USERA Adds New Classes for Carbotech Endurance Championship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USERA Adds New Classes for Carbotech Endurance Championship

DANVILLE, VA. (May 31, 2006) – The United States Endurance Racing Association announced today the addition of two new classes to their Carbotech Endurance Championship series for 2006. The two new classes come at the request of teams and sponsors wanting to be included in the exciting and affordable endurance format offered by USERA.

The first new class will be designated Spec Racer (SR) and will include the SCCA Enterprises Spec Racer Ford. Well known drivers, such as Speed TV announcer Dorsey Schroeder, started their racing career in Spec Racer Fords. The Spec Racer has recently proven itself to be an exceptional vehicle for low cost endurance racing.

The second class being added is designated Touring Car (TC) and will include vehicles meeting SCCA Improved Touring (S, A, B and C) and SCCA Showroom Stock B and C specifications.

Both classes will be recognized immediately and are eligible to enter the next event on the 2006 USERA calendar at the Nashville Superspeedway on July 7-8, 2006. The Nashville race will be a six hour event under the lights at the speedway and should prove exciting for both the teams and spectators.

About USERA
Founded in 2005, USERA manages the Carbotech Endurance Championship which consists of three hour or longer endurance races culminating with a season ending Driver and Team Champions. Classes include Spec Miata (SM), Mazda MX-5 (X5), Spec Racer (SR) and Touring Car (TC). For more information on USERA, visit: www.usenduro.com

Media Contact: Ken Grammer, President 434-797-1866 office; [email protected]

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With the announcement that we are adding IT/SS as a class for the USERA Carbotech Endurance Championship, anyone with an SCCA prepared IT or Showroom Stock prepared car may enter the USERA Championship. Our next event is a six hour event from 3-9 on Saturday July 8 (practice and qualifying on Friday July 7) at the Nashville Superspeedway.

USERA memberships are $50 per Entrant/Driver/Crew and $25 for any minor/guest members.

Entry fee for the six hour event is $850.

Vehicle registration (required for the Championship) is $100 per car and assigns you a season long reserved number.

When the class reaches 20 cars, we pay $10k in purse (1st through 15th).

We accept most major comeptetion licenses (SCCA, NASA, FIA, many more). Full details can be found at www.usenduro.com.

You can e-mail any questions about the new class to [email protected] or call 434-797-1866.

I've gotta say, when I first heard rumors that there would be an endurance series on the East coast, I was pretty jazzed. When I heard it was only going to allow Mee-otters, I was massively not jazzed.

Now that it's become clear that the series won't survive long being so "exclusive," and all IT/SS cars are being jammed into one class, my first reaction is my tongue poking out through my lips making a big, wet "Plplplplplplplpl." Neener, neener, neener, as they say.

My second reaction, about a minute later, is "Anyone want to rent a seat in the Golf in July?"

:)

K

What really opened our eyes was running with the CASC Sundown Group at Mosport last month. Basically our SM cars were running with IT cars and the racing was exciting. Plus we continued to receive calls from IT owners asking if they could race with us. We realized there was no reason to be exclusive. The SM guys really enjoyed the larger field and "strategy" of dealing with both slower and faster cars.

So we stepped back and asked ourselves why we weren't offering a class for IT and SS cars. There was no real reason. Coupled with the poor attendance from the SM community, it certainly seems like the right thing to do. There are plenty of IT teams who want a plas to race beyond spint and club enduros so why not allow the IT/SS class?

Oh, and SM is far from died. We expect a strong field at Nashville and beyond. We just realized that we had plenty of capacity to support additional classes. We hope the IT community sees this move as a positive one. We certainly feel it can be for them.

In our minds this is no different from how Grand-Am Cup was structured a few years ago when they had four classes.

Ken,

First, I want to say congratulations on what appears to have been a succesful race at Mosport.

2nd, I think this is a great idea to open the series up to IT cars. While I currently race ITC and have a very limited budget, I think that this is a great idea. The thought of IT drivers being able to compete against other challengers from around the country, for points, and cash is great.

Many in the IT comunity have wanted an opportunity to race "nationally" (something that SCCA has not granted), and you have brought that to those of us that can afford to do so. I think this will brign a great boost to your series!

Thanks!
Regards,
Brian Hooper

Thanks Brian. You know, hindsight is a wonderful tool, and certainly if I had the opportunity to "do over", I would have started with an IT class. But we started the series so late for 2006 (didn't even get started until December 9 at PRI) so we are "growing" along with the series.

I hope the IT community supports the series. I traveling endurance series is a higher cost venture for most, but we've compared our cost-per-entry fee against those of sprint races, club endurance races and Grand-Am Cup and with the exceptoin of the really long races (12 and 24 hour club races), we are still the best bargain for run time per entry out there. Add a purse into the mix and, well, it becomes a no-brainer.

This was what we had in mind when we formulated USERA... low-cost professional endurance races to give teams and drivers an opportunty to start moving up the ladder without needing $250k yearly budgets. So far the format is working... we just need to get our participation numbers up so we can grow into even bgger and better venues... like our Lime Rock and VIR weekends at the end of this season.

And speaking of those two events, we have some exciting news coming about both events. VIR in particular will be a very, very big weekend and is perfectly aligned for IT and SS cars. We expect slots to fill up quickly for both, so we will open registration for both of those events soon.

Again, thanks for the comment. We hope to see you at a USERA event soon.

(PS. We will be posting our "Hour-per-Entry Fee" breakdown on our web site soon.)

Making sure I have this right in my small mind:

Are all 4 IT classes plus the 2 SS classes grouped as one class for points and finishing position?

If so, I see good and bad sides. Good = much easier to get to 20 cars for a purse. Bad = ITS cars having a big advantage.

Also, 20 cars for a purse, is that per race or added up all season?

Yes, ITS, ITA, ITB, ITC, SSB and SSC are are combined into one class for one race purse. The purse is PER RACE, so there is a lot of money on the line for the class.

I understand your comment about ITS cars. But as we've witnessed with endurance races, the "fast" car doesn't always win. The team with the "best" car and "best" pit stop crew will win.

Also, *if* we were to have a big turn out of ITS cars and enough of the other cars to warrant it, we would consider putting the ITS cars into their own class. We need to grow to that point first.

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Yes, ITS, ITA, ITB, ITC, SSB and SSC are are combined into one class for one race purse. The purse is PER RACE, so there is a lot of money on the line for the class.

I understand your comment about ITS cars. But as we've witnessed with endurance races, the "fast" car doesn't always win. The team with the "best" car and "best" pit stop crew will win.

Also, *if* we were to have a big turn out of ITS cars and enough of the other cars to warrant it, we would consider putting the ITS cars into their own class. We need to grow to that point first.
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Ken,

The fact that you pay back to 15th place in a 20-car class is pretty nice. That should help get some cars other than ITS and SSB out there. Your point about the fast car not always winning is on target, but all else being equal, an ITB car doesn't stand a chance against an ITS car. Also, what's the payout schedule? Another question, while VIR is pretty big, and can handle a large field, what about the other tracks that you run at? What's the smallest field limit that you have?

>> what's the payout schedule?

Found this:
http://www.usenduro.com/points.html

The following purse will be awarded for 20 or more cars per class per race:

1st $2,500 4th $900 7th $600 10th $300 13th $175
2nd $1,500 5th $800 8th $500 11th $250 14th $150
3rd $1,000 6th $700 9th $400 12th $200 15th $100

I am sure you'll get a great IT turnout. At what event this season will the IT points championship begin for the series end of year point?

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>> what's the payout schedule?

Found this:
http://www.usenduro.com/points.html

The following purse will be awarded for 20 or more cars per class per race:

1st $2,500 4th $900 7th $600 10th $300 13th $175
2nd $1,500 5th $800 8th $500 11th $250 14th $150
3rd $1,000 6th $700 9th $400 12th $200 15th $100
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Not too shabby. You'll about break even if you win. $850 to enter, $1500 for tires (maybe less if you only need six and not eight), and $150 for fuel. Mind you, this is based on a 6-hour race and a fuel consumption rate of ~8 gal./hour.

Sorry for the delay in replying. Bill, thanks for posting the purse schedule.

Our smallest field is probably going to be Lime Rock. We are talking about a 50 car limit.

Nashville - No limit at this time (100?)
Nelson - Depends on the SCCA, but would expect around 50 USERA cars as a base limit
Willow Spsings - no limit set at this time
Lime Rock - 50?
VIR - 125 (the club put 104 on the track this spring with plenty or room to spare)

Touring Car and SRF points points will start accruing with the Nashville race.

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Sorry for the delay in replying. Bill, thanks for posting the purse schedule.

Our smallest field is probably going to be Lime Rock. We are talking about a 50 car limit.

Nashville - No limit at this time (100?)
Nelson - Depends on the SCCA, but would expect around 50 USERA cars as a base limit
Willow Spsings - no limit set at this time
Lime Rock - 50?
VIR - 125 (the club put 104 on the track this spring with plenty or room to spare)

Touring Car and SRF points points will start accruing with the Nashville race.
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Ken,

50 cars at LRP??? I think the max SCCA field size is 38 cars w/o a waiver. 50 cars will get awfully crowded. The larger issue I see is that you've got a situation where you can't get enough cars for all the classes to be eligible for purse money.

Well, honestly 50 cars is only 12 more then the SCCA "limit", so I think for an endiro 50 entries to start the weekend is more then workable.

We have a LONG way to go until the Lime Rock weekend so we will learn a great deal about car counts and who will be the predominant classes by that point. IT has the opportunity to be the primary show by Lime Rock. But even assuming both SM and IT are the two predominant classes, that's still roughly 25 cars per class.

I agree Lime Rock will be a challenge but we will deal with it as best we can. The Busch East weekend is a great weekend with a lot of fan participation so we need to put on an awsome show for everyone.

All I can really add is... Enter Early to reserve your spot!

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Well, honestly 50 cars is only 12 more then the SCCA "limit", so I think for an endiro 50 entries to start the weekend is more then workable.

We have a LONG way to go until the Lime Rock weekend so we will learn a great deal about car counts and who will be the predominant classes by that point. IT has the opportunity to be the primary show by Lime Rock. But even assuming both SM and IT are the two predominant classes, that's still roughly 25 cars per class.

I agree Lime Rock will be a challenge but we will deal with it as best we can. The Busch East weekend is a great weekend with a lot of fan participation so we need to put on an awsome show for everyone.

All I can really add is... Enter Early to reserve your spot!
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Ken,

While it may be "only 12 more", it is also over 31% more, which is almost 1/3rd more. I think that's why the SCCA goes w/ a "car per mile of track" density number, so that you can normalize it across different tracks. I've been in 35-car fields at LimeRock, and can't really imagine another 12-15 cars. Good luck!