Quote Originally Posted by Ron Earp View Post
What really gets the IT racers though, is that while IT is regional only it a) still gets controlled to a large extent via the CRB and b) provides a large amount of income to the club but its racers are still essentially second rate members of the club.
a) We can resolve that by removing it from the GCR, and thus the CRB's control. Then IT is no longer centrally-controlled and all the locals can do with it whatever they feel best.

But IT racers don't want that: they want a centralized set of rules that somehow spontaneously happen without any centralized control, all while being infinitely responsive to the needs/desire/votes of the racers competing within it.

So do you want a centrally-managed set of regs or do you want the regs to be responsive to local needs/desires/votes? Sorry, you just can't have it both ways.

b) Improved Touring does not provide a large amount of income to the Club, other than in licensing (and I suspect the overhead may exceed those revenues). Improved Touring does, however, provide a large amount of income to the regions in the form of entries.

Ergo, IT is better off being a regional-only category, responsive to the regional racers it serves and the regional leadership that benefits from it.

I've moved back and forth over the years between National/no-National. when I was competing at the top of my game in ITA I wanted to bring it to "The Show", but I have always realized (well, at least since the early 90s) that once one does that the game changes significantly. Today's winners in ITA have zero chance of consistent success at their current level against Spec Miata-level Nationally-prepped ITA efforts. That's just the way this game works.

The farther we get into these debates, the more I'm leaning toward the idea that Improved Touring and the SCCA in general are better served by removing the ITCS from the GCR. Solves all ills for everyone.

GA