Post by jbyrd on Mar 7, 2006 0:37:15 GMT -5
Happy Birthday, CCR Solo!
On this day 30 years ago, March 7, 1976, a field of 24 cars lined up at Carowinds for the first ever CCR Autocross conducted under SCCA’s Solo (Solo2) rules. To be sure, CCR had autocrossed for many years (at the time referred to as “Slaloms”), but this was the first event where the SCCA rule book was official.
The low number of entries was not a sign of the times, but rather a sign of confusion regarding the rules which changed the way we had done things for years. We had autocrossed under our own rules to that point, and they were radically different from SCCA rules. At first, everyone involved did not give a resounding endorsement to the adoption of the SCCA Solo2 rules.
The December 1975 CCR Newsletter carried the announcement from the Board of Directors of a newly adopted CCR Autocross platform, and a note from then CCR Autocross director, Kirk Otey, heralded the rule adoption in the February 1976 Newsletter.(below)
Otey stressed that the change would be in the best interests of CCR’s Solo program, and urged us all to “work together” to familiarize ourselves with the newly adopted rules. He stated that “minor modifications” would be in effect for 1976 as we transitioned into the new platform, but those modifications to the new rules were never spelled out clearly, and confusion reigned early in the 1976 season.
Additionally, it was announced that we had given back 75 of our cones to the UNCC Sports Car Club (my first autocrosses were run with 49ersSCC) with which we shared resources, and we were in desperate need of more cones. The entry fee was $3.00 for SCCA members and $5.00 for non-members, but if anyone brought and donated 10 cones to the event, the entry fee would be waived. Even today, the Charlotte area road construction industry refers to this announcement as the “Day the Cones Walked Away” (just kidding about this sentence).
But we all lived through it, and by the end of the year, the CCR Solo program was on a fast-track to success, and indeed, flourishing.
Here are the results: Notice no Street Prepared classes back then, and the ever-present TR7 at the bottom of the page.
And...
Here is the February 1976 CCR Newsletter announcement (“Solo II Report” at bottom of page):
On this day 30 years ago, March 7, 1976, a field of 24 cars lined up at Carowinds for the first ever CCR Autocross conducted under SCCA’s Solo (Solo2) rules. To be sure, CCR had autocrossed for many years (at the time referred to as “Slaloms”), but this was the first event where the SCCA rule book was official.
The low number of entries was not a sign of the times, but rather a sign of confusion regarding the rules which changed the way we had done things for years. We had autocrossed under our own rules to that point, and they were radically different from SCCA rules. At first, everyone involved did not give a resounding endorsement to the adoption of the SCCA Solo2 rules.
The December 1975 CCR Newsletter carried the announcement from the Board of Directors of a newly adopted CCR Autocross platform, and a note from then CCR Autocross director, Kirk Otey, heralded the rule adoption in the February 1976 Newsletter.(below)
Otey stressed that the change would be in the best interests of CCR’s Solo program, and urged us all to “work together” to familiarize ourselves with the newly adopted rules. He stated that “minor modifications” would be in effect for 1976 as we transitioned into the new platform, but those modifications to the new rules were never spelled out clearly, and confusion reigned early in the 1976 season.
Additionally, it was announced that we had given back 75 of our cones to the UNCC Sports Car Club (my first autocrosses were run with 49ersSCC) with which we shared resources, and we were in desperate need of more cones. The entry fee was $3.00 for SCCA members and $5.00 for non-members, but if anyone brought and donated 10 cones to the event, the entry fee would be waived. Even today, the Charlotte area road construction industry refers to this announcement as the “Day the Cones Walked Away” (just kidding about this sentence).
But we all lived through it, and by the end of the year, the CCR Solo program was on a fast-track to success, and indeed, flourishing.
Here are the results: Notice no Street Prepared classes back then, and the ever-present TR7 at the bottom of the page.
And...
Here is the February 1976 CCR Newsletter announcement (“Solo II Report” at bottom of page):
