A simple plan for the SCCA (especially Club Racing)

Karl McColl

Karl McColl

Well-known member
1) Leave Solo alone - it seems to be working

2) Create a National level CTT program. Use Solo classifications and PAX to determine Divisional championships. Tap our long relationship with tire companies, car companies, and other auto related products to subsidize and provide contingencies. Market the hell out of the CTT at all Solo events.

3) Club Racing - Get rid of the National, Regional, Rational distinction. Just have club races. Keep the Super Tour program to highlight certain races. pick a permanent home for the runoffs. (Mid-O?)
Make it easy for CTT drivers to move up to Club Racing from a drivers school credit standpoint (this is already happening) Market the hell out of Club Racing to CTT.

Racing is expensive. Thats a fact of life. It shouldn't be complicated. Our competition gets that.
 
Glad you all agree.

Further, each current National class continues to go to the runoffs. Nationally recognized regional classes (IT) don't initially, though they may petition to change that if the competitors wish. Classes such as club ford and club continental would not be allowed to petition as they already have entree through the national class for those cars (FF or FC).
 
Worked for a company big on "customer focus groups". Had a focus group meeting every month until one agreed with the desired direction, and that's where we went

Ask enough people how you're doing, eventually one will tell you you're doing a great job. End of research.

The Edsel was the most market researched product up to that time. Customers said they wanted it, but realized they didn't, once they saw it.

Many more entries at a 1 day Midwest Council race at Blackhawk than the 2 day Rational at Hastings.

Give 'em what they really want, they will come.

RJS
 
thats what i'm getting at RJ. Bring your race car to the track, you're welcomed. Bring your street car to a CTT, we'll get you some track time. Are we a car club or a hoops club? cuz we sure got a lot of hoops.
 
My opinion - if you really want to fix SCCA club racing, go out and find a new driver. Pick out someone with the income, the competitive spirit, the work ethic, and then drag them kicking and screaming into the shop push and cajole them into a car and a driver's school, walk them through all the b.s. and then sit back while they thank you (or curse you) for getting them hooked on the greatest sport with the best club with the best rules around.

Don't count on your division, don't count on the CRB, don't count on the national staff, don't count on the BOD. They are all great people with varying opinions who mean well - sometimes they nail it, sometimes they miss the mark.

IMO the only way to "FIX" SCCA is to go out and bring in new drivers. People talk about Chump (for example) eating our lunch. I'll tell you what I most see about Chump is they are HOOKED, they are ENTHUSIASTIC and they are EVANGELISTS. More than anything else that is what I think we are missing. Here in St. Louis we are working really hard to come back from a near death experience and there are lots of ideas floating around about rejiggering schedules and attracting this and that - but the bottom line is we the drivers need to be working harder to grow the sport.

(I do agree less hoops is good - I'm just saying that all the great ideas for how to fix it top down wouldn't hold a candle to what would happen if every one of us would go out and get ONE MORE GUY to give SCCA racing a shot, as it exists today, warts and all).
 
Good ideas, for sure it's time to get rid of the national/regional difference. The runoffs could be configured many differently ways than it is now, the one day championship could be good deal, even with all the classes going national, including IT, you could up with some sort of shedule, that got every class race in 1, even two days, just like normal race weekend, they do every weekend in the SCCA, run 7, or more groups in a single race weekend, so with the current 7 day runoffs format, that would leave alot of room to get everyone's class race in the single week. Maybe two qualifiers and race for example. You have IT day. where all IT championship race are decided on a given day, then Prod day, then GT day, Formula day and so-on, it might lead for a very interesting format. It would also boost overall runoff entries, due the the added classes, and more than likely boost overall class growth, because any class can go to the runoffs.

My theory on SCCA racing has always been including as many folks as you can, it just makes common sense, so by combining national and regional, just having club races, and every class is able to race for national chamionship in the runoffs. The biggest deal is selling it to the regions, many region's regional racing is more sucessful than their national racing, and many have sucessful regional race series, and that should not end, the region championship, would be nothing more than a path to the national championship. Also this may free up some regional track date we currntyl hold, and those track dates could be used to inovate new programs, vintage, longer enduro series, Lemons/Chump type of events, track days, time trials, etc., it could leave more room to expand on more programs and ways to attract people to the SCCA.

Yeah, it definately can be way better marketed to attract more. First you gotta come up with way to grab the young people, make them make SCCA their racing home from a young age. I really like the idea of lower prep, close to stock, cheap as hell ****** ***** class, running longer enduros, where 3-4 young people could split up the cost of going racing, get them in road racing cheap with a near stock prep level on cars say alteast 10-15 years old, so it all about cheap donor cars, and then that way as they get older, and make more money they can move into the national program, and grow with the SCCA. As is now most of the racing the SCCA offers is $1000 a weekend as for cost if you're on the cheap, if you can come with shared program where young folks can share the cost of racing and do it with cheap to prepare cars, they will come race with the SCCA.
 
FWIW, I have a rule set to allow Chumpcars into the SCCA class with a few minor mods to the Chump rules. Like a tire rule and 3 classes based on lap time potential.
The biggest thing about Chumpcar is the race time vs tow time. twin 7hrs ,14hr or 24hr races.
The next biggest thing is the ease of entry. Write a check and show a valid DL for the medical is all that you need. I have discussed the same with SCCA and they say no freakin way can it be done without a medical .

Currently, the hoops needed to go SCCA racing are many and todays kids seldom have the attention span to get through them. Most of todays parents are check writers as opposed to garage tinkerers, that is a big diff vs the 70s when we all had to screw with cars to get to work.
SCCA; Med, track car, school, school, novice ticket, race
Chump; driverslicense, checkbook, car, race,
The actual cost and time may not be much different but the perception of ease is very different.
marketing 101; It's not the product, itis the perception of the product that sells.
SCCA has the perception( if anyone knows about SCCA at all) of being a club of old codgers. And it is. (" my grandpa raced a sprite with SCCA back in the day is it still around?")
I have proposed running races with half of the groups on each day before, the old guard wants to camp and stay around for three days. The new guys/younger want o get it done in one day.
I have proposed allowing Chumps to race a 6 hr evening enduro series, counting the race as SCCA school track time towards the novice permit .
By using some basic rules, the SCCA cars can opt into run the "Twilight Endurance Series"(CR, Ogren)
The entire package could be called the "Crap Can AM" (Ogren)
 
I think adding a "chump" style event to an SCCA weekend is a great idea. Treat it as a lower-tier (which it is) form of racing within the club and it will allow the more budget oriented drivers/tinkerers to see an SCCA weekend in action. Make the "chump" class go last so they see all of the events leading up to it and get interested. I'm attending an event at the Glen in October that has school on Friday, regional on Saturday and Pro-it and a 4 hour enduro on Sunday. I think it's genius. A little bit of everything for everyone.

Another idea that NER is tossing around was issuing "crew passes" for a weekend. Basically a ticket for an SCCA race weekend that you can give to friends, family, strangers. When people have a ticket in hand, they are more likely to attend....more random attendance (fans), more potential growth. Whether that growth is membership or actual participants, either way it is a win.
 
I respectfully disagree. I think this is exactly what we have been doing, and it has diluted and diminished the National program. There is nothing wrong with offering a certain program with a particular set of rules. "kinda" including every variation thats kinda close to what we do now has blurred what existed. It is how we ended up with FM and FE. Two Mazda powered open wheel classes very close in performance. The same goes for FB, very easily could have been included in FA. We don't need to be everything to everybody. It would never occur to me to search out the local model train forum and show my disgust that they wont let me fly my model airplane at their events. You said yourself, the attention span is short. If SCCA wasn't the best amateur wheel to wheel racing series going, you wouldn't be here trying to include Chump car. SCCA National racing is to me, and should always be on a higher plane than Chump car or Lemons. SCCA is where you come when you are committed and really want to race Wheel to Wheel with another car, or 20 other cars. These series obviously have their place and their appeal. Thats fine, SCCA needs to be mindfull of their existence and market to them, "when your done driving your car, Come RACE your car" but not modify the program to kinda include them. I don't know alot about Chump car, but my guess is there are few marques that you couldn't run in some existing SCCA. You like Enduros....we do that. You like open wheel...we do that. You like one day events......we do that. You may have to put a fuel cell in, you may have to take out your headlights. The reason for coming to SCCA is you like what we do........so do what we do. If I like flying model airplanes, Im going find guys like flying model airplanes. The catch in all this, I think we have lost track of what it is we actually do in the attempt to please every little niche. Just my opinion, Im probably wrong and SCCA will continue down this track day mish mosh. maybe succesfully, maybe not.
 
WE dont need a dying national program, we need a nationwide program . IMHO.

Many Chump racers are xSCCA top level racers.
Many of us use SCCA events for training/testing the Chumpcars and drivers.
 
I've never been PC in the past, why start now.

I think we should hold our ground or even go the other direction and work on making the national program more distinctive. (Notice I did not say "start a new majors program").

To me the idea of eliminating national is just the next step in the SCCA's slow and steady decline into the Chump Car Paralympics.

The SCCA started out with world class cars and world class events. Think about the 50s, 60s, even into the 70s and 80s.

Then we started the decline that we've been on ever since. IMSA, Grand Am, even our own World Challenge and Trans Am and drawn off the cream of the racing world and we've happily let them go. Now NARRA, Mike Rand, and other "Pro Amateur" series are drawing off the rest of the serious guys.

National Racing is not perfect. But it's still (or it used to be) our premier series. When you no longer found winning a regional to be a challenge you stepped up to national and started getting your butt kicked again. It meant something to be competitive at an SCCA National. Some people used to like a challenge. Ah the good old days.

Now we seek to homogenize and make everything vanilla. "It okay that you can't climb the rope Johnny. We'll just eliminate that from gym class so you don't feel bad."

I know this makes me sound like an elitist prick (I could never climb the damn rope to the top, but I loved trying). I just don't believe in this cultural shift of eliminating challenges to suit those who can't (or more likely don't choose to) step up.

This IS racing. The idea is supposed to be distinguishing the fast guys from the slow guys.

-Kyle
 
Mike Orgen wrote:

"One day race?? I'm not the only one that sees this as good??
Cool, MM"

To be fair, it is a 2 day event; driver's school Saturday, races Sunday. Still draws the numbers.

Adding MORE races to the schedule does not equate to increased participation.

Adding more classes does not equate to increased participation. (Most SM drivers I know raced some other class BEFORE moving to SM)

Dilution is NOT the solution.

RJS
 
A Top national racer will spend not a lot less than a World C team. The top($) level now has many options, some get TV time. A national level SCCA racer gets nothing. That is why there are more options than ever before.
Times have changed; Spec racing is huge, Crapcans are huge. We need to change or die a slow death. Have a few money loser races and it will be a quick stop.

No money around? The money is just picking better places to go. GT3 Porsche had sales of about 2000 cars last year..
I have 12 drivers for the 14hr Sebring Chump race. 6 have SCCA licenses.
I have no rentals for the upcoming SCCA Sebring long course race.
Look around, the SRF is the best class of pure racing there is. Rentals are way down,car count is down. SM is down.
Our IT cars now run HP so that we can use the SRF tires and worry less about rules. HP is up here , to about 6-8cars per event , some old, some new. It was a major cost reduction to enter HP, no need to buy the R6 tires, I can use good(4130) axles, etc.
We would entertain running the runons ,if they were not during school, if we could run with a regional ticket, if they were @ MO. VRI, WGI,Or Sebring..

Short story,IMHO, times have changed. National has run it's course.

Take the top 5 pts racers from each class, invite them to runons.
Take the top 20 classes, # wise. .have those races over one weekend.
Invite the rest of the classes to have races the following three days.
DO what the pros do;; If you dont get enough paid entries, 60days out, cancel that group/class. No market= no race..
 
The money is the problem. I know we're all sick of hearing it and can name five guys with piles of it. But 10 years ago you could name 50 guys with piles and the average guy wasn't scraping to make street car insurance payments. Money is the problem.

That said ...

National racing has lost of alot of its luster, but not all of it (wait for the Majors, that'll kill what's left). We should be hyping Nationals, making it harder to get there (four races is a joke). You should not be able to go from zero seat time to the runoffs in one season (unless you are a super natural talent - one in a million). No one values things that come cheap and easy.

There are still folks that like a challenge. Look at the tip of the SM field. But these same guys just dont see national for what it is/was/should-be. It should be the best. But right now, practically anyone can run nationals. You should have to earn your way in. Maybe by personal bests being with X% of the lap record. I don't have the exact way, but it should be merit based.

As for the "pro amateur" series, what the club doesn't understand is that it's not the format that draws people to them. People run the Mike Rand series, because it's run by Mike Rand. They can count on a consistent experience and good organization. I love the club's workers (and I am one), but I've had registration doors close in my face, I've had stewards be out-to-lunch in their decisions, I've had region organizers create events that make no sense, and so on. We all have. The "pro amateur" series dont have these issues. Dont think that the Majors or even Butch K's efforts will solve this issue. I'm sure Butch is a great guy and highly qualified, but he cant dig a ditch to China either. We need to focus on what has made us work, not what others have made work.

The club should work on getting national racing back to what it should be. The best racers, not this soup sandwich they call the majors where it's about the best classes. Who cares about classes? We should care about racers.

-Kyle
 
You guys do realize that not all of us (Production or otherwise) want to, or can afford to do the Runoffs, right? Personally, I would love to give it a shot some day, but there is no way in hell I can afford to make my car competitive, or even afford to go to enough Nationals to qualify. And ignoring the money, it takes a ton of time too. Right now I am completely happy doing regionals. As far as I'm concerned, Nationals/Runoffs might as well be Grand-Am. It's another level. I can't do it.




*edit*

I guess my point with the above is that I think we should focus on bringing new members/drivers in, not what to do with our top tier. I just don't think the people that left the SCCA for greener pastures are likely to come back.
 
Yep. I fully realize that some folks are not up for stepping up to nationals. That's 100% cool. In fact the idea that some folks want the step up and some folks dont is what makes it work.

Make it all one homogeneous thing and you will, in effect, be shoved into the national level of competition.

-Kyle
 
disquek":1vpts9m5 said:
The money is the problem. I know we're all sick of hearing it and can name five guys with piles of it. But 10 years ago you could name 50 guys with piles and the average guy wasn't scraping to make street car insurance payments. Money is the problem.

That said ...

National racing has lost of alot of its luster, but not all of it (wait for the Majors, that'll kill what's left). We should be hyping Nationals, making it harder to get there (four races is a joke). You should not be able to go from zero seat time to the runoffs in one season (unless you are a super natural talent - one in a million). No one values things that come cheap and easy.

There are still folks that like a challenge. Look at the tip of the SM field. But these same guys just dont see national for what it is/was/should-be. It should be the best. But right now, practically anyone can run nationals. You should have to earn your way in. Maybe by personal bests being with X% of the lap record. I don't have the exact way, but it should be merit based.

As for the "pro amateur" series, what the club doesn't understand is that it's not the format that draws people to them. People run the Mike Rand series, because it's run by Mike Rand. They can count on a consistent experience and good organization. I love the club's workers (and I am one), but I've had registration doors close in my face, I've had stewards be out-to-lunch in their decisions, I've had region organizers create events that make no sense, and so on. We all have. The "pro amateur" series dont have these issues. Dont think that the Majors or even Butch K's efforts will solve this issue. I'm sure Butch is a great guy and highly qualified, but he cant dig a ditch to China either. We need to focus on what has made us work, not what others have made work.

The club should work on getting national racing back to what it should be. The best racers, not this soup sandwich they call the majors where it's about the best classes. Who cares about classes? We should care about racers.

-Kyle
Click to expand...

I am in agreement with you here and I certainly hope that we are not the Minority and I really hope Butch is taking notice of discussions like this.

The ARRC is NOT what it used to be either and that is I know just like everything else it is NUMBER driven but it has been diluted as well.

I still have hope that somewhere along the way we have someone step up and realize that we don't have to continue to chase everyone else and just concentrate on what we used to do BEST and that is Amateur Road Racing with an end game that meant something and that was the Runoffs
 
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