I ran my car in the South East division for 5 years. First 4 years in SM, last year in ITA.

Here are my comments. Take them for what they're worth, politically correct I am not, truthful I am

SM is a FANTASTIC class. You will learn more in 1 year of racing in SM than you will in 5 years of racing any other class. Period. The racing is closer, MUCH more intense, there is an extremely broad talent spectrum from the best racers in the country to frankly the worst racers in the country. There are guys spending 40K on their cars and there are guys spending 10K. The majority of cars in the division are high-dollar and run race motors and "professional" setups. The guy pulling his car on the trailer and working on the car himself is in the minority. There are typically 30+ cars in a race. Running up front requires a big dollar, time and talent investment.

ITA is a great class in this division also. The majority of racers are pulling the car on their own trailer and working on it themselves. There is much less pressure in the races. The racers in this class tend to be more experienced and less likely to put you in the wall if you try to pass them. It's a much less stressful class. The racing is more "fun" but I would question whether it's more rewarding. There are typically 10-15 cars in a race. You can run up front much easier in ITA than in SM.

In case you're wonderning why I switched from SM to ITA, the rules were changed to make my 1.6 basically uncompetitive in SM at the pointy end of the pack. I was very frustrated being outspent and I wanted to race with guys who shared my dollars to fun ratio The investment in my car was way less than your typical SM guy, I recently sold the car for less than 10K so that'll give you an idea of the car's value. I think most ITA cars are in that price range.