2014 Improved Touring Participation

[Greg Amy]

How about just making it a whole lot simpler and dispose of regional/national status, combine the series, make all the cars eligible to run the events.

Because a vote for that is a request to remove Improved Touring (and other regional-only classes) from the GCR.

Read above: you are working on the misguided assumption that because Improved Touring exists in the GCR, it has a chance to become a Majors class. That is an incorrect assumption that has been consistently affirmed over the last three decades.

GA

[seckerich]

Regional racing is proven to be the backbone of the club in numbers and in revenue. Most regions would not exist without IT and other regional classes. We continue to build a club racing program around the 500-600 drivers that might go to the big show. This is proven out with the introduction of the Concord agreement. Compare that number to the number of regional entries in the Southeast alone and you see why there is such a disconnect with the membership.

One day the CRB will figure out that stable rule sets and classes not marked for death, are what draws entrants. SRF, FV, SM, Improved Touring are always at the top in Nationwide participation. This is because people like to buy the car they like and develop it over time as funds allow. The moving target is killing our club. IT provides what almost no other category in SCCA can offer with so many options to race. We can go to the track with one car and race 4 sprints on a double weekend, as well as a multitude of enduros. Similar to Chump/Lemons a few guys can share one car and cut the cost of racing way down. Majors has no such draw. We have forgotten who we were as a CLUB. Sad.

Removing IT from the GCR would be wrong. When that happens you will see my entry dollars move to some other organization that gets it. You think any other organization would not be happy to have over 4000 ITS entries alone? Our BOD has the same problem as past BOD, can't figure out if we are Pro or not.

Last I checked my post race audit, we send just as much money in per entry as Nationals did, minus the tow fund that goes to racers. This was before the Majors wine and Cheese tax to fly the national office to events to hand out tow money. Each of those entries paid the same membership and license fee so I would say regional racing is very much paying for their fair share of the National office.

[Greg Amy]

I'm asking, doesn't the region contribute money back to HQ based on the entries? Fewer regional racers, less money back to Topeka.

Don't know the exact details, but I believe there are only per-event sanctioning fees. That fee does not change based on number of entries and/or the mix of entries. So, as far as Topeka is concerned, a Formula Mazda entry is as good as an ITC entry.

I think regional racing does have an impact on national classes. The two best attended national classes, SM and SRF, are also well subscribed at the regional level. I suspect if there were fewer, or no, regional races that the participants in these classes would find other outlets for their racing.

I'm inferring you're saying that increased Regional entries increases the Majors entries. Or vice versa? I personally don't sense that. If anything, and especially with the changes in the Majors programs the last coupe years, these series tend to attract a differing group of people, based on classes offered (some prefer IT, for example) and level of prep (generally speaking, the money and time spent on prep is lower in regional racing).

NASA does a lot of stuff wrong, but one thing they got right was not having a regional/national racing program. There are races and a championship. Come one, come all.

Yes, "come one, come all" but only if you maintain the numbers. NASA is a lot more responsive to weeding out the chaff and making it go away (witness Spec SE-R, for example). SCCA doesn't do that (often) with its classes; once you're in, you typically stay in (hell, we still have A Sports Racing!) If, for example, ITC were a NASA class it would have been cut a long time ago... - GA

[Andy Bettencourt]

One day the CRB will figure out that stable rule sets and classes not marked for death, are what draws entrants. SRF, FV, SM, Improved Touring are always at the top in Nationwide participation. This is because people like to buy the car they like and develop it over time as funds allow. The moving target is killing our club. IT provides what almost no other category in SCCA can offer with so many options to race. We can go to the track with one car and race 4 sprints on a double weekend, as well as a multitude of enduros. Similar to Chump/Lemons a few guys can share one car and cut the cost of racing way down. Majors has no such draw. We have forgotten who we were as a CLUB. Sad.

This.