Here is what I had posted on the old SEDiv website. It needs updating which I will do and get posted to the new website, www.sedivracing.com. This was geared for new drivers in SEDiv. Any Division could easily modify it to fit.
Thanks for the reminder
Welcome to the Southeast Division of the Sports Car Club of America. If you are interested in automobile competition, you have found the best there is in SCCA. The SEDiv SCCA is SCCA’ s most active competition Division. We have competition series to suit all your financial and skill levels plus we do it year round. However, before we get to competition, we need to do a quick introduction to SCCA.
SCCA is the Sports Car Club of America. Our organization is based in Topeka, Kansas and currently has 47,000 members. You can visit the SCCA website at http://www.scca.com/home.aspx. The Southeast Division is composed of individual SCCA Regions geographically located from middle Virginia to the Mississippi line west all the way down to Key West plus Puerto Rico. Here is a summary of all Regions and contacts. http://www.scca.com/...ns.aspx?div=se. When you join SCCA, you will also be joining your local Region. Each local Region conducts events in their area.
SCCA sanctions thousands of automotive competition events each year. These events range from Professional races such as World Challenge and Trans Am all the way down to autocrosses in the local school parking lot. In between these are the majority of events that draw people to SCCA, Time Trials, Rallies& auto races. Let’s start where the vast majority of SCCA members compete, the Solo programs.
Solo involves timed competition using cars all the way from you everyday transportation to full prepared race cars including go carts. The SCCA website best describes Solo as “Solo events are driving skill contests that emphasize the driver's ability and the car's handling characteristics. This is accomplished by driving a course that is designated by traffic cones on a low hazard location, such as a parking lot or inactive airstrip. While speeds are no greater than those normally encountered in legal highway driving, the combination of concentration and car feedback creates an adrenaline pumping experience.” For a complete explanation of Solo, http://www.scca.com/...aspx?content=55. In addition, visit the SEDiv Solo website at http://www.sedivsolo2.com/. Each individual Region in SEDiv has their own Solo program. And each year, over 1000 Solo competitors compete at the Solo National Championships in September in Nebraska. For information on the SEDiv Solo program, go to .http://www.sedivracing.org/SEDIVRegions.html
If you like being lost, like driving around dirt roads and having friendly exchanges with you co pilot, then another area of SCCA is for you, Rally. SCCA also sanctions a variety of Rally events each year. For information, visit the SCCA website at http://www.scca.com/hub.aspx?hub=2 . You can also visit the SEDiv website for the National program at http://tnrallycross.wordpress.com/. Rallying offers you the opportunity to compete with a friend or spouse as navigator.
Road Racing is probably what SCCA is best known for and the SEDiv will provide you with the most events each year in all of SCCA. Our website, www.sedivracing.org , will give you complete information about road racing in SEDiv. If you look at the site, you will see a schedule of all completion events. Here again, there are different levels including volunteer workers who help conduct the races, Positions include Corner Workers, Starters, Registrars, Timing & Scoring, Tech, Grid, Pits & Emergency Services. All of these are great places to start with your introduction to Road Racing. In the SEDiv, we race at tracks such as Road Atlanta, Daytona, Sebring, Homestead Miami Speedway, West Palm Beach Raceway, Barber Motorsports Park, Virginia International Raceway, Nashville Speedway, Roebling Road & Carolina Motorsports Park. You can contact your local race region to see how to get started or just go to a race and ask to help. Here’s a link from Florida Region http://floridaregion...ver School.html . However, if you have you heart set on driving, here’s some places to start.
You will note some events are listed as PDX’s. These events are on race track at speed but with controls on
passing and various levels of experience. You will also note on our schedule that we have races listed as
Regionals, SARRC, ECR and Nationals. All SCCA amateur races are either Regionals or Nationals. Nationals
require a higher grade license and primarily are used for qualifying for the SCCA Championship race, the
Runoffs. The SCCA Runoffs is held in September at Road America and does require meeting minimum
qualification requirements. However, since you are new to SCCA, let’s talk about Regional Racing which is
where you will be starting.
Before you can attend a Regional race, you must complete the minimum SCCA requirements for obtaining a
competition license. You can either attend a professional school such as Skip Barber or you must complete two
SCCA schools unless you have prior experience. If you have prior experience, you can contact the Division
Licensing Administrator and request a waiver. The Licensing Administrator plus all other SEDiv Race officials
can be found at http://www.sedivraci...ivOfficials.pdf
I’ve skipped one big requirement and that is your race car. SCCA races everything from off the showroom floor
cars to Indy type cars to NASCAR stock cars. I would suggest you go to the SCCA website and look at our rule
book, the GCR. It will give you an idea of the wide variety of cars and the rules for each class.
http://cms.scca.com/...GCR-January.pdf Again,
going to the track and speaking to drivers of the various cars will also give you a good idea of what you might
want to race. Additionally, there are a number of teams who have cars to rent. Once of the best investments
made for someone just getting started is to rent a car for drivers school and your first races. That way, you can
concentrate on driving and let someone else worry about the car. Then, you can decide on which car to race.
Now, let’s assume you have obtained a license and completed your school requirements and you are ready to
go racing. This Division has two excellent Division wide regional race series. The SARRC series is the most
successful regional race series in all of SCCA. Each year, the series has 25 races and over 4000 total entries.
SARRC stands for the South Atlantic Road Racing Championship. The final SARRC race of the race season is at
Roebling Road in October and is called the SIC or SARRC Invitational Challenge. As the name implies, this is an
invitation only race. In order to be invited, a driver must enter three regular season SARRC races. Drivers may
count their points for their best six regular season races toward the SARRC Championship. In addition, the
points earned at the SIC count double and are added to the best six regular season races. Our other Regional
race series is the ECR and is limited only to Spec Miata, Showroom stock, SRF & IT classes. ECR is the Endurance
Championship Race series and is 1.5 or longer races. The series is similar to SARRC in that you count your best
six regular season races and the double points for the Championship race which is scheduled the same
weekend this year as the SIC. The Champions from all our Division series receive their awards at our Annual
meeting and Awards banquet held in January each year at Jekyll Island, Ga. Part of each drivers award is free
banquet admission. Last year, over 75 drivers attended to pick up their Championship awards.
This is just a simple introduction to the SEDiv SCCA. I hope this gives you a quick insight into the best SCCA has
to offer and you will come join us for some fun and excitement.
Jim Creighton
SEDiv SARRC Administrator & National Pointskeeper
Jcreig53@mindspring.com