This past weekend, the Kansas City and Kansas Regions of the SCCA held their first of three joint Solo Event weekends at Heartland Park Topeka. For the Kansas City Region, the Saturday/Sunday double-header were Events 6 and 7. If was the first two events of the year for the Kansas Region. Both the Saturday and Sunday courses were designed by Ron Williams and incorporated many of the elements from the 2013 SCCA Solo Nationals course. It was a very different experience to compete on 20 acres of wide-open asphalt for many who have only had the experience of autocrossing at MCC in Independence, MO. Although the top-speeds aren’t much higher than are seen at MCC, the high speeds were maintained throughout most of the course. This meant that the pinch points caught a lot of the lesser experienced drivers (including myself) off-guard. Carry too much speed into one of these key elements, and you were out of position for the entire next section of the course, slowing your times by full seconds.
This weekend represented my first two events serving as a Heat Safety Steward, and so I wasn’t able to photograph the various heats as I normally do. I did get some shots of the Heat 0 Junior Karts and of the pre-event activities. It was brutally hot both days, and especially on Saturday, so while I do enjoy photographing race cars, it was nice to spend at least part of the event closer to shade and water.