Ben Thatcher's NOPI Nationals is very similar to my Mirror Khana in concept.
One difference, he has some $$$$ to be won! Yowza!
But even without that, you will find a concept for Solo II unlike anything
you've ever done before. It is not chase the clock. It is not Pro Solo side-
by-side. It is -- as I put it on my Mirror Khana XXV flyer this year ...
A No-clocks, heads-up, one-on-one, two-cars-at-a-time showdown autocross.
Nobody exists but you and that other car and that's all you have to beat.
This time.
You line up on opposite sides of the course, one driver halfway around from
where the other starts (Actually, Ben has devised a side-by-start different
from mine that will speed things up nicely). Imagine an Indy oval, one starts
on the frontstretch, the other on the backstretch. The two straighs are
connected by all the Solo II twisty bits. First one back to his own startline
wins. Double elimination .. you gotta lose twice to be put out of the game.
You are both on the exact same pavement, doing the exact same turns, in the
exact same conditions (if it rains, it rains on both of you, and the guy who
ran in the dry three pairings earlier well his run did not matter to your
match). Every pairing is a heads-up match, not just the finals the way Pro
Solo does it.
Ask Ben about the class structure and specific rules.
But out here in MiDiv, it's been a must-do event for 25 years and when I told
people I wanted to cut back to every-other-year they would not let it happen.
It is a Happening, and NOPI will be worth your trip to Hampton.
--Rocky Entriken
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