2015 NERRC schedule

[ner88]

First off, the number of classes have nothing to do with car counts.
We are and will be forever the greying car club ("m not going into my reasoning)
The future of SCCA is not the 15 year old up and coming star, Once daddy stops paying its over!
All of our attention should be on who we are.

Call it regional or local racing that's what makes us successful.
There are plenty of us out there, we are just spread out to thin with so many different opportunities.
Go to any of these tracks on a weekday and there is some club with cars on track.

[Dave Patten]

IMO the number of classes does have an effect on entries. The more classes that get forced into club racing from top down, the more it decreases in-class completion by separating the current driver supply into smaller groups.

I have a GTL car. I am not interested in Majors/Runoffs participation, so I raced by myself at Regionals. Not much fun, so in the middle of the 2014 season I bought an IT7 car after a couple guest drives in 2013.

Why did I leave GT for IT, simple, competition. And that competition brought me out to the track more in 2014 than 2012 & 2013 combined.

If you do add classes (IT7 is a great example) let it come from the bottom up. If it grows great, if not kick it to the side (ie the now defunct, Classic GT).

Solid competition increases entries, participation trophies don't.

[ner88]

Dave, You're one of the few willing to change.
I would bet the majority would just quit if their class went away.
SCCA, As a club, should have a place for everyone to play.
If not we become NASA :-)

[lateapex911]

First off, the number of classes have nothing to do with car counts.
We are and will be forever the greying car club ("m not going into my reasoning)
The future of SCCA is not the 15 year old up and coming star, Once daddy stops paying its over!
All of our attention should be on who we are.

Call it regional or local racing that's what makes us successful.
There are plenty of us out there, we are just spread out to thin with so many different opportunities.
Go to any of these tracks on a weekday and there is some club with cars on track.

It's certainly interesting to look at the car counts that HPDEs like Ian Prouts bring to places like Watkins Glen on a Monday! Dudes in Porsche 911s, Lotuses, Caddy V cars, Honda S2000s, and so on. They gather at the Subway for lunch...wearing $1000 Sparco driving suits.
I instructed with Ian for a few years, and got to know the crowd. I asked a bunch if club racing held any attraction. Most had the money, if their $60000 street /track cars and $1000 driver suits (for a HPDE!) were an indication. And they had an interest for driving around tracks fast. And they were willing to take weekdays off from work.

But, most said no. Why? Reasons like: Kills the weekends with the kids, wife won't stand for that. - Too dangerous. - Gotta get a truck and trailer AND race car & this track toy goes to work too. - Not enough room for all the stuff. Then there were reasons that were being cloaked, I suspect, such as while it looks cool to be parading around Watkins Gleen with a fancy racing suit on, the cold reality of competing ...and getting your ass handed to you....is enough to cause pause: fighting and working up the ladder to a win is not worth the embarrassment to get there.

Of course, tht's not all of them, but I do think that all the new on track choices for motorsports entusiasts have resulted in more people getting on the track, yet less racing with the SCCA. I think thats because before the other options existed, people ran with the Club because it was the best- errrrr, the ONLY option.

[StephenB]

And far as the NERRC CHAMPIONSHIP is concerned....


Any feedback to drive participation?
I am looking into a few sponsors for the series to disperse to those that win year end trophies. Any ideas, or takers?
Any feedback on the points system?
Anything at all?

Stephen

[team-gpracing]

What were you thinking?

Looks like we'll have at least 16 races, depending on how the double/triple weekends shake out. Minimum 8 races to be crowned?

I always thought that point systems were backwards. I know we as humans think that bigger is better, but it's so much easier to do things backwards...and with less digits.

How about this: One point for each position. Points are bad. Lowest at the end of the season wins. Example - First place gets one point, 12th place gets 12. A theoretic perfect season would be 16 points.

Using the above points system, maybe you get a point or two added for each race that you don't start. So if you attend 12 of 16 races, you get 4 points added to your score. This system could work even with the existing points system.

[lawtonglenn]

...So if you attend 12 of 16 races, you get 4 points added to your score...

actually you'd have to add alot of points for a DNS ... one idea would be the number of finishers in the race
you missed plus 1, making it equivalent to you finishing DFL in each missed race ... and... I'd give the winner
a bonus for winning... or maybe how about this:

pos 1 points 0
pos 2 points 2
pos 3 points 3
pos 4 points 4
pos 5 points 5
:
pos 12 points 12
pos 13 points 13
:
DNF points (finishers + 1)
DNS points (finishers + 2)
DSU* points (finishers + 3)

* DSU = Didn't Show Up




.

[gran racing]

So you could have a really weak but large field made up of cars not even built for the class, and it could kill your chances by DSU (not showing up). Ugh.

[Dano77]

IT and SM/STL crossovers is gonna bring havoc to this system. Depending on the weekend there would be 2 ITA cars and 17 SM running ITA and Kill the guy that didnt show cause his kid has a ballet/horse/birthday thing going on.

Whats actually wrong with the system we have?

As far as publicity for the series, Come up with a name, and do the gorilla marketing for your team/series/class. Any skiers in the northeast should be looking at chairlift poles this year for something.. Muhahahahahaha

[Serge]

It's certainly interesting to look at the car counts that HPDEs like Ian Prouts bring to places like Watkins Glen on a Monday! Dudes in Porsche 911s, Lotuses, Caddy V cars, Honda S2000s, and so on. They gather at the Subway for lunch...wearing $1000 Sparco driving suits.
I instructed with Ian for a few years, and got to know the crowd. I asked a bunch if club racing held any attraction. Most had the money, if their $60000 street /track cars and $1000 driver suits (for a HPDE!) were an indication. And they had an interest for driving around tracks fast. And they were willing to take weekdays off from work.

But, most said no. Why? Reasons like: Kills the weekends with the kids, wife won't stand for that. - Too dangerous. - Gotta get a truck and trailer AND race car & this track toy goes to work too. - Not enough room for all the stuff. Then there were reasons that were being cloaked, I suspect, such as while it looks cool to be parading around Watkins Gleen with a fancy racing suit on, the cold reality of competing ...and getting your ass handed to you....is enough to cause pause: fighting and working up the ladder to a win is not worth the embarrassment to get there.

Of course, tht's not all of them, but I do think that all the new on track choices for motorsports entusiasts have resulted in more people getting on the track, yet less racing with the SCCA. I think thats because before the other options existed, people ran with the Club because it was the best- errrrr, the ONLY option.

Jake, you hit the nail on the head. I agree 100%

[ner88]

Jake I can agree but not all fit your description and I think its Road racings best source for new blood.

What's kind of funny is when I asked to change the LRP schedule making Friday qualifying actually count, I was told no one will come Friday because they have to work.
And if they can't make Friday they wont come on Saturday.......My how things have changed :-)

Now we will be racing on Friday/Saturday at Thompson and practicing on Thursday!

[StephenB]

20 points for first
18 for second
16 for third
14 for fourth
Then 13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0 respectively after that.

Then 1 bonus point for every car you beat that took the start.
Count your best 10 finishes. In the event if a tie you add your 11th finish then 12 and so on till a winner is decided. It is highly unlikely but possible to still have a tie, at that point they thumb wrestle at the banquet.

Stephen

[team-gpracing]

I meant to add that the "bonus" points would be added to the last car in your class. So if you miss a race and there were 12 cars that finished in your class, you would get 13 points (although I like Glenn's idea of different points for different levels of not finishing). Maybe in order to keep large classes from suffering, you can only get a maximum of 10 points, plus bonuses. Kinda like F1 with only the top finishers getting points.

Meh, it was just an idea. Stephen asked for comments...I gave them.

[lawtonglenn]

...Meh, it was just an idea. Stephen asked for comments...I gave them.

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