The largest motorsports event in the world starts next week – SCCA Solo Nationals. About 1,350 drivers will arrive in Lincoln, NE to compete against the best in the country.

Mazda Motorsports will be on site to support competitors and also host a banquet on Tuesday night, September 6 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm.

(Tamra Hunt, seen above, returns to the Solo Nationals to defend her national championship – something many expect her to do.)

We expect fierce competition across many classes, with Mazdas to dominate.

Starting out in CS, Julian Garfield brings out a 2016 ND Miata as one of the class favorites. However, Chris Harvey in his well prepped NC Miata shouldn’t let Julian have it easily. This will be a great battle to watch for sure. In CSL, Deana Kelley is bringing out her ND Miata and should be tough to beat.

E-Street should have Andrew Canak and Chris Bailey fighting against the many Toyota MR2 Spyders. We expect these two excellent drivers to put on a good showing and come out on top. In ESL, watch out for Janet Bauman and Tina Moreau.

Street Touring Sport (STS) has a surprise appearance from Ben Wagstaff this year. Ben has dominated at ProSolos in the STS scene, but hasn’t historically made it to Solo Nats. This year looks to be the exception, so watch out for him. Also, Eric Chiang from the same SCCA region (NER) is usually trading top places with Ben at local events, so they could make for a great race to watch in STS.

Street Touring Roadster (STR) will see Brian Karwin, Will Koscielny, Ron Bauer, and more fighting off the S2000s. This is a huge class with tough competition that is always exciting to watch. We do expect the well-developed 2016 MX-5 by Ron Bauer to make a strong showing.

The race tire classes see Anthony Porta and Adam Tarnoff piloting an NB Miata in BSP. This car is particularly impressive since it is a multi-time national championship winning car that is still street driven. It’s not uncommon to see it towing its own tire trailer to events!

CSP has seen a great turnout at every event this season, with all drivers trying to catch last year’s CSP National Champion Billy Davis in his Miata “Jack.” After engine head failure at the last national event this season, will the car be back up and running to defend his title? Mike Kline will be close on his heels in “Oscar the Trash.” This team has been getting faster every event this season, with sometimes less than a tenth of a second separating him from Billy. This class has many previous national champions competing for the win, so it should make for some fantastic competition to watch. CSPL brings last year’s champion Tamra Hunt back to defend her title, with Katie Lacey chasing her down.

DSP has top RX8 drivers Mike Kuhn, Marc Monnar, and newcomer Nathan Atkins trying to take down the BMW drivers that have historically dominated this class.  Eric Anderson and Randal Wilcox are favorites in SSM. In DP, Todd Roberts, Andrew Blasiman, Henry Bjoin, Zack Barnes, and Perry Simonds are all ones to watch. In E-Mod, Jeff Kiesel in his Mazda rotary powered Sprite is the favorite to win.

Tune in next week at sololive.scca.com to track live results at Solo Nationals!