Heavy rains over Heartland Park Topeka have force the organizers to postpone the upcoming DirtFish SCCA RallyCross Central Challenge until the weekend of May 13th and 14th. Heartland Park officials confirmed that the site had received over ten inches of rainfall, completely saturating the competition surface down to several inches in depth. While it Thursday will bring steady winds and sunshine, it will be too little, too late for the rainsoaked site for the National Championship. Certainly, it is possible, and even enjoyable, to get sloppy and sideways in the mud, the organizers from the National Office were concerned about doing irreparable damage to the surface prior to October’s championship event.

The rescheduled date is the same weekend as the SCCA Mid-States Conference US Majors Tour event hosted by the Kaw Valley Race Group. This means that spectators coming to see rallycross can also hop across the street and enjoy some road racing action as well, and vice versa for the road racing spectators. Double your racing pleasure for the same travel money! Spectating for either the road racing or the rallycross is free, and you can’t beat that.

Official Statement from the SCCA National Office

Over the past week and a half Topeka ‘s official rainfall total is 6 inches. However, that was measured in the north side of town and the staff at Heartland Park Topeka is confident that there area saw over 10 inches. With that the site for the DirtFish SCCA Central National Challenge is quite wet. We just went out and met with the manager of Heartland Park Topeka and checked on the conditions of the site. The picture attached will tell you what the site currently looks like (a video of the conditions is posted on the SCCA RallyCross Facebook page).
After assessing the situation with HPT and the SCCA staff, we have decided to postpone the event and the Starting Line school due to conditions to the site. The reasons we feel we should not run on the site this coming weekend are the following.

  • Even though wind and sun is forecasted the next couple of days it is only supposed to be in the lower 50’s which means while the top coat of the soil may be able to dry, a few inches below that won’t and will potentially cause rutting that will result in too many course changes.
  • A site only get once chance to make a first impression and since this is also the same site as the National Championship we want competitors to be able to see and enjoy the site as it should be.
  • With the damage that we could potentially cause to the site with the conditions we don’t know how well it could “heal” before Nationals.
    Finally, and the most important, is the fun factor. That is the main reason we are all involved and we just don’t feel a good and fun event can be produced for everyone to enjoy the weekend.

The new scheduled date is the weekend of May 12-14. Which is also the same weekend as an SCCA US Majors Tour Conference Event on the road course of Heartland Park that same weekend. There is also a Track Night in America scheduled for that Friday night as well.
What we will do is keep you registered for the event. If you are not able to make the new date then please let us know and we will cancel your entry and issue a full refund. The same thing goes for the Starting Line School. If we do not hear from you we will assume you are still planning on coming.

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