ITC car in HP?

[jumbojimbo]

It looks like I may have to visit my wife's family in NC in April and a race at VIR might make the trip livable for me.

What do I have to do to my ITC Civic to allow it to run in HP? I don't want to show up at a national event and not be allowed to run.

The three things I can think of are:

Fire system: my handheld is no good in prod?
Fuel cell: my rotary moulded cell in a metal can is no good in prod?
Window straps: for some reason I thought they were required in prod?

Honestly it seems a little silly that my ITC car is legal to run in a group as an ITC car but if I switched to HP and ran in the same group it is not technically legal. I don't suppose there is an official ruling that says that if I run my car in legal ITC trim it can run as an HP car?

I guess my other option is STU, I'm legal there all the way, right? Makes no sense since I'd be running against bigger, faster cars, but...

[joeg]

Yes Jim--No hand-held--Fire system in Prod; same thing for Fuel Cell and windshield tabs.

You may even need to run tubes from the a-pillar down tubes to the firewall.

(I am trying to recall from memory as it has been many years since I built my Prod-car.)

[Charlie Broring]

I suggest contacting the Chief of Tech for the event and/or Region and tell them what you are trying to do. Let them guide you as to what changes they will want to see in your car to have it run in HP. I have run my ITB car in FP before as a one time deal and talking to tech in advance helped smoothed out some potentially bumpy issues.

[Matt93SE]

Not sure about how the run groups are laid out at VIR, but in Houston region all of those cars run together anyway. Prod, STU/L, GTL, SSB/SSC, SRX7, and ITA/B/C all run in the same run group here. Fields are fairly small- only around 20 cars or so, so that probably makes the difference.

Thus for Houston it wouldn't matter which class you ran in since you'd be on the track at the same time.

But I would try what Charlie said- give them a ring and ask if they'd make an allowance and go from there.

[boywonder]

Just run it in STU, I won both of my races I entered in STU while still in ITC trim. Of course it may have helped that I was the only STU car... :shrug:

But seriously, track time is track time, and those sessions were worth the $50 it cost me to double-dip. Was considerably faster than most of the prod cars, and while the Vettes blew my doors off in the straights it was fun to be pushing them through the corners. And it'd be a great excuse to run VIR, especially before we even have a chance to hit the track here. Maybe I'll visit her family too! :023:

I've been thinking about adding a plumbed in fire system - can find them for about $300 now for a three nozzle set-up. And I have a spare tank you could borrow if you want to remove your box.

[Terry Hanushek]

Matt


Not sure about how the run groups are laid out at VIR, but in Houston region all of those cars run together anyway. Prod, STU/L, GTL, SSB/SSC, SRX7, and ITA/B/C all run in the same run group here. Fields are fairly small- only around 20 cars or so, so that probably makes the difference.

The VIR race is a Double National - no STL, SRX7 or IT.

Terry

[Charlie Broring]

After thinking about it, the VIR National Race in an IT car may not be such a great idea if your not up to speed on the track. It's not a track that you learn quickly. If you have raced competitively there before and it's a really good car you may be able to pull it off. But, it's no fun if you spend the whole time trying to stay out of the way.

[Matt93SE]

Matt

The VIR race is a Double National - no STL, SRX7 or IT.

Terry
Yeah, I figured that much- was just mentioning how things are run here. We have a few really fast EP and SM guys, and several of the SM guys will double dip into IT or STU whether it's a regional or a national. Nationals weekends run the same run groups, just without the regional-only classes.
Point being they're all on the same track at the same time here so it wouldn't matter which class he entered here.
the good thing is ITA/ITB/ITC aren't on the track with the GT and T1/T2 cars. That just sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[jay05]

Don't you need a National license to run a National?

[Gary L]

Don't you need a National license to run a National?

Yes, you do... but there are many IT drivers out there with national licenses. All that is required to obtain/retain a national license is to complete 4 regional races per year. I normally meet that requirement easily, so I normally get the national license instead of the regional ticket when I renew annually. You never know when it might come in handy, and IIRC it's only 5 bucks additional each year.