions and just after the Biblical rains that the Pro Solo had to contend with (8+” of rain in 24 hours!). Sunday saw us trying out the car on the Heartland surface for the first time on one of the previous Pro courses. Things were OK, but the cold and windy conditions meant very little total bite, diminishing some of usefulness of the session.

Monday was open, while Tuesday and Wednesday were for watching and cheering for SFRE customers and NER drivers. Nick and Joe Barbato were sampling their very first National and showed good speed in AS and CS classes. Barb Seegar barely made it to the site for Monday, but after a good night’s sleep trophied 2nd in ASL with her honking Corvette.

Thursday was the first day of Competition for Amod, Bmod and Cmod, with the Amod guys drawing the short stick and running the West course in the first “heat”. With the sun barely up, the temps were low, making Amod a “last run” competition for perennial NER fast guy Bill Goodale in his Dragon F1.

Bmod was decent sized even though there were no open wheel cars at all. Sports racers dominated the field with two Runoffs DSR escapees in the mix. The Dragon Sr2 and Charlie Smith’s Cheetah will both see Topeka twice this year at SCCA Solo Championships and The Runoffs.

Second Heat East was the spot to start Bmod. This was one of the area’s that the pro solo and the warm event used, but by the time we ran it the surface had changed, so that the balance we had on Sunday was gone. Big time push was the order of the day. Time to scramble and adjust the setup! Each run was better for both Bob and I but on my last run I got to the finish area to find a corner worker jumping up and down waving a cone wildly. Unusual technique, but it got my attention! The previous car had a suspension failure in the run off area and was dead in the water. When I stopped the car I stalled it and it was reluctant to restart, meaning that Tom Saunders (Dragon Sr1) also got a rerun. This would be a big help to his championship run. TS went out and did what we all try to do with an extra run, trimming off about a second, putting him way out front in class. Final trophy positions on Wednesday were Saunders, Simonds, Berger and Starr.

Friday morning was once again crisp and clear with Amod and Bmod swapping courses. The West, Roger Johnson course, used a little more space and was a good mix of corners, slaloms and speed changes.

By this time we had the chassis in the Sr2 working on the unusual pavement and went fast right away. When the smoke had cleared the final order was Tom Saunders (Dragon Sr1), Clemens Berger (Legrand MK18 with Dragon mods), Perry Simonds (Dragon Sr1) and Bill Gendron (Dragon Sr2). Bmod ladies was won by Brianne Corn in T Saunders’ Dragon Sr1 making a clean sweep of all Bmod trophies for Small Fortune Racing!

Champion Once More: Tom Saunders

SFRE drivers Jim Garry, Ken Hurd and Stacey Strout all competed in Cmod with Jim repeating as National Champion! Ken had a fine 2nd place finish in Jim’s Citation .

Two time Cmod National Champion Jim Garry

Ready for the track at LRP

Mid August was the first time SCCA national racers got to sample the new pavement at Lime Rock Park. After years of lines that avoided the bumps, drivers could now charge the track. Lap records fell in DSR, FE, FF and F500.

SFRE had missed the Watkins Glen race (held in a downpour) due to a last minute engine event that had us dropping in the newly freshened “backup” power plant. Even though the field for DSR was small, I had high hopes for our overall performance and looked forward to running with Bob Gardner’s WF1 Stohr.

After a good qualifying day on Friday, rain fell on Saturday, but fortunately stopped at about 1 PM. The start of the Wings ‘n Things race saw cool, cloudy conditions, which improved as the race progressed. Big excitement on the first lap at Turn 3 saw a couple cars get knocked out and the Dragon Sr2 getting shuffled back a couple of spots in the chaos. As soon as the track went green again, we were back on the move towards the front and had a good race with two open wheel cars. In the end the new lap record was set at 51.9 seconds.

Soter Slomski & Bill Gendron celebrate the new Record with some bubbles!

Next race is the Double National at Pocono.