SE regional class; ITJ

[Flyinglizard]

If anyone else sees a reason or market for the "ITJ" class, please let me know.
The basic rules that I am looking at are.
Chumpcar/Lemons;
SCCA or more cage,sillplates etc are allowed ,no max floor plate area. No straight tubing past the wheels, other than core support. No tube frames. No gutting of the crush zones.
SCCA safety rules; other wise

DOT 190 tires, max width 205, for all cars and any wheels.

" Chumpcar" body rules, min 60% of stock panels, (by piece count not square in.)
Stock glass, lexan or remove glass.
Stock or equivalent throttle body area.
Stock exhaust manifold
93DB sound
No fuel rigs, "Chumpcar" standard fuel jugs only.
2 Drivers per race, 5 min stop , clocked on the lap timer( over 1 hr).
Normal sprint races.
I will present this set to the CFR and FR and maybe Atlanta region , RE, after the Daytona race.
MM

[Chip42]

I personally hate the idea. Chump and lemmons in their on group maybe, but not mixed with the others. There was a junker that officials put in ITA at the last daytona weekend.BMW 525 I think. Dog slow in the corners, fast in the straits. Got in the middle of races for cars actually prepared to run in that group.

[Flyinglizard]

Funny that you can say Daytona and "corners" in the same sentence. It is what it is I guess.
ITA had one driver, ITO( Crap can) had one driver, about the same lap times. So without the crapcan the driver would have been out by himself. As it was, they had some sort of a race.
results show; ITC maybe 3 cars, ITB 4 cars, .
Granted, it is track specific , the slow cars dont like the60sec of noise,followed by 30sec of 4 turns.

[Flyinglizard]

132 cars registered for Chumpcar- Daytona, 5/27, 14 hr race. 125 will start.
Each car has at least 4 drivers. ( my team has 16 people)
Each car has paid 900$ reg fee.
I think that the key to getting some of these drivers, is that the team of 4, will hamper the results of the best drivers. The best drivers want to control the race outcome for themselves.
That could be the SCCA market nitch. letting the best drivers run the ITJ car for sprint races or 2 driver , short enduros .
IMHO. MM

[Ron Earp]

A couple of Lemons/Chump drivers came over to the StangWerks Sunday afternoon to have a look at our cars. They have two V6 Mustangs they're racing in teh "crapcan" series. After talking with them a couple of hours a few things were clear:

*They have the skills to build a winning IT car.

*They can drive. Both do lots of DE days with two sports car clubs in the area plus test days. They have dedicated track cars (both V8 Mustangs). One guy just ordered a brand new 2013 Boss Stang. They probably get more track time that we do.

*They are well funded. They haven't spent IT-money on their cars, but they aren't far from it. They have certainly spent a good amount of time in the garage.

But in talking to them about SCCA racing, well, they just aren't that interested in learning about it or doing it. To them, they're racing, racing hard, and most importantly, they're having a ball. They're inviting us to come watch them and help at "enduro events", where the "real racing happens". They do not perceive SCCA as the pinaccle of amateur racing, if anything they consider NASA a more prestigious club but also think it is expensive based on what they have seen at NASA events (I tend to agree here, some of the NASA cars are huge money).

I too believe the SCCA is going to lose out on a bunch of potential racers if they cannot in some way accommodate, or at least attract, these racers. Maybe instead of running full page ads in magazines for SCCA races the local SCCA needs to come up with a booth type advertisement that highlights various transitions from Crapcan to SCCA, setup a table at a crapcan race, and talk to people about it.

I dunno. 125 cars starting at $1000 a pop is serious business.

R

[Flyinglizard]

The market is so strong that I am taking the glass out of 2 pretty nice IT cars this week, to run them in Chump. I get about 4 SCCA rentals per year now. I will have 8 rental drivers at Chump Daytona, 12 @ Sebring, 8 @ Road Atlanta. About 1/3 have or have had SCCA memberships.

Maybe SCCA is the stepping stone to Chump already. Maybe the SCCA system/business model is not what these guys want.

[TStiles]

132 cars registered for Chumpcar- Daytona, 5/27, 14 hr race. 125 will start.
Each car has at least 4 drivers. ( my team has 16 people)
Each car has paid 900$ reg fee.
I think that the key to getting some of these drivers, is that the team of 4, will hamper the results of the best drivers. The best drivers want to control the race outcome for themselves.
That could be the SCCA market nitch. letting the best drivers run the ITJ car for sprint races or 2 driver , short enduros .
IMHO. MM

We've got about 60 cars ( that's at least 300 drivers ) for the 24 Hour Chump race at TWS this weekend. Lots of SCCA drivers in the field. Some with serious efforts , some with just for fun efforts.

The team of 4 thing can be good and bad. When you get 4 guys together that are on the same page and similar skills , it's great. Sometimes it's tough to get 4 funded drivers together. I watched our car owner struggle to develop a team in his 1st few races. ( we've got 7 drivers for this weekend's event )

I've got an SM with a never touched motor that I'm considering Chumpizing , would love to see some SCCA races ( sprint or short enduro ) for this car on 190 treadwear tires. Of course the challenge is finding the run group for these cars to run.

At the end of the day , our club needs to do what it needs to do to remain relevant. I keep hearing people say it's just the economy , but Chump / Lemons are doing just fine. That's market share not just economy.

[Knestis]

The more I look at this question, the more I think it might come down to the tires.

It's not the enduro format that is the super-mojo for Chump. We have long races with 4 driver teams in SCCA. The problem is that I need to get enough $$ from each driver to not go broke fielding the team, and a chunk of that goes to tires.

We talked a little about it at NJMP last week and there were some nodding heads when I said I'd be totally FINE if everyone in the IT field were on cheap DOT 190 tires - enduro or sprint.

K