The path to doing wheel-to-wheel racing in SCCA is easier than ever, thanks to SCCA Race Experience. The program is open to, “Anybody,” says Jon Krolewicz, SCCA Senior Management of Program Development. “The target audience is someone who says, ‘I want to try or start my wheel-to-wheel journey. Maybe that’s the person who is going to get their racing …
The biggest challenge to getting started isn't the instruction. I can find licensing schools all over. The biggest challenge is getting the car fully caged. Its a pretty expensive proposition and then you're left with a car that you really should trailer to events. What is the big difference between this and the normal drivers school? The program seems similar from the descriptions I've found. It mostly seems just the need for a medical certification.
You can rent a prepared race car instead if you're not ready or willing to do a cage in whatever you're using now
theruleslawyer said:The biggest challenge to getting started isn't the instruction. I can find licensing schools all over. The biggest challenge is getting the car fully caged. Its a pretty expensive proposition and then you're left with a car that you really should trailer to events. What is the big difference between this and the normal drivers school? The program seems similar from the descriptions I've found. It mostly seems just the need for a medical certification.
Interesting thing I learned recently: NASCAR has no medical certification requirement.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
No point in looking for medical issues if the only reaction is "walk it off."
In reply to Jesse Ransom :
When I got t-boned at the OLD hairpin at Sebring during a SCCA Regional race, I didn't pay one dime for the ambulance ride, or the ER visit. I don't think there's a single race organization out there that I can say that about.
racerfink said:In reply to Jesse Ransom :
When I got t-boned at the OLD hairpin at Sebring during a SCCA Regional race, I didn't pay one dime for the ambulance ride, or the ER visit. I don't think there's a single race organization out there that I can say that about.
Nice! Any NASCAR-sanctioned event (from top to weekly) will provide secondary insurance to its license holders - including crew members - that covers what their primary insurance doesn't.
NASCAR is a real sanctioning body with real talent in every area of the very top level, but they've spent years cultivating a "we'd just as soon have a fistfight as a race" image, and I'll mock them for it every chance I get.
My initial comment was about JG's observation that their licensing doesn't require a medical certification, not about how they handle injuries, but that is interesting, and I think it's pretty great.
JG Pasterjak said:theruleslawyer said:The biggest challenge to getting started isn't the instruction. I can find licensing schools all over. The biggest challenge is getting the car fully caged. Its a pretty expensive proposition and then you're left with a car that you really should trailer to events. What is the big difference between this and the normal drivers school? The program seems similar from the descriptions I've found. It mostly seems just the need for a medical certification.
Interesting thing I learned recently: NASCAR has no medical certification requirement.
Up until about 5yrs ago I was still doing the occasional motorcycle race; whether it was road racing, motocross or desert racing, none of the sanctioning bodies ever asked for a medical certification. That includes the couple of AMA Pro/Am weekends I did.
As a time trialer that would like to try sprint racing this appeals to me. Things I don't understand and why I think SCCA road racing is dying. Low car counts beget low car counts. Gridlife GLTC with 40+ car fields looks fun, so more people want to race in it. 5 car fields with an aging membership doesn't interest drivers, workers, or spectators (as if).
Cut the number of classes waaaaay down. Have 2-3 different BoP'd classes for production cars and maybe 2 BoP'd open wheel classes. Why not run on a 200tw tire, it would encourage more cross over from time trials and the other way around. And of course keep spec miata/b spec, maybe even add a 2-300hp spec class with a couple cars BoP'd limited prep car options. Think 350/370z vs s197 vs base C5 and on a lower grip/cheaper 200tw tire.
If you can make a class that welcomes cars people have already built for other series with minor adjustments... why not, that's how gridlife did it.
I think 90+% of the people I've driven with would agree the most exciting racing is seeing large fields, multiple varieties of vehicle with balanced performance, minimal aero, and a just adequate amount of grip.
Feel free to tell me I'm full of E36 M3 but that's my 2c.
^ my understanding is that this is what the ST classes are supposed to be. I'm not sure what it is about the rule book or racing that prevents lots of cars from entering, but it does seem that car counts are pretty low.
I'm just not sure that "run what ya brung and maybe you'll win something" is what SCCA will ever be. It's a tight rule book and there are great drivers in just about every class, even the small ones. It can be pretty intimidating/humbling for people who don't want to put the time and money into the sport. I'm starting to think that maybe they should position themselves as the premium competitive series between the endurance racing/grid life crowd and actual pro racing. Gridlife/Champ/Luckydog etc. filled a vacuum in the market. SCCA needs to decide if they want to be more like those, or just exist in their own category.
mhaskins said:Feel free to tell me I'm full of E36 M3 but that's my 2c.
SCCA is a club, that's what second "C" in the name stands for. That means it's got members, is run by those members, and the board needs to keep those members happy. Broadly speaking those members already own race cars and want to be able to keep racing those race cars in a competitive way. You can wave the phrase "BoP" around all you like, but it's not that easy. Formula cars are built around particular weights and engines, you can't just add horsepower to them and they have only a limited ability to manage ballast. In many cases you can't put them all on the same tire because the slicks just aren't available in the broad array of sizes you'd need to cover every car. Even staying within those limits, "BoP" calculations wind up being circuit-dependent which is nowhere close to as good as racing in a class where all the cars are the same. No matter what the board does to change things, they will piss off some of the members who voted for them.
As for GLTC -- maybe I'm too old but I don't understand the hype. What's the point in having 4 lap races? And why do they hate fast cars? My NASA ST4 car isn't particularly high-powered, but I'd have to add 500 pounds of ballast (which isn't even legal) to fit into their rules system. I have less than zero interest in drifting so I don't see any reason to waste track time on it at an event I'm attending, and why would I want to mix my racing with a rock concert from a band I don't like?
Yes, GLTC does a much better job of promoting their events on social media than the stodgy old groups like SCCA or NASA.
As for the original article, the classic SCCA race school was set up in the days when there were no track days, the expectation was that you went from street driving to racing with no on-track driving in the middle other than what you got at the race school. Generally speaking that's just not true any more and it sounds like SCCA is trying to be a bit more like the NASA race school I attended a few years ago. The assumption there was that the students had come up through HPDE and Time Trials, so had the driving part down pretty well and were just looking to add the "racing" bit. The school consisted of classroom sessions covering racing rules, etiquette, etc, combined with on-track exercises covering things like driving side-by-side through corners, passing drills, practicing starts, and a practice race at the end. It was super useful and I learned a lot.
Food for thought.
If you show up at a vintage race you'll do a ground school on Friday night, put a novice stripe on the back of your car for Saturday morning and off you go. The club I race with will match you with an instructor who'll check on your progress. After you complete a certain number of races you can get a regular license.
Many vintage clubs will accept more modern cars; an easier route to full on club racing maybe to start with vintage and move over to modern cars.
With that said I do like that SCCA is trying to new things.
Jesse Ransom said:NASCAR is a real sanctioning body with real talent in every area of the very top level, but they've spent years cultivating a "we'd just as soon have a fistfight as a race" image, and I'll mock them for it every chance I get.
My initial comment was about JG's observation that their licensing doesn't require a medical certification, not about how they handle injuries, but that is interesting, and I think it's pretty great.
Understood! Yes, most forms of oval-track racing do not require medical certification. Just show up, pay your pit fee and entry fee, and have fun. Unfortunately, I've known a couple of drivers to suffer on-track heart attacks and I do wonder if a physical would have kept them here. Maybe, maybe not. Physicals don't catch everything.
In reply to J.A. Ackley :
Oh, I wasn't even being that reasonable... And it was probably unnecessary to post the clarification that I was referring to the certs thing in response to racerfink's story of coverage.
I still have issues with NASCAR, but the crowd here at GRM is so reasonable it makes it awkward to have a swipe at them... 🤣
Jesse Ransom said:In reply to J.A. Ackley :
Oh, I wasn't even been that reasonable... And it was probably unnecessary to post the clarification that I was referring to the certs thing in response to racerfink's story of coverage.
I still have issues with NASCAR, but the crowd here at GRM is so reasonable it makes it awkward to have a swipe at them... 🤣
Jean Girard, aka Jesse - It's okay. I can take it. Ricky Bobby is my spirit animal - and I'm comfortable with that. Where's my buddy, Cal?
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