Atlanta Region Pro-IT Problems

[Tom Donnelly]

Ok, this past weekend at the Road Atlanta Pro-IT post race impound, it was announced that there just might not be a Pro-IT at the next event. Or ever.

They were asking for feedback on increasing car counts.

I personally like the Pro-IT's and the car counts for other than SM are getting really thin.

Why? I dunno. We get the car counts back up and there's more money involved. And we were told there's a chance for increased sponsor money if the counts went up.

Is anybody else going to miss the Pro-IT?

And if so, how can we prevent its demise?

[JeffYoung]

Ok, this past weekend at the Road Atlanta Pro-IT post race impound, it was announced that there just might not be a Pro-IT at the next event. Or ever.

They were asking for feedback on increasing car counts.

I personally like the Pro-IT's and the car counts for other than SM are getting really thin.

Why? I dunno. We get the car counts back up and there's more money involved. And we were told there's a chance for increased sponsor money if the counts went up.

Is anybody else going to miss the Pro-IT?

And if so, how can we prevent its demise?

I think it is a victim of poor choice for Atlanta race weekends more than anything (not knocking Atlanta region, I know they are boxed in). Atlanta used to have "traditional" SARRC/PRO-IT dates in what, May and Labor Day? And those attracted big fields from all over the SEDiv. Now, as those dates have moved around, and the "big" regional weekend at RA is in the middle of July, the attractiveness of a long tow has declined.

I doubt PRO-IT can survive without a large traveling SARRC contingent. That is how the pro series in NC and SC make it work.

One thing I raised a few years ago was to try to combine PRO-IT with the pro series (only one at the time) over this way in NC. Maybe what would help get people to tow.

[Tom Donnelly]

There was talk about merging the series as well.
And questions about preferences between Charlotte and CMP.

I looked at that as raising some hope.

July is not the best time to be in Atlanta either.

[JeffYoung]

I know something of those issues/discussions, not a lot, but what I know wasn't good. Neither of the three series really wanted to budge on a few key issues important to them to make it happen.

I really think though the key to making PRO-IT work is finding an attractive date for the two RA SARRC/regional events. Right now, it's tough for anyone who races routinely in NCR or SCR, or FLA, to make the trip, which is a shame.

The Labor Day event was ideal. I know that is not possible anymore, but it is a shame it is gone.

[CRallo]

In my eyes, ProIT works if paired with a bigger event not "just" a SCCA National. Or if paired with a regional...

[chuck baader]

I think a lot of the problem this year, and the reason I'm not running, is that the SARRC schedule is so screwed up this year. I have no desire to run with the nationals crowd as most of the people I know and hang with are SARRC runners. The Majors definitely f'ed that up this year, for me anyway.

[SPiFF]

This has been said for many years. IT is dead in the Atlanta region. I am sure it is more complex then we can articulate here, but in my opinion the problems are:

1) No core fast IT group in ATL today. Used the be strong in ITS with the BMWs and Z cars and OPM bring out the ITA force back in the hay day. Enough locals for a good race by themselves and people would come from all around to race them. IT center has moved to NC these days.

2) ATL region continues to put on the wrong kinds of races and the wrong times. This has been said many times but geezers refuse to change (or for reasons we don't see cannot change.)

Because of #1, people need to tow. No1 will tow for a single ProIT put in as time filler into some National race weekend jammed between a SARRC/ECR at VIR and a double SARRC at CMP. Nobody is going to tow in May to some "Rational/ProIT" jammed between the double SARRC/MARRS and a double SARRC/CCPS race weekend CMP. The "Road Africa GP" weekend in July is all SARRC and doesn't have much conflicts, yet still not well attended. Not sure why honestly. Nobody is going to tow to the ARRC when it has degenerated into a single race for every alphabet soup SCCA class in the GCR with the Goblins and 13-hour just a few weeks before.

[JeffYoung]

I think we are all saying effectively teh same thing. Pro IT needs a strong regional weekend to "attach to" to be successful. Due to scheduling issues, Road Atlanta can't do that right now.

That to me is the crux of the matter.

[dickita15]

None of my business but I will say that with the rollout of the Majors 2013 everthing is a bit messed up and much will change as the new normal is designed for 2014 as the divisions design divisional championships and all. I am not sure I would do anything rash now with the landscape changing over the next couple of years.

[SPiFF]

IMHO, the advent of The Majors is a good thing and a positive change. It will also drive a change in the regional schedules and types of races, which I think is desperately needed (at least in the SEDIV). IT racing at RA has been hurting long before the Majors was announced.

[Tom Donnelly]

My big questions are:

Where is ITS, ITA etc going to run at Road Atlanta?
There was really no other group available for my 240z this past weekend besides the ProIT.
I guess I could run EP or buy a Miata but I'd like to keep pushing forward in the 240Z.

When is there a SARRC at RA?

And..

Nobody else is going to miss the chance to actually win more than a trophy?

[seckerich]

You are correct Tom, many people do want to win more than a trophy. Atlanta's Pro IT, The Carolina Cup Pro Series (CCPS), and now the THC at VIR are examples. These races give a lot of drivers the paid race they need to have certain tax deductions for their racing effort. The Pro IT survived because of a very strong IT base in the Atlanta area through the years that has now dropped off. Most of your IT crowd are drinking the SM coolaid as are most of your past big prep shops. Many went to Grand Am and left SCCA.

What we need is one Pro series that covers NC, SC, VA, and Georgia to cover our IT core group. I leave Florida out because they have their own series that do very well and they rarely travel for SARRC, or any other series.

Set a standard payout for all the races that the host region administers for the weekend. Then have a set contribution to year end payout for champions that is paid by the regions holding races based on the number of entries they received for the year. Regions holding the races contol the funds until they are distributed to the drivers so no 3rd party is involved. We keep the travel area smaller with VIR, RA, CMP, CMS, and possibly Barber. The support comes from a bigger pot for year end payout and the draw of the other races held the same weekend. Very few drivers will travel for a single race at a not SARRC weekend.

Just tossing this out for discussion.

[Ron Earp]

What we need is one Pro series that covers NC, SC, VA, and Georgia to cover our IT core group. I leave Florida out because they have their own series that do very well and they rarely travel for SARRC, or any other series.

^^^^^
This.

We have:

SARRC
CCPS
THC
ECR
ProIT

That is too many racing series for a small pool of racers. The fracturing of the CCPS into a CCPS and THC is not good for the racers in the area. The racers don't care about the politics of the series, they would prefer to have a contiguous series they can run throughout the year at the various tracks they visit. Ditto with ProIT, it needs to exist at enough tracks to attract a critical mass of racers to keep it going, as does the ECR.

It seems like this stuff would be discussed at the Island Meeting.

[Tom Donnelly]

Steve & Ron,

I'd buy into that. It would be cool to have a "Pro-IT" across regions at several venues.

[seckerich]

Most drivers would, talk to your region leaders and lets all get together on this.

[JeffYoung]

Not saying this is a dead letter, because it shouldn't be, and not claiming total credit for the idea, but it did occur to me several years ago before the CCPS/THC split that merging with PRO IT would be a good idea.

I couldn't get anyone in either camp (all good folks) interested.

I'm sure it can be done but it will take focused effort and pressure. A lot of the roadblocks are fiefdom type stuff: pit stop v. no pit stop; payout amounts, car classes allowed, etc. All fixable. With the will.

[DavidM]

The key, as Jeff said, is tieing the ProIT (or whatever you call it) to a larger SARRC weekend. Nobody is going to come to a track just for a ProIT.

[seckerich]

First thing every region is faced with is less cars coming to races. The fixed cost of racing is the transportation and maintainance of the entire racing package. Giving drivers the chance to run more races, share a car, rent the extra race, etc means more money in the regions pocket and more drivers getting a chance to race. This keeps entry fees down and more races on the schedule. I would bet 90% of the rules for all 3 series are the same and only need a few tweaks to fit as one.

[Ron Earp]

Steve, I think you're basically right. For all intents and purposes the rules are the same. These non-SARRCs are essentially longer races.

The problem is going to be territory. Tom's thinking "yeah, Pro-IT at VIR, CMP, and RRR, that's cool". While Bob is considering the merits of CCPs races at Road Atlanta and Fred is thinking it'd be great to run the THC down at CMP. Each is thinking of their own racing region and how everything is just fine. Most are not considering the big picture or overall club health.

This fiefdom stuff has to go.

The RE's (or whoever decides this stuff) need to sit down and consider what racers want. And racers, well, they need to tell the RE's what they want but from experience we know it isn't easy. In a club like the SCCA the squeaky wheels get the grease and if the squeakers are the ones affiliated with a given region's pet series, well, then there won't be any compromises.

I'd like to see a 1.5 or 2 hour race format, a series that runs all over the SE, with purse and payouts and the allowed classes included ITE (a catch all class for cars that met IT SAFETY rules) and provisions for LeChump cars. I think that would be successful and could replace the ECR, ProIT, CCPs, and the THC. It'd draw a good pool of cars, that is for sure, and for that reason it wouldn't have to cost any more than one of the aforementioned races.

We've got five great tracks in the SE - CMS, RA, CMP (shut up, it is fun), RRR (that's a stretch), and VIR, maybe even Rockingham if we removed the "great" adjective. It'd be wonderful to run SARRC and an XYZ series at all of these tracks. The fact that both series would be at all the tracks the average SE racer could get to would be a boon to entries.

[SPiFF]

We are telling the REs, with our lack of attendance. I live 45m from RA and 7h from VIR. I am planning 3 trips to VIR and 1 (maybe 2) to RA.