Quote Originally Posted by webhound View Post
Oh man, I read all these threads with interest. I'm sort of dealing with these choices right now. Comp school is just a smidge out of the budget right now, although I do have an ITC car. I could borrow a HNR from a few different guys, so that cost gets taken out of the equation. One other consideration right now for me is the car counts, it looks like in NEDiv the ITC fields are thin, but I could convert to ITB pretty easily.

Not looking for answers here, but I think it's worth noting that even for a person with a race car, the budgetary issues are very real. I can run it with Chump in EC and defray some of the car's cost by renting seats, there really is no additional barrier to entry.
Webhound,
I run both Chumpcar and dabble in SCCA regional club racing. A CC weekend is a much bigger production than simply showing up with a car on an open trailer and a few tools. Figure in the canopy, more tools, tires, major spares, multiple fuel jugs, fuel drip pan, pit fire extinguisher, radios or pit board, many lawn chairs, provisions for 4-6 people, etc. If it's a 24, it only gets bigger. Heck, I take my Miata to SCCA Regionals to relax! Endurance racing really takes a toll on the car too! The maintenance, although maybe lower per hour of track time, is much more frequent. The speed differentials between ITC and the rest of your run group would be comparable to what you would experience taking the car as-is to a Chump race.

Jumbojimbo made the comment that some Chumpcar races would help prepare you for licensing school or make a case for alternate licensing. This is true, but in my case it worked the other direction. Another member of my Chumpcar team and I both went to separate SCCA licensing schools. The experience made us both much more comfortable and prepared us to handle racing in traffic at our next Chump race. The school still involves lots of track time, less "infrastructure investment", and makes for a great weekend at the race track.

-Chris