38 replies to this topic

[Johnny D]

Question...
Do the Regional Directors across the country get together to talk about this, brainstorm, tell whats worked for them???
J~

[Terrell Garrett]

Bruce, you can be an "armchair" father this weekend by coming over this weekend and showing her your car preparation tricks!

[Bruce Wilson]

Bruce you know me. Not intended as an Oregon slight at all. I understand the need to want more entries and look at it as a potential revenue generator. However I think the loss in market share, competiting organizations and lack of entries are not entirely due to economic circumstances. The SCCA should focus on what it does, be the best at it and then and only then will its market share increase. If we continue to look at stop gap, loss prevention type things we are cheapening what we do. All we need to do is be the best, offer the best product experience and value and attandence will increase. I am not a fan of the crap can class, even some folks think there cars are "OK" or safe.

I hear you Mike and wish it wasn't such an issue, so we didn't have to cheapen what we do. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Who knew that there were thousands of drivers out there that wanted to race, but just needed a quick easy way to get started. To make this work well, we'll need to embrace this new crowd and teach them why crapcans rules are much harder to enforce and that they'll end up spending just as much for maintence, tires, fuel, etc. I/you know that it's not that insurmountable task to do it the right way and that there is a huge amount of satisfaction in presenting a well prepped, maintained, and clean racing machine and how that is a big part of what we love about this sport. We just need to help those newly aflicted racers along in their maturity process.

[Rob Burgoon]

well prepped, maintained, and clean racing machine and how that is a big part of what we love about this sport.

We?

fast, dirty, and ugly forever!

[Jim Boemler]

I hear you Mike and wish it wasn't such an issue, so we didn't have to cheapen what we do.

I'm sure the Porsche, GT, and formula racers figure they cheapened their sport a bit to let us race, too.

[Bruce Wilson]

We?

fast, dirty, and ugly forever!

Ha, I have no choice, all my friends have the clean extra fast show cars, and they won't help me fix mine if they get dirty doing it My street cars have plenty of dirt and grime, but come to think of it, so do theirs...

[Bruce Wilson]

I'm sure the Porsche, GT, and formula racers figure they cheapened their sport a bit to let us race, too.

Mr. Perspective

Of course that doesn't include the 99s

[Jim Boemler]

What's a 99?

[Michael Colangelo]

What's a 99?

It's what "big-boned" drivers like us should be driving!

[Mike Collins]

THis BIG boned 6'4" 250lbs SM driver is cutting weight to get below 220 and will be campaigning a ridiculous 1.6 this year! I am tired of the Dewurst whinning.

[Randy Thieme]

Everyone with a 1.6 don't forget minimum weight is up to 2300 this year. 2315 if using 0.010 overbore.

[Bruce Wilson]

THis BIG boned 6'4" 250lbs SM driver is cutting weight to get below 220 and will be campaigning a ridiculous 1.6 this year! I am tired of the Dewurst whinning.

Driving a 1.6 keeps me healthy. My doctor said I didn' realize how much of a favor I did myself losing 30 pounds!

[forestdweller37]

My SCCA region ran a similar class last year. I was able to take my driver's school and qualify for a regional license last spring in my team's miata chumpcar. It was sort of a "spur of the moment" thing. The region extended the invitation for Chump/Lemons drivers and two members of my team accepted. It was a great time and the support and camaraderie between the drivers and workers really made it feel like "home". This winter I picked up a spec miata for myself. The other member of our team who went to the SCCA school weekend with me did so in a newly acquired SSB civic. A third member then borrowed the chumpster and used it in an accredited "commercial" school to qualify for his own regional license though I don't think he'll be buying his own car as he's still a college student.

Overall participation in the class was not great. I think that was due to the team car ownership aspect of most "crap can" racecars. You're always driving a 75% borrowed car. A weekend with a single-driver group like SCCA or NASA isn't very fair when only one of four team members gets to participate.

I hope the folks in Oregon Region have worked out how to tech the Chump/Lemons cars. I ran into several issues where things that were allowed in chump weren't compatible with the basic GCR. They weren't really safety issues, but rather things like a lack of a fuel test port and functional OEM ABS.

[Chris Elek]

Its funny to see some of the responses here just checking in all the way from Ohio. I happen to be on a Chump car race team. I was googling ITJ because I heard it emerged out west. Just a FYI. those talking about log books. Chump car is forcing log book use in 2012 its part of the rules. One of our drivers is a Spec Miata driver. You would all be surprised how many professional racers SCCA, ITA...... ect driver race chump or lemons because the cost of racing is SO CHEAP.

This is a side race for them you can not beat the seat time for the $$$. and J for junk does not mean all the cars out there in our series will blow up in 30 minutes. I have been to a good 12 races in the last 2 years and in the series only a handful of cars popped and engine or transmission. So on average 6 out of maybe 1000 cars we have raced with have problems which result in crap/fluids on the track. Most of the reasons cars do not finish are electrical 10 year old coil packs or corroded wiring. Yes are cars look like a pile of crap but mechanically most are sound and have strict safety regulations that need to be followed. I hope to see this movement eastward

Http://tferacing.com

[Michael Colangelo]

BTW, the folks at Oregon Raceway Park and also at Pacific Raceways are putting on their own crapcan races this year.

[Bench Racer]

THis BIG boned 6'4" 250lbs SM driver is cutting weight to get below 220 and will be campaigning a ridiculous 1.6 this year! I am tired of the Dewurst whinning.

some of you always forget the @ Road America part.

[Kyle Keenan]

Hopefully with a pile of crap cans and the added bunch of drifters, we'll see the entry fees go down a bit. Not going to pay another $560 entry fee for Rose Cup again.

[Brian Ghidinelli]

Hopefully with a pile of crap cans and the added bunch of drifters, we'll see the entry fees go down a bit. Not going to pay another $560 entry fee for Rose Cup again.

Track rental, insurance and other costs aren't going down. The only way to keep fees down is to have more participants or charge more money or some combination of the two.

[Bruce Wilson]

Yeah, we're in a vicious cycle here. Less folks able to afford racing and costs going up. Kyle, that is why I don't really like putting those really long races or triple weekends together. The only folks who didn't mind paying the extra bucks are the winners, and that's a pretty bad percentage of satisfied customers...

-bw