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!