7 replies to this topic

[DavidNJ]

Background: I raced SCCA in the 1970s. In the northeast the active regions were NER, NYR, NNJR, and Mohawk-Hudson which held events at Lime Rock, Thompson, Bryar (now NHIS), Bridgehampton (now a golf course), and Pocono. DC Region was very active at Summit Point, Finger Lakes at events at Watkins Glen,. There were even weekends with competing events. The 4 northeast clubs has a NARRC championship. Club driver's schools were held throughout there year. 

 

Fast forward to 2017. The NARRC website says there last championship was 2016. The NYR website seems like it has hasn't been maintained in years; there is a separate NYR solo website. NNJR lists regionals for other other regions. 

 

As far as I can see, NER has 2 regionals at Palmer, a new track they built, 1 at Thompson, 1 at Lime Rock. South Jersey (SJR) has 2 or 3 at NJMP bit hard to tell because of strange nomenclature and "Fidelity Power Systems Pro IT Series" that seems to have minimal online documentation. While there is a national...err Majors...at Pocono there don't appear to be any regionals.

 

For practical reasons the Glen, Summit, and NHIS are just a bit too far away.

 

Am I reading the schedule correctly? Have most of the major racing regions of the 1970s dropped out of racing? In spite of the new tracks with motorsports clubs (NJMP, Thompson, Palmer, Monticello, etc.) are there really very few SCCA races?

If so, has this also gone to being able to support the races? There is a video of an SRF crash at Thunderhill last October were the flagging station, which had been manned the previous day for the first race, was unmanned and with flags or signals two cars has a serious t-bone accident.

 

Thanks,

 

David 

 

 

 

[Yosh]

Check out the NEDiv website which aggregates most schedules into one spreadsheet:

 

http://nediv.com/clu...-nediv-schedule

 

As a good friend of mine says, the answer to the question "Pocono?" is in the question itself and it is "no"

 

The volunteers and workers are great and provide us with great support and skill.  I haven't run across an unmanned station in the entire northeast.

 

ProIT is a great series for IT and Spec Miata cars.  Great track time and a proven payout setup.  Well worth running as a standalone or in "double dipping" in a weekend.

[JCOgle]

Hi David

I'm in the Northeast too. Live about an hour north of Lime Rock, in the Berkshires.

Your assessment is pretty much on target. While some of the old tracks are gone, there are a few new ones, either put in operation recently (Thompson, Palmer, NJMP) or being developed (New Hampshire). Monticello is strictly a private club I believe. I've never known of an SCCA race there.

The regional NARRC Championship has been terminated for lack of interest, but the NER has it's own championship that seems to have a following. As was offered above, there are quite a few regional races available in the Northeast, but travel is more of an issue. I'm just glad I don't live in the west where five hour pulls are commonplace.

My take on it is that club racing continues to recover from the financial crisis, and the huge availability of HPDEs has soaked up quite a bit of the market for track time. One of my sins had the bad timing to graduate from college in 2009. And while I'm hooked on fender to fender racing, and get about 75% of my racing enjoyment off the track (I enjoy the people as well as shop time), I can understand how a twenty-something would be happy just blasting his 1999 M3 street car around the track a few times a year. So, I see relatively fewer young drivers at the races. I did notice better car counts last summer, and am hopefully it'll continue back toward a growth trajectory.

Welcome back.

[DavidNJ]

Thanks...it looks like I may have missed one NJMP regional.

 

Just surprised how much the landscape has changed. 

[Brandon]

In an effort to not point fingers or lay blame anywhere (whether at a regional or national level), the state of racing has changed significantly just in the past 7 years I've been involved in it so no telling how it's changed from the '70s...

 

From the respective regions at each end of NeDiv (DC & NER) being able to run their own successful & independent race series (due to track proximity & participation) to National assuming the role of arbiter of "national racing" (aka, the 3 years of Majors prior to 2017), a lot of the traditional series you're referencing have all but dried up and died due to participant apathy and lack of stewardship. We can have a discussion regarding the history of racing in the NE (the series themselves and who supported them) compared to where it stands today, but that's best done over a few hours and plenty of beers.

 

That being said, Yosh's recommendation of visiting the NeDiv site for a compiled schedule is your best bet and I second his affirmation of the Pro-IT series being a good choice.

I was the SM champ in 2015 in that series and feel comfortable saying the mixed-group racing has made me a better driver overall.  The payout was a nice side benefit to be sure too...

 

And Yosh - I do expect you at the Pocono Majors this year.  NNJR is running it and we look forward to your support.  

[LarryKing]

t's not just the NE Div. The Great Lakes SCCA is down to 5 regionals at three tracks. When I started racing there were at least double those numbers of events and tracks visited.

[Danica Davison]

Move down south and you could race almost every weekend if you wanted to

 

Maybe look at NASA too?  You can run both NASA and SCCA if you wanted more options.

[Richard Astacio]

There is plenty of racing here in the Northeast with regional races, Major Races, Nasa, etc. To be honest I think we are in the best region to race. 

 

Montecello 1.5 hr (private club)

Palmer 2 hrs from Stamford 

Thompson 2.5 hrs

Lime Rock 1.5 HR

Pocono 2.5 hrs 

NJMP Lighting 3-4 Hrs

NJMP Thunderbolt 3-4 Hrs

Club MotorSport 4 hr ( NEW TRACK, opening shortly)

Pittsburgh 5hr

New Hampshire 5 hrs

Watkins Glen 6 hr

Summit Pt 6hr 

VIR 8 HR