ITE rule set?

[JIgou]

If it makes you feel better, the local guys thrashing to get a SM ready for the MAM weekend dropped a motor in it a week ago (after the car sitting for almost a year without any engine), painted the car on Saturday and started working on mounting the belts and seat that night. Alignment to come "some time this week".

Keep digging! :-)

[ITEGT]

Im ready for a few good nights rest to get ready for the school. Car wont be 100% done but its close enough.

Got my novice permit to day too.

[ITEGT]

Looks like its gonna be cold and rainy this weekend at MAM. Im going to rob the street tires off my 99 Cobra and take them as rain tires.

Any advice for a school in the rain? Will the school go on?

[tnord]

i did my school in the rain/SNOW in March....at Gateway.

few things are as unnerving as trying to go around the banking for the first time in the snow at your school.

the school i did before with Midwestern Council at Blackhawk was in the rain too. i think it's good because it forces you to slow down and be smooth. after that...running in the dry is "easy."

[JIgou]

We'll touch on some rain tips in the classroom session - especially since it'll likely be a wet day.

The school will indeed go on. The only thing that will slow us down / postpone any sessions would be lightning in the area (worker safety takes precedent over track time). That MAY come into play....but let's hope not.

The best news I can share is that every time I look at the forecast on weather.com, it's improving. Still wet, but the forecast high is now 47. That's a heck of an improvement over the 39 they were saying on Monday... :-)

[Matt93SE]

eeek!!
rain at a school? ohhh man. have fun! take at least two pair of big girl panties. You will surely soil one of them your first session, and probably another after the first spinning car you narrowly avoid creaming.

don't want to scare you, but rain is definitely a place to be careful, and learning to run W2W in the rain is more than I would do. then again, I'd only done like 1 or 2 DEs in the rain before that and was still scared of it. I still don't like it, but have run 4 races this spring in the wet. I'm getting more comfortable with it.

g'luck!!

[JIgou]

Hey, guess who made it to (and more importantly, THROUGH) the double school this past weekend?

Welcome to club racing, Mr. ITEGT!

[ITEGT]

Thank you Jarrod!!

It was a weekend I'll never forget. I learned a lot and had a great time. The school was very well put together and well run, even with the bad weather on Friday. I dont think conditions could've been much worse.

I got my first taste of drivers school on a track I'd never driven, along with my first day of driving on a race track in the rain, all in a car Id never driven on a race track before. Did I mention on about two hours of sleep?

So if thats not asking for things to go wrong I dont know what is.

Made it through the weekend, didnt bend the car, had the priveledge to meet some great people and see some people I hadnt seen since '06.

It doesnt get much better than that!

Anthony
SCCA ITE #26

[Gary L]

...and BTW, you don't make a bad pit neighbor, either!

Enjoyed the conversations, hope to see you at the track again.

[JLawton]

Congrats Anthony. And all because of the advice you received on this site!!

[ITEGT]

...and BTW, you don't make a bad pit neighbor, either!

Enjoyed the conversations, hope to see you at the track again.

Gary,
It was good to meet/visit with you too. You had on a good looking hat.

Congrats Anthony. And all because of the advice you received on this site!!

Yeah, I think so. A little peer pressure never hurt. There were a few posts that really encouraged me.

[Matt93SE]

Congrats! Yeah, it's hard work, but the hardest part to getting your license is over. The rest of it is easy now. Just go out and play in traffic!

[ITEGT]

3 races in the books, regional liscence eligible. Hope to make 2 more races this season so I can go right to a national liscence.

One of my old V710s finally gave up in race 3 this past weekend. I gave them hell in the first race sunday morning.

I learned a lot this past weekend during my first race weekend. Not just about what the car does on track at the limit but how I need to be more focused in the pits between races. I made some mistakes but have learned from them.

Great seeing some folks again, doubt Ill be at MAM next month. Hoping to be at Hallett in July.

Anthony
ITE #28

[ITEGT]

I didnt like not having a rule set to show to tech at HPT. Such is life in ITE but it would've been much easier to show the chief of tech that my minimum weight on a 4.6l mustang is 2380lbs per STO rules. (GCR pg 463)

The only item that Im not legal for in STO is a fuel cell which isnt required in ITE. Even my oil pan drain plug is safety wired, so I have read the rules and I am otherwise to my knowledge legal for STO. I may be splitting hairs here but not having a rule set is kind of a pain in the ass when it comes time to say yes thats legal and then being asked "per what?"

Can I use the STO rule set when Im questioned as to what rule set I used when building my ITE car?

Thank you,
Anthony

[Gary L]

Can I use the STO rule set when Im questioned as to what rule set I used when building my ITE car?

Thank you,
Anthony

I don't think you can use the STO rule set, because of the prohibition against mixing different series rules.

In any case, I've always thought of ITE (at least here in MidDiv) as being sort of "run what ya brung", based on this part of paragraph A: "...or cars not eligible for any current SCCA Improved Touring class which are prepared to the current Improved Touring rules." That means I can run a Bugatti Veyron, provided it is prepped to IT rules.

So what is there on your car that does not meet the Improved Touring ruleset? Weight doesn't count - the car is not IT classified, so there can't be a minimum weight.

I have to ask... did someone actually ask to see a ruleset? I remember two 450+ horsepower 944's running ITE here in Midwest division a few years back... I wonder what series rules they were using?

[ITEGT]

Gary,
The chief of tech was new and wanted to know what my minimum weight was and to what rule set my car was built. For a big mustang my car is light <2900# empty and compared to the other ITE Camaro there that weekend, my car weighed about 300# less. Maybe thats why tech questioned it, I dunno. Lucky for me I had Rocky Entriken standing right there next to me to help explain what my ITE mustang is.

I may not run into the questions again but I too was under the impression that ITE essentially was a run what ya brung class. So when the questions started and I didnt have any answers or a rule set to back me up, it just left me scratchin' my head as to where do I get an answer that will satisfy the tech inspector.

Thank you,
Anthony

[CRallo]

no reason for you to feel uncomfortable! An officals greeness(yes I'm being nice) is not your fault...

print out the ITE rules for your region(or whoever is applicable here) and keep it with the logbook if you want.

haha! this reminds me of when the IT allowance for DP/BP was new(or the class was too) and the tech guys didn't know what to do when an IT car rolled on the scales! "Which engine? what type of trans?" they would say and start doing the math...

[JIgou]

Anthony, FYI - ITE in Midiv USED to require a rulebook of some sort to show what the car was prepped to, but several years ago the line that Gary quoted was added to the rules, in essence turning it into "run whatcha brung with IT safety."

I'd guess Rocky told that story, but with a WHOLE lot more history and specific dates attached.

[ITEGT]

I was looking through my MidAm Championship rule book aand guess what... there are all the rules for IT including the 3 paragraph blurb about ITE. I stuck it in with my CGR.

Jarrod,
Haha, sounds like you've had a few conversations with Rocky! Wish I could be at MAM but I think I'll skip it so I can be sure to make Hallett and HPT in July!!