What does a SCCA IT race car look like...

The Chief Steward and the Tech Chief were having a conversation this weekend. The gist of it was that SCCA needs to make up its mind as to whether it is a club and supports amateur club racers or it is a semi-pro racing organization. Super Tour and Majors (make it feel more like a pro event) mentality, while alienating the regional classes are not helping like "they" promised it would.

I know the economy gets lots of blame and that may be a factor. Our Memorial day weekend event has historically been well attended. This weekend both car counts and worker turn out was lower than it has been for a long time. I was the only one in tech and several of the stewards had to man timing and scoring or he would have been on his own, F&C had 2 on each corner where we usually have 3 or 4. We got it done and the drivers were exceptionally patient and understanding and I must say well behaved as there were no major incidents.
 
jhooten said:
The Chief Steward and the Tech Chief were having a conversation this weekend. The gist of it was that SCCA needs to make up its mind as to whether it is a club and supports amateur club racers or it is a semi-pro racing organization. Super Tour and Majors (make it feel more like a pro event) mentality, while alienating the regional classes are not helping like "they" promised it would.

I know the economy gets lots of blame and that may be a factor. Our Memorial day weekend event has historically been well attended. This weekend both car counts and worker turn out was lower than it has been for a long time. I was the only one in tech and several of the stewards had to man timing and scoring or he would have been on his own, F&C had 2 on each corner where we usually have 3 or 4. We got it done and the drivers were exceptionally patient and understanding and I must say well behaved as there were no major incidents.
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One has only to look at the blooming market for alternate series to see that the economy isn't the issue, its the exlcusionary nature and lack of market responsiveness of the leadership. When Club racing peters out in the SCCA, I'm sure they will say it was due to lack of demand.... (at the last non SCCA event I did, there were at least 85 cars on track with me - no shortage of demand out there for a product that serves its membership well)
 
ITEGT said:
Hate is a strong word. I don't "Hate" the SCCA. I simply went where it was easiest for me to race for the least amount of money.

If the '12 MiDiv season was unchanged and the IT crowd was still welcome at all the race weekends then I'd have nothing to complain about and my car would still have SCCA decals on it.

Most of the info on the "Majors" and "Rationals" that I based my decision off of I read about here on this website.

So when I post up with the end result of what I've read on here then I'm blindly bashing the SCCA and I'm a hater on a SCCA website? No, I'm sorry that's mistaken. What was I supposed to do just sit around and bitch on here while I continue to send my entry fees to SCCA? Haha No, thanks.
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what does an SCCA race car look like....Here's an ITRR(improvedtouring rat rod) registered for the regional at LRP.


http://www.theblogmocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/Rat-Rods-2.png
 
jhooten said:
The Chief Steward and the Tech Chief were having a conversation this weekend. The gist of it was that SCCA needs to make up its mind as to whether it is a club and supports amateur club racers or it is a semi-pro racing organization. Super Tour and Majors (make it feel more like a pro event) mentality, while alienating the regional classes are not helping like "they" promised it would.

I know the economy gets lots of blame and that may be a factor. Our Memorial day weekend event has historically been well attended. This weekend both car counts and worker turn out was lower than it has been for a long time. I was the only one in tech and several of the stewards had to man timing and scoring or he would have been on his own, F&C had 2 on each corner where we usually have 3 or 4. We got it done and the drivers were exceptionally patient and understanding and I must say well behaved as there were no major incidents.
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Again, I think it's a regional issue. We had at least 50+ IT cars at this past weekends race at NH Motors Speedway. The region bends over backwards so that we get plenty of track time (one qualifying session and three races) and schedules the run groups so people can double or triple dip. They are always looking for feed back and are willing to get creative. Maybe we're just lucky up here in the Northeast that we've got great people running our race program. :shrug:

Hey, I've just been double whacked in the last year over decisions that SCCA has made. First I bought an SSB car only to find out a short time later that Showroom Stock was going away, then I bought a Miata and three months later they added 80lbs to it. If anyone should be bitter it's me!!

But I still went out this past weekend, raced a lot, hung out with a lot of good friends and had a blast. Have your officials call our officials to find out how it's done! ;)
 
scca's main problem is age and bureaucracy. ford racing is producing mustang race cars based on their performance mustang street car program. these cars are classed well at both grand am and scca pro racing world challenge. meanwhile as these race cars become more and more available to club racers, only nasa has a place for them to race. and they do with strong fields.

i was at cmp this past weekend and saw almost as many aged roadster production class cars as there were V8 cars in total. no 911 porsches. no bmw m3's. no american muscle cars under 10 years old.

i saw very few young drivers. people under 50.

truth be told, nasa is starting to hit some of the same generational issues. they are hard to deal with. dont deal with the passage of time well and you can be doomed by it.
 
My 2 cents!!
I believe that SCCA needs to start developing a better plan for retaining and attracting new blood. I know they started the ST? thing and that is bringing the numbers in droves, but outside of that; How has SCCA changed in the last 10 years??
10 years ago if you wanted to race it was SCCA, IMSA, Grand AM, Speed World, ALMS ( all PRO)? Now you can go run with NASA, PBOC, ChumpCar, Lemons, Audi club, Viper club, Porsche club, BMW club, SVRA, HSR, VARA, etc etc etc Last count there was 13 different vintage organizatrions across the US!! 13 VINTAGE alone!!!
These are going to pull numbers!!! If a region is dumping on a class/ regional whatever, they have a choice. There is a group that will say, "Hey, you are our customer (read: check, paypal etc) what do we need to do to get you to come race with us?"
So, somebody feels dumped on, he has a choice. Some of the responses on here have taken his leaving very personal. If he has a car, and he feels abandoned he should leave.
I am pretty lucky where I am at Central Florida, Daytona 45 minutes, Sebring 1 1/2 hours, Palm Beach 4 hours, Homestead 5 hours, Savannah 5 hours. If it was 700 miles to race SCCA twice a year, CYA!!
Your mileage may vary, this is a limited time offer, not to be used in conjunction with any other offers, only 1 vehicle at this price, prior sales excluded, not responsible for misprints!
 
not sure how the recent driver's school went here but i did see a note saying it was NOT cancelled.

the Memorial Day event i raced had typically been a decent event in the past but i think there were less than 60 total this weekend in 5 groups that were combined into 4.

in 2009 there were over 80 in 6 groups. i think breakeven for this track is about 70 based on comments i heard.

to the OP, i ran NASA for a bit when Honda Challenge was a bit more meaningful but decided that overall, i did not care for NASA.

good luck and i hope you enjoy your racing.
 
Knestis said:
Quick check comparing number of entrants at NASA Mid-Atlantic shows numbers are down between 2011 and 2012, something like 10% among the race groups, comparing events/tracks year-to-year.

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevents.jsp?st=3&org=46497

K
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nasa mid atlantic is hard to judge in the spring. they had snow and rain in their first two events this season.

look at nasa se.

nasa has its issues too and the economy is hurting everyone.
 
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Alain V. said:
,,,,of course instead of trying anything that would be supportive of such a strong group of cars,,,,it seems like they are still stuck with dinosaur stuff like formula vee. Let's be honest here guys,,,the only twelve people in the nation who give a flying f**k about formula vee are the 12 old farts that still have one. It is dinosaur cars and they don not do anything to attract a younger audience.
Put that old crap into vintage racing where it and all the other dinosaurs belong and maybe then you will have some room for cars build within the last 20 years.
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Actually, there's plenty of people that give lots of flying fucks about Formula Vee. That's why it consistently has the top 3-5 national entries. The people that bought Formula V's in my region are all younger guys. I raced one when I was 16 with 7-10 other guys that were under 30 years old. After I left FV to get an ITA car, more younger guys joined the FV group. The average age for FV vs. any IT group is close (probably in the mid 40's).

On the other hand, I do agree that SCCA needs to pay more attention to their members. SCCA should be member driven (NASA allows their members to create rules for the class they drive in). SCCA also needs to invest in getting spectators to our events so that they can bring their friends, and eventually add an extra member or racer to the club.

Overall, the SCCA drivers, members, crew, all of us, need focus on the club as a whole, not the benefit of our personal interest, or else the club will lose the war with other various racing organizations.
 
lateapex911 said:
Jeff, how are driver school enrollments? WAY down up here.
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Been down but a decent uptick this year. I think we had 100 entries at school in 2003, my school year. Under 40 for the last several but up to just over 50 this year.

Economy and Chump/Lemons I think are driving the numbers down. I see Chump/Lemons as a fad. It won't go away but it's popularity will die down as it sorts itself out into the haves and have nots as all popular series do (SRF....SM....Spec E30...IT).

We have a lot of customer service issues to fix, but if the racing stays like it was this weekend at CMP, I'm staying SCCA. Good friends, well prepped and driven RACE cars without cows on the roof, driven to the max, balls out for a 30 min sprint race. That's my personal preference for racing and SCCA delivers.
 
The numbers I've heard for the two schools up here, one at New Hampshire, and one at Lime Rock, are single digits or so. Sad. I hope I'm wrong on my info.
 
So in order to really judge, you need to tally the students from all the schools in the Northeast up until this weekend. Just like regional racing, the more schools you have, the more they get watered down and are now money losers depending on the time of year.
 
lateapex911 said:
The numbers I've heard for the two schools up here, one at New Hampshire, and one at Lime Rock, are single digits or so. Sad. I hope I'm wrong on my info.
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Nope, you're right. i think some other things come into play though. There is now an early school at NJMP that a lot of guys go to, the NHMS school is now a single that's in May instead of April and it's only two weeks before the Lime Rock school.
 
SCCA should be member driven (NASA allows their members to create rules for the class they drive in).
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My Prelude classification in NASA basically went like this. "Heard you were pretty fast in that car. What's the SCCA weight? What's the weight of other Honda's in SCCA? Lets add 50 pounds to your SCCA weight and that should be about right." So no real look or discussions were had, and they used a very conservative approach. Funny how other Hondas were 50 - 100 lbs lower than the SCCA weight. Even funnier when I did a race or two, then I decided it wasn't for me, they said they'd lower the weight of the car to keep me coming back. Now granted I have to believe this isn't the norm.

Each organization has its pros and cons. NASA IMO moves too quickly yet SCCA is on the other extreme which takes forever for things to get done / change.

It'll be interesting to watch ChumpCar progress. I do like what they're trying to do.
 
Schools ? , We ( SW Division ) don't need no stinking Schools !

Can't remember the last school we had ... Can't blame the host region because they know there going to loose a ton on a school ... Going to need to change the GCR to fix some of the structural issues that hurt our long term market share.

When somebody asks me how to start in SCCA racing , I have to tell them to go get a NASA license and use it in SCCA.

That's simply not sustainable
 
TStiles said:
...When somebody asks me how to start in SCCA racing , I have to tell them to go get a NASA license and use it in SCCA...
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Really??? The fastest way to get a license is to do the SCCA 2x school weekend and you've got a novice permit to go racing!! How much easier should it be? One weekend of your time and you can go racing. There are schools all over the country and lets call it Thursday evening to Monday afternoon to get there and get back. You can travel +/-750 miles in that time and do the school. This is 2 days off work and a weekend of time to go from no license to having the novice permit and going racing! Might not be a school in your back yard, but this is the upcoming schedule for drivers schools per the SCCA website:

6/8/2012
Summer School/School's Out at Lime Rock Park
Lime Rock Park
New England Region

7/21/2012
Drivers School/Regional/PDX/TES at Sebring-Short Course
Sebring International Raceway
Central Florida Region

8/4/2012
Drivers School/Test Day/SARRC at Atlanta Motorsport Park
Atlanta Motorsport Park
Atlanta Region

10/4/2012
Last Chance of 2012 Driver School/Regional with Enduro at Watkins Glen Int'l
Watkins Glen International
Glen Region
 
Just curious... for areas where both NASA and SCCA run events on the same tracks, how do the entry fees compare?

You can travel +/-750 miles in that time and do the school.
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I'm sorry, but if I'm new to this game and on a modest budget my incentive to participate goes way down with the thought of traveling that far away. I'd probably also want to do it at a track I've driven before.
 
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