We B Ready for B-Modified

Hey Guys, it hasn't been called SOLO II for years. They dropped the 2 when they changed SOLO 1 to Time Trials and moved it over to the club racing side.

It's the SCCA Tirerack Solo National Championship, no 2.

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Picky, picky! Us old-timers had the 2 ingrained in our heads for too many years not to still think of it that way.

The LeGrand is looking great, Per. Best of luck at the Nationals!

We took our LeGrand to a local autocross and visit Ocala Gran Prix kart track for some last minute testing before the Solo National Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The local autocross was at our nearby DeLand site. We finished second overall behind a shifter kart and eighth on index. The time wasn't quite as good as we hoped, but we realized after the fact that when we thought we were downshifting from third to second, the car was actually staying in second. It turns out that it's a lot easier and effective to use the clutch for the downshift (we don't use the clutch for upshifts with the bike's sequential gearbox). Thanks to the bike engine's very close gearing, the difference between second and third is very slight. However, it was enough to make the car slower coming out of the next corner.

In this video you can see us tugging the shifter before the right-hand sweeper, but the rpm remains approximately the same.

The next day, we brought the car over to Ocala for some track time at Ocala Gran Prix. We were out on track for several five-lap sessions. A cluster of laps were in the mid-32-second range, which is by far the fastest we've been around the track. That's down near where the kart guys are.

At this point, we've got the bodywork off of the chassis and we've cleaned up the grime. The next step is to mount up some new Hoosier slicks and polish the monocoque chassis so that it gleams for its big debut at Solo Nationals next week.

What kind of polish is that on the sidepod?

Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy!