The Current State of Improved Touring

[Jeremy Billiel]

rob- I agree with you. I think mega dollar builds during the great realignment which triggered thoughts of being uncompetitive after weight adjustments pushed people to other classes. The ITS BMW mess didn't help either...

[RSTPerformance]

IMO SCCA making all these new classes to "attract" other racers has hurt the class and possibly the long term success of the club... This includes the three Miata classes, the SP classes and the ST classes, not to mention all the other classes I am missing because honestly I would bet a drink 99% of our members could never list off every class that exists in their reguon of SCCA.

It was simple in the 90's... SS, IT, Prod, GT. a few side classes like SM and some catch sll classes (when I was a kid I think I called it lebra) are good but add in all the rest and it gets way to complicated. Right now we are in transition I think and there isn't much direction or focus, give it 5 or do more years and lets see where the demand shifts!

Raymond

[Wreckerboy]

Raymond, you are right. There are about eleventy seven classes right now, each with it's own requirements. Using the Evile Miata as an example, there are at least [s]three[/s] [s]four[/s] [s]five[/s] a whole buttload of classes mine fits in on any given weekend - SSM, SM, ITA, FP, and STL. To a casual observer/enthusiast trying to figure out the differences between what they are watching is difficult. "Mom, why has that Miata got all those letters written on it?"

The SCCA model is a rules driven classing one. The NASA (and before it, to a lesser degree, EMRA), is a car driven one. Essentially it is "Show us what you've got and we'll find a place for it." This is a wonderful way of lowering an entry barrier. Face it, today's new entrant builds a car first and asks questions later. They've often got their HPDE monster and have done lapping days and now they wanna race. Right now. The SCCA says "Sure, just change x, and y, and z and then come play."

Both sides have their strengths and weaknesses, and I am not saying that one is better or worse than the other for the committed racer. But for the causal fan, the fresh blood, the classing thing is one part of the problem that the SCCA faces.