Getting Rid of Regional/Majors Distinction?

[Ron Earp]

That's a good question Butch and worthy of contemplation.

Why I'm contemplating, can someone explain to me the advantages the racer enjoys with the current National/Regional distinction? The advantages or benefits are probably obvious to some of you long-timers, but for a relative new comer (ten years, all regional) they are not at all apparent.

[Greg Amy]

Same history lesson I've preached many times in the past: We have Nationals classes that are eligible for the Runoffs. We allow regions to create any other classes that they feel fit their local needs.

Improved Touring was an idea that hit various regions in the early 80s and took off, and other regions picked it up. Because there were varying regs in varying regions, SCCA (Englewood CO at the time) agreed to publish a separate book* for IT with a nationally-consistent set of regs, all so that competitors could travel intra-region and not worry about compliance differences, but with the caveat that this was just a convenience and the class was never intended to be considered for participation in the Nationals program.

Time moved on, all nationally-compiled regs were combined in a single book, including IT, and everybody began to wonder why IT couldn't play at the Runoffs.

IT exists in the same plane as Super Production, ASR, SSM, SMT, ITE, ITEZ, ad nausea: regional-only classes. By virtue of historical evolution it just so happens it has a nationally-consistent ruleset (Butch tells me there's others in there, but nothing to the extent of IT).

GA

* The GCR used to be one book, and each category had its own physical book. You had to purchase each separately, only scrutineers got "the bible" with all in one binding...

[Butch Kummer]

That's a good question Butch and worthy of contemplation.

Why I'm contemplating, can someone explain to me the advantages the racer enjoys with the current National/Regional distinction? The advantages or benefits are probably obvious to some of you long-timers, but for a relative new comer (ten years, all regional) they are not at all apparent.

Posted my original question around noon on Friday, then headed out for happy hour before the first replies came in. Greg has offered his thoughts, but here are mine:

1. Granted there is certainly crossover in the middle, but IN GENERAL the level of preparation and intensity is greater at a Majors/National event than at a Regional event. I understand that spending more money on your equipment does not necessarily make you faster, but look at the support equipment that shows up for a Majors weekend compared to a Regional weekend. They may not drive any better, but many of the folks running Majors have serious equipment around them. Not everyone running a Regional weekend wants to (or can afford to) invest that much into their efforts.

2. If everyone is allowed to run every event, where does someone starting out in W2W go to get racing experience? Again IN GENERAL, there's more disparity at the Regional level and thus people IN GENERAL are more patient when dealing with traffic and/or newbies. Bottom line - some (many?) people don't want to put forth the effort necessary to run at the front at a Majors event, so having lower-key events (Regionals) gives them the opportunity to race where they want.

3. I know most of you don't care about publicity and think Topeka does a piss-poor job of covering things, but "promoting" over a hundred weekends of racing events is pretty much impossible. Last year there were 25 Majors events and every one is covered on the Majors website with pre-event and post-event articles, live timing, and in most cases live play-by-play audio for those that can't make it to the track. They also experimented with live video at a couple of events in 2014 (Mid-Ohio for sure) but I don't think that made it through the 2015 budget process. Of course the individual regions can do this on their own, but 95% of the regional events are not covered in any way. By way of example, before 1972, NASCAR Grand National (the highest level) ran over 70 races a year - that's part of why Richard Petty's record of 200 wins will never be broken - but when Winston got involved they realized there was no way they could make that many races "special" so they cut it back to 31 weekends. The creation of US Majors Tour in 2013 is SCCA's attempt to reduce the number of events to a manageable level, which allows better publicity for each of them.

And while StephenB thinks removing the distinction will give him more people to race with, I believe the opposite is true. Right now IT classes are not part of Majors weekends, so if you suddenly allow them are more IT drivers going to show up? People say we already have too many weekends, so adding 25 more events is going to increase participation at each event?

Finally, the distinction is part of the culture of SCCA ("the way we've always done things") and while I believe my past performance in multiple positions of leadership in the club shows I'm not adverse to change, there needs to be a valid reason TO change. Again, why would allowing everyone to run every race be better than what we have now?