Path from getting a SCCA competition license to race at Nurburgring?

Hello,

I'm seeking advice on the most efficient and affordable way to race in the RCN series at the Nürburgring. I completed a racing school in 2021 but haven't yet obtained a racing license. My experience includes Lemons/Champcar races, rental karting endurance races, some two-stroke karting races, and extensive iRacing.

Based on my research, seems the first step is likely obtaining an international D/C license through participating in SCCA races, but I can't find specific requirements regarding the racing resume needed for the application.

Can anyone offer guidance on how to best achieve this goal? Any information or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

To some extent this kind of depends on what your long term goals are. Do you want to compete regularly in RCN or just do a one-off? Do you want to go VLN/NLS at some point?

When I did my RCN, I contacted the organizers well in advance, and was also working through a local team on the ground. I showed up with copies of me SCCA and NASA licenses, as well as letters from IMSA and SCCA Pro stating I was a former license holder and had successfully completed events with their organizations. The organizers expected me at registration, reviewed my paperwork and I was cleared for a single event. Now, this was 2015, and things may have changed a bit since then, but that's how I did it.

But the way I'd actually recommend you do it it what I did last year when I got my Nordschleife C Permit. It involves an afternoon ground school followed by a day on track and sucessful completion gets you green lit for RCN or NLS competition. To compete you'll also need an FIA license, which you can get with some paperwork and a few bucks if you have an SCCA or NASA license. That Motorsport Akademie school was absolutely exceptional at teaching lots of the intricacies of the Nurburgring and it's basically mandatory at this point if you want to ever doing any serious or repeated events there.

Also, you didn't mention whether you'll be renting or using your own car. I'm assuming you're renting since your profile says New York,and if that's the case then whoever you are renting from can also help guide you through th elicensing process. Having an advocate on the ground or just to copy into email chains is a HUGE help in navigating the Germanness of it all. 

And holler if you want a co-driver. I need somethig to do with this dang permit :)

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Hi JG, I really enjoy reading your articles about the Nurburgring, thanks for sharing!

Yes, I definitely want to go VLN in the future. Regarding the FIA license, since I don't currently have an SCCA license, do I need to participate in some races before submitting the required documentation after getting the SCCA license?

Kshao231 said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Hi JG, I really enjoy reading your articles about the Nurburgring, thanks for sharing!

Yes, I definitely want to go VLN in the future. Regarding the FIA license, since I don't currently have an SCCA license, do I need to participate in some races before submitting the required documentation after getting the SCCA license?

Just the license should suffice. If you can provide a resume of schools or actual race experience, I believe there's a place to submit that during the FIA application process, and it can only help, although I don't think it's entirely necessary.

In this case, too, a NASA license might be an easier spot to make the application from than an SCCA Regional license. The european sanctions LOVE them some descriptors like "national" license holder, and the first step on the SCCA ladder with be a regional license, whereas a NASA license is, by default, national. Of course, those terms in the US do not really reflect the level of training or proficiency the way they do in the EU, but they don't really care about that. They just love that "national" designation.

So, my recomendation would probably be something like this:

1. Get SCCA license

2. Once you have an SCCA license you can get a NASA license with paperwork, medical, and a check, so do that, too.

3. Once you have both of those you should easily be able to get the FIA international endorsement through paperwork and another check.

4. Do a Motorsport Akademie Nordschleife permit course. Mine cost just under $1000usd for the course, and car rental was another $800 or so. That included like 16 laps in a track day format, so it's really pretty reasonable.

At that point you;re eligible for pretty much anything. You'll have a C permit, meaning you can run RCN in anything but a GT3 car pretty much, Historic, and VLN/NLS in pretty much anything slower than a TCR car. So like any VT2 car or equivalent, M235i Cup, non-GT4 Cayman Cup, lots of options, really. A couple successful races in RCN or VLN and you can apply to drive faster cars

JG Pasterjak said:

2. Once you have an SCCA license you can get a NASA license with paperwork, medical, and a check, so do that, too.

If you do the rookie races quickly enough, you can probably use the same medical for both.

That said, it's probably easier to just get the NASA license straight away.  If you've already got a bunch of racing experience you can probably just show up and get a check ride for a provisional license (plus passing the written test on the NASA rules).  After that it's just 4 NASA races w/o incident to finish the provisional portion and get the full NASA license, and since most regions do 2 or 3 races per weekend you can get that done in just 2 events.

Giving this a bump simply because it's some really good info and I'm sure there are others out there that could benefit.

Best of luck to you!

Thanks for the information, everyone! I'll give it a try and keep you all updated.

Update:

I successfully got my SCCA full competition license. My racing school experience was back in 2021, so I need to get an extra approval from the Divisional Licensing Administrator. After showing him a brief history of my racing experience, I got the approval. He did remind me that I need at least one race per year to maintain my racing license.

After chatting with several race teams, seems the best way to gain race experience is to compete in two different classes per race weekend. Since each class typically has two races per weekend, this means I'll get four races in total each weekend. I've already signed up for two weekends - one with a Spec Miata team and another with a B-Spec team, both double-class entries. So by end of year, I should have 8 races on my resume to apply for the FIA international C license, which exceeding the 5 race requirement limit.

Congratulations on the progress. 

EOY Update:

I have finished the two race weekends, and that concludes a total of 8 races (all SCCA regional) on my racing resume. Currently I'm submitting my application for FIA C license. Hope they will approve it :)

In reply to Kshao231 :

Woohoo! Go get 'em!

Awesome man! Bummer you finished right when the 'Ring closes down for the winter, but now you have all winter to run sims anyway :)

Do you have a plan to get your Nurburgring ticket punched next year? RCN usually starts up in late April or early May, so I'm sure the permit schools will be rolling by then. You should even be able to combine a weekend and do a permit school on a Wednesday or Thursday and do an RCN that same weekend. That would be fun.