i'm looking to do solo II on a national level. do i have to compete at national events in order to be elligible for the runoffs at Topeka? are the national events specific for each region? how does all of this work?

thanks!

 

http://www.scca.com/amateur/so....html

 

national tours all you have to do is pay your entry fee and be a member.

topeka you just have to run a divisional or national tour during the year. if not I think there is just an extra fee you have to pay.

 

there are ZERO requirements other than a valid driver's license.

 

Money is also nice to have. I myself would only consider national events if I thought I had a good chance of being super competitive. I think I have an excellent chance so I go; in fact I'm going to Phoenix for the national tour as #37STS. National events are usually arenas where the best of the best congregrate. This is just my opinion and I realize that one could go to national events and have loads of fun.

 

Tours have no requirements but the championship in Topeka requires one national event being completed. There's not too much required (which is part of the reason Solo II is such a great grassroots sport). Here are some things to expect if you want to compete nationally...

-A Good car will certainly help. You only hear of a handleful of drivers (all great) that are able to win in underprepared cars.

-Be able to get it done in 3 runs. No fun runs, practice or 5+ runs here. Be quick (and clean) on your first run that keep going faster!

-The courses will be more challenging, faster and most likely longer then any local club.

-Tours will have have a high pecentage of good drivers. Some of these drivers travel all over the country to attend these events. Topeka? Everyone there is after a trophy assuming they can't take home a class championship.

-Except for an occasional bad seed the friendliness and comradarie is strong at these events... You'll start looking forward to Nationals in september to see that one friend you only see once a year and just trade e-mails and phone calls with for the remaining 51 weeks out of the year.

Basicly... not much required, but it'll take alot of hard work and dedication to do well. The rewards and emotional payout for attending these events is incredible. The scope of these events (especially the championship) is incredible comprared to what is experienced on a local level...

2002 National Championships...



EDIT : Almost forgot the most important thing... have fun!


Modified by Watkinsm3 at 11:05 AM 1/14/2004

 

I dunno man, but we had 4 people from our club just show up to Topeka and they never did any Tour events. In fact for 3 of them, it was the first time at ANY SCCA event. AFAIK, all they needed was to get an SCCA membership and they competed and brought back two trophies...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jsi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I dunno man, but we had 4 people from our club just show up to Topeka and they never did any Tour events. In fact for 3 of them, it was the first time at ANY SCCA event. AFAIK, all they needed was to get an SCCA membership and they competed and brought back two trophies...</TD></TR></TABLE>

You can show up at Topeka without any prior events if you pay a fee. I think it's $90.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by maxQ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

You can show up at Topeka without any prior events if you pay a fee. I think it's $90.

</TD></TR></TABLE>Yep.. pay the extra fee. That's all you need.

To me, $90 is cheaper than $300 for the DC tour from MA. Towing, gas, toll, room, food.

 

True... I forgot about the fee extra fee. My bad.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Watkinsm3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Tours have no requirements but the championship in Topeka requires one national event being completed. There's not too much required (which is part of the reason Solo II is such a great grassroots sport). Here are some things to expect if you want to compete nationally...

-A Good car will certainly help. You only hear of a handleful of drivers (all great) that are able to win in underprepared cars.

-Be able to get it done in 3 runs. No fun runs, practice or 5+ runs here. Be quick (and clean) on your first run that keep going faster!

-The courses will be more challenging, faster and most likely longer then any local club.

-Tours will have have a high pecentage of good drivers. Some of these drivers travel all over the country to attend these events. Topeka? Everyone there is after a trophy assuming they can't take home a class championship.

-Except for an occasional bad seed the friendliness and comradarie is strong at these events... You'll start looking forward to Nationals in september to see that one friend you only see once a year and just trade e-mails and phone calls with for the remaining 51 weeks out of the year.

Basicly... not much required, but it'll take alot of hard work and dedication to do well. The rewards and emotional payout for attending these events is incredible. The scope of these events (especially the championship) is incredible comprared to what is experienced on a local level...

EDIT : Almost forgot the most important thing... have fun!


Modified by Watkinsm3 at 11:05 AM 1/14/2004</TD></TR></TABLE>

i do pretty well with long courses and few runs. but i guess that's what autocross is all about.

this past season i was faster than a friend of mine that goes to nationals, which is what gave me the idea to look into running at the nationals myself. i'm not sure if i have the money to be competitive, or if my car would be competitive since i drive it every day. i have a feeling it would be underprepared, but i'd still like to give it a shot.

what about sponsership? are lots of people at nationals sponsored?

thanks for all the input!

those courses look so sweet btw. you can actually see people walking the course line in the last one.

 

Only a small percentage of people are actually sponsored. Most of the people in autocross that are sponsored have done real well at Nationals in the past.

I would recommend going to a local National Tour. The events are run the same as Nationals, so you can get a feel for how they work. I don't know how your events are locally, but the Tour events also give you a look at the type of course you'll see in Topeka.

Mainly it's about having a great time, and meeting new people. Even if you don't do well, you'll have a blast.