Easy Glenn,
This is a pilot program and I am grateful for the folks at the Glen for stepping up and trying this out. We need to run some of these to learn how to do them better and having first class regions and tracks buy in will give us good feedback.
The issue we are trying to address is that many groups, vintage and crap cans and such have a lot less hoops to deal with than at least the perception in SCCA.
The Competition Driving Experience is limited to the lowers third or so of SCCA’s performance envelope. It uses the 13/13 rules in contact and has a chief instructor like a PDX to track and coach competitors. In exchange for those limitations the insurance companies and the risk management people have said we can have easier to comply with standards.
This makes it possible for someone who has a GCR Safe car and personal gear available to self-certify the medical like the FAA does at their lowest level, buy a weekend membership and see what this racing thing is all about. This may be a path to club racing for some or it might be a perfect end destination for others. Either is fine.
Those of us who are at the track all the time may not realize the 50% of all SCCA licensed drivers run two weekends or less a year. How long are those guys willing to go thru all the paperwork to keep current? Maybe if they could run some event where the paperwork was easier even if the racing was more gentlemanly they would be more likely to tie up a bay in their garage with that old race car.