Quote Originally Posted by ulfelder View Post
If you strip out SCCA history and simply look at the way races in NEDiv are presented, you see a system that is insanely complex and difficult for a newbie to learn. NERRC! NARRC! Pro-IT! NYSRRC! National! Regional! Sign up for a race here! Oops, not that race, silly - sign up over there! Go here for results! Also here! But not there! What? No payment yet? Then you're considered a late registrant! Oh, you did it that way at the last LRP event? Well that was an NNJR race, and this is an NYR race!
I'm not in the northeast, but the more I read, the more I think you guys up there just need to restructure. You've got points series of regional events that covers the same area as your entire division. IMO (nothing to base this on), the idea is that regional events are supposed to be entry-level, requiring less travel, and if you want to travel and compete for bigger stakes, then you race your entire division and run national races. You guys have 5 tracks covering a huge area for your regional series.

I think part of the problem is that there are so many tiny regions up there that want to play. We don't really have that problem on the west coast.

Here in CA, we have 6 tracks covering less travel distance, but guess what? It's split into two series, one put on by Cal Club using the southern 3 tracks, and one put on by SFR covering the northern 3 tracks. Since the entire season is presented by the same club with the same officials, every weekend feels pretty much the same, just at different tracks. Both the CalClub series and the SFR series typically each have 8 race weekends, 13-16 races. There aren't many drivers who cross over and run the other series, so there's not much travel required, and both clubs have great turnouts (even this year, down, but pretty decent.)

On the west coast, Nationals aren't doing so well, in my opinion, because they require so much travel to compete for the division. (Of course, those 6 tracks are not in the same division.) Here near San Francisco we have to travel 12 hours up to Portland and 15 hours up to Seattle to race in our same division. If you are near Los Angeles, racing in your division requires you to travel to Phoenix.