Originally Posted by
lateapex911
It's certainly interesting to look at the car counts that HPDEs like Ian Prouts bring to places like Watkins Glen on a Monday! Dudes in Porsche 911s, Lotuses, Caddy V cars, Honda S2000s, and so on. They gather at the Subway for lunch...wearing $1000 Sparco driving suits.
I instructed with Ian for a few years, and got to know the crowd. I asked a bunch if club racing held any attraction. Most had the money, if their $60000 street /track cars and $1000 driver suits (for a HPDE!) were an indication. And they had an interest for driving around tracks fast. And they were willing to take weekdays off from work.
But, most said no. Why? Reasons like: Kills the weekends with the kids, wife won't stand for that. - Too dangerous. - Gotta get a truck and trailer AND race car & this track toy goes to work too. - Not enough room for all the stuff. Then there were reasons that were being cloaked, I suspect, such as while it looks cool to be parading around Watkins Gleen with a fancy racing suit on, the cold reality of competing ...and getting your ass handed to you....is enough to cause pause: fighting and working up the ladder to a win is not worth the embarrassment to get there.
Of course, tht's not all of them, but I do think that all the new on track choices for motorsports entusiasts have resulted in more people getting on the track, yet less racing with the SCCA. I think thats because before the other options existed, people ran with the Club because it was the best- errrrr, the ONLY option.
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