Lots of things to comment on, but it's late and I've had a long day..

First.. getting an SCCA license isn't THAT hard. I went to the SCCA super school back in August of last year and walked away with a novice permit. I then ran the next 6 races- all regionals FYI- and got my nat license in time for the first National race of the year in Feb.
So I started racing in August and had my National license in Jan. I didn't have any waivers or special treatment or anything. I did the school and did the required number of races so nobody had to stick their neck out on writing letters and such.

If you want a license quicker than that, anybody can go to MSRH and do one of their several licensing schools each year and walk away with a novice or reg license in a weekend. cost is more than the SCCA school, but if you just want your license, it's cheaper to pay their weekend price and have your license than it is to do the SCCA school and run the required regional races under the novice permit.

Point is, it's doable. BUT not too many people know how the system works and they're afraid of paying for a "racing school." I as heck couldn't talk the wife into letting me do a $4000 Bondurant school, but I could talk her into a $700 school and two race weekends (4 regionals) in my own car at $1500 each after all costs are considered.
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Next point..
I think there are a good number of races in our season. We race once a month except Sept (Runoffs) and July (heat). For the guys that have the money, that's great. For the guys who can't afford to race more, then that's their problem.
Yes, it probably lowers attendance at each race because some people choose to 'randomly' skip races where they would all show up if you ran fewer per year.

BUT... there are also guys like me, Steve Takke, Caesar Vielmas, and many others I can't remember that have run every race this season. (I was mainly doing it because of our first child coming this month and I had a feeling my racing days would be scarce after that.. So the wife kinda let me run wild this last year. Anyway, you get the point.

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Jerry... Any word on whether or not STU will be allowed to run the enduro this fall? I know that was still a subject of debate a few months ago and never heard a yay/nay on it.
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SM + SRF combining... I see them run together at the enduros and I've run with them several times on practice days, so I don't see a problem with SRF and/or SM being combined with another class.

Midwest division does a different set of run groups and I guess it works for them. We would have to look at average entries in each of our classes to see how that would work and I'm too tired to look at that right now.
http://www.midiv.org/Code/2010_Results.htm

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LeMons/Chump.. We would definitely have to consolidate the rest of the run groups so we'd be down to 5 groups to make that work. Especially on true street tires, I wouldn't want to be out there with them. I also don't know if they would be willing to pay the entry fees to get into an SCCA event. The fees are pretty freakin high for the amount of track time you get, and the LeMons/Chump demographic are all about bang-for-the-buck. $475 just in entry fees to get two 25 min qual and a 30 min race in a weekend? They'd rather save their money and get twice as much seat time for $300.
It's also similar for NASA. I haven't looked at the cars locally, but I would think some of the PT, ST, Spec 944, and Honda Challenge cars could fit into IT or ST.
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That's all my brain can handle right now..
One final question for Jerry since I know you'll look at this thread ..
My car is due for annual tech (expired in June). It's going to Louie for some work later this week and will be at the track until the race. Since I run group 1, what's the best time to get the annual done where you guys aren't running and I don't have to wait in line for 4 hrs?