I have the car count numbers for SARRC all the way back to 1996. There has been an overall decline in IT numbers since the late 1990s, but that doesn't tell the whole story. The big drop took place in the 2003-5 time period, when SM appeared. All the classes took a hit then, dropping by maybe a quarter. Since that time, ITA and ITS have remained about stable, with ITA entries up a bit (probably due to double-dipping SMs.) ITB and IT7 have steadily declined to about half the entries from 2004. ITC has taken the worst hit, going down by over half until this year, when it dropped off to less than a third of what they were ten years earlier. ITR was introduced in 2007, but its numbers aren't enough to offset the drop of even one of those three classes.
So parts of IT aren't looking great, but overall IT is doing better than most classes. I think a majority of classes are down by 50% or so in the same time period. But the strength of the best attended classes (SM, SRF, ITS and ITA), plus the addition of new classes like ST have kept the overall numbers fairly stable in the last few years. There was about a 20% drop in entries in the couple years after 2007, but things have been fairly stable since then. And regardless of the ups and downs, four of the top six classes this year are still IT (A/S/B/7).
I suspect that part of the perception that IT numbers are down in SEDiv is driven by the fact that per race numbers are substantially down. The number of SARRC races has grown from 24-25 ten years ago to 36 this year. Total IT entries are down around 20%. but per race entries are down by nearly half. The issue of the number of SARRC races is a problem to me, but I know the people who actually have to put on races feel differently. And all classes have lower per race entries for the same reason, so it's not an IT-specific issue.
Last edited by TomL; 01-14-2014 at 12:54 PM.
Tom Lyttle
Decatur, GA
IT7 Mazda - 2006, 2008 SARRC Champion
ITS Nissan 200SX - finally running correctly
FP Ford Capri - waiting for a comp adjustment
GT3 Dodge Daytona - what was I thinking?
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