Scca It Is Time For Change Now!

[Tom Blaney]

Here is another thought on National vs Regional. As an IT guy, I don't want it. I hate the format. I want to race, not to practice a gazillion times and qualify. This months Memorial Day Triple is an example of excellent customer service - that we get every year.

Again - maybe to Patullo...is it even feasible for us to run an event with all of our Regional only classes at a National? Even if it was...so much time for a single. No thanks.

LESS EVENTS + MORE VALUE = MORE DEMAND.

I know it stings to allow events to fade away, but really.

Part of the entire racing experience is setting up the car correctly for the track your at, that is why there is a practice session, then qualifying and then the race.

Your willing to spend an extra amount of money to attend a Lime Rock event with "a practice day" added as a bonus, why not go to an event where you get to do more with the car, than at the current regional format, where you get a short practice/qualifying session, a very long period where you stare at the car, or sit in the lawn chair, while all 25 other classes get their one shot, then a short race 1/2 the distance of a national race hoping that somebody's car doesn't crash or blow up and cause a full coarse yellow for 1/3 of the race.

If you want race time than consider the fact that at a national format event, you get lots more track time to setup the car, qualify against the competion (to see what they are going to beat you with), and a race that is twice the distance of a regional format -- all in the same time frame as a regional race and all within the same driving distance. So it gives you the track time you want and you might actually have more than 2 competitive cars in the race.

Since your an IT guy, you should also look to the problem as an SCCA member not an individual focused on your own needs. The club needs to change badly and it needs the membership to work as a group to come up with a reasonable solution for all the drivers and most of the cars. Yes there needs to be a blood letting of cars and classes, finally accept that nobody really cares how many IT or Formula car classes there are, narrow it down to big and small, work out a formula that balances the races so that there are a reasonable amount of car marks that can run in the combined IT/Prod/T2 class, or Formula Large bore, Small bore, and GTLarge and GTSmall.

Let go of the I'm a IT guy or I think Open Wheel is real racing mentality and work to make the entire program work.

[Andy Bettencourt]

Tom,

Test days or HPDE days are a WAY better value for testing and car set-up data and tweaking than any practice session at a National. Track specific set-ups are documented and placed on teh car BEFORE the race, no? I do all that prior to coming to the track.

As far as qualifying? 20 minutes is plenty of time to get in your best lap. If you can't, you are doing it wrong.

All I am saying is that as a racer, I want to maximize RACE time. For me, nothing to do with the class I run in except that the changes I can make are minimal - but see my first point above - the way a National is structured is not optimal. Thereby making a National - Regional combo a bad idea for me.

This whole thing is so simple. Pull some events. We don't have the demand for 3 LRP's. We don't have the demand for 4 NHMS's. Pocono on MD weekend is a tough sell. These things are staring us right in the face.

Add Pro IT. People who like the series will run it. People who want mucho track time will run it. It adds potential value to that event. Think up other 'Pro' Series to do the same. Pro-FV or Pro-SRF...anything to add to the revenue line without hurting the value others have placed on the event.

And here is where it hurts like I said in my first post. The small regions who have no track that put their fiscal nuts on the line every time they host a race - STOP! Why? If it was just NER deciding how many races to have, it would come into focus REAL FREAKIN' quick what was a saturated market. Step on some toes. Work together for the betterment of SCCA.

How about a mid-year meeting at the LRP school? We need NER RRB reps there.