Gonna be some good competition this weekend. NJ always makes for some great courses since they have so much space and the best drivers in the northeast never disappoints. The s2000 highlights:

STR: Looks like we'll have 25 people in class by my count, with some really good drivers. Apparently GJ Dixon, the reigning long time SSR national champion, will be in the class driving a fully prepped CR on bridgestones, he will probably be the one to beat. Brian Karwan is another former national champion. Mark Dudek is a crazy fast dude who usually has car issues but now driving Rad's well set up s2k he will be a dark horse for sure. Lots of other people who could take the win as well, hopefully I'll be one of those people.

I'm going to be trying to figure out tires...all 3 of those guys I mentioned will be on re71r, which I just got and mounted, I've been using rival s. So have to decide whether to gamble on just swapping the tires without any TnT or scrubbing (and also lose potential BFG contingency), or gamble that the BFGs aren't equal and that I'm giving up something by being on the rival. Right now I'm thinking I'll just do the bridgestones since that will be the least likely thing to leave me with excuses . Then I can do a proper tire comparison after the pro.

BS: This will be fun as well with Nate Young in an s2k in BS which is the car I drove at the national championships last year and Nate is very fast, vs Evan S who is fast in his corvette (he was a former STR driver), vs the Kozlaks in their corvette.

AS: A few fast s2k drivers here with Hezron and Noel, but again we've got some heavy hitting former national champs Mark Daddio and Jr Johnson in corvettes so they're gonna be tough to take down.

BSP: Probably the best BSP car in the country will be codriven by steguis and daverx7. They'll probably get bumped but still will be fun to watch.

This is one I'd watch on ustream/sololive if I wasn't going to be there

 

^^ Great summary! Im saddened that I wont be in STR this year but like Jon mentioned there are some notable drivers in AS. Also other drivers representing in AS with their s2k's will be Jeremy Prati and Tim Kong. Andrew Kessel is another AS driver that is insanely quick and have shown great speed in his Cayman S. Pretty much everyone in AS will be on Stones with the exception of me, Noel and Jr Johnson. Noel will be on Z2's and ill be on Rs3v2's. All different set ups ranging from fully prepapared AS trim to me being almost fully stock with the exception of the front bar.

The STR battle is gonna be intense. It's still a toss up for me, I'm expecting a Caserta flyer run as always.

BSP will surely get indexed

 

Just got a text about GJ jumping in. Sounds like it'll be a blast .

I've never had particularly good luck at NJ, and missed my chance to get some setup time on the surface earlier this year, so almost anything could happen from my end. Lots of talent in the class too. Like Jon said, lots of people that can win, and several people who would probably have jackets if they ran softer classes. I was worried STR was softening up significantly this year with some key departures, but it looks like that's not gonna be the case.

 

Good luck !

 

I'm glad someone made a post about the NJ Pro Solo! It's one of the best SCCA Solo National Series competitions in the country each year, since there is a deep hub of national competitors from DC to New England that all make the trek to slug it out in the huge MetLife stadium tarmac. If there any s2kir's that haven't seen what a national level Pro-Solo competition (Think Drag Strip Tree Start + Mirrored Side-by-Side Courses + Normal "Higher Speed" autocross) is all about, I would highly recommend stopping by sometime Saturday/Sunday to check it out, particularly to check out STR and some of the other large classes. It's exciting to watch and I will (hopefully) be doing the live announcing with a detailed analysis of the battle as it all goes down. By my count, there are at least 7 guys that have a real shot at the win, which I'm sure will be decided (as usual) by couple tenths of second at most! Really great stuff it will be

I have hung up my STR helmet and traded it in for a codrive in an STU Prepped 2008 350z. I'll be battling it out with another multi-time Pro-Solo champion Sam Strano in his c5 Corvette, and Martin Kriz in a sick Subari STI. Will be a lot of fun!

Jon: I think you should throw on those 71R's and give them a couple of Caserta fliers

 

haha thanks Nick. Yeah I've decided we'll at least put them on for Tory's runs (she's 1st driver, running open class). Assuming she doesn't come back saying the car is a complete mess I'll run them too. I don't want to have doubt in my mind that the bridgestones are faster so for this event I'll just follow the herd.

I've gotten used to turning super early since the rival s takes some time to get off its ass and do stuff, so I'm just hoping I don't take out all the cones from turning too early

 

Are spectators allowed?

Are all the classes intermingled or is there a time when the A/S, B/S, and STR classes run?

Jon: isn't the Rival S vs RE71r decision a matter of whether you need an edge? If everyone is on RE71rs that is not a factor. If you have the Rival S and they turn out to be a bit slower, not good. However, if they turn out to be a bit better...wouldn't that me what was called in the Penske/Donohue days the "Unfair Advantage". It would start a national trend with your name attached.

 

Spectators are allowed.

Just like a normal autox it's split into heats by class. We learn the heat order tomorrow. Each class runs a total of 3 times - once sat morning, once sat afternoon, once sun morning. Then there's a 32 car bracket challenge sunday afternoon with classes intermingled.

Also there are live results at http://sololive.scca.com/ and there's an audio broadcast there as well. The heat order will also be posted there.

There are a few factors in the tire decision:
1) Contingency prizes. BFG pays 2 tires for a class win and potentially another 2 tires for the challenge win. Bridgestone doesn't give anything for prosolo for some reason (They do pay prize money for national tours and the championships).
2) The fact that my car is already tuned for the rival and we're used to them
3) Honestly I think it's extremely unlikely that the BFG is faster than the bridgestone, at least at the metlife lot, based on early results at local events. However I do think it's quite possible the bridgestone is faster than the BFG by a few tenths, or possibly they're equal, or somewhere in between.

It's much more important to me to not be at a disadvantage than to gamble on potentially having an advantage. Therefore it's clear to me now I need to run the stones. It's possible we'll be testing and tuning the early heats but with 12 total runs I'm pretty confident we can get it figured out.

 

I'll watch for the heat order.

It just seems that a strong BFG finish would make more of a statement.

Will the Miata's be strong or do the Pro Solo courses place too much of an emphasis on power? I think there are also 3 MR2 Spyders.

 

The miatas are indeed a fierce competitor and so are the MR2 spyders. first heat runs start at 9 am. you should come by and check it out.