Why SCCA is losing customers;
Hey Mike. It's Joey. Ran across your thread while doing some research on ITJ/ITX classes. Southwest DIV SCCA is now looking at it too.
There are a lot of reasons SCCA is losing members and potential members. Cost of racing. Example, I'm running a 75 Fiat Spider in FP. Plenty of (legal) mods but I can't compete anymore with $50K FP Miatas (seriously). I can't take the car to IT, and dropping to HP would require several changes including an engine swap. A lot of time and money, and I end up in the same race group anyway.
SCCA has become checkbook racing.
The "hassle" and expense of getting a provi license, a medical, 600 page GCR, membership dues, etc. vs show up, go through a 1 hour novice school and race. If you're just getting started with stars in your eyes (and you're not made of money), what looks like the better path?
Regionals. Nationals. Rationals. Majors. WTH? I've been an SCCA member for years and I'm getting lost in all the programs. But from this end of the Country anyway, all the focus is on Nationals, Majors. Screw Regional racing. I see that coming from the top. The Southeast does a much better job with regional Racing as I understand, but you guys are more the exception than the norm.
Seat time. In some cases there is not a huge difference, but there is a difference.
Politics.
ChumpCar really is the "every man's" series. I don't think you have to spend $5k to have a winning car. There's no stupid paddock games or judges or bribes. tech is straight forward and the races are run similar to NASA/SCCA.
I don't know how many Chump/Lemons-only teams will jump on SCCA ITJ. I can tell you that I'm about done with Production car class and SCCA, but if they open the ITJ in SOWDIV, I'll move the Fiat to that class and hang around to do Regionals/Rationals, maybe have a little fun playing with rear wing aero and alternate wheel/tire sizes.
So the word I got was that our DIV is looking to copy the ITJ rules from SEDIV but I didn't run across anything like that. Does it exist?
JT