Aardwolf

I have been wondering about more track time. Currently I goto the F-Body HPDE at Road America, spring and fall. I wouldn't mind some track time in the summer. I do not have time to go to all that many days though. Mostly due to family time, and maintaining the car, though cost is a factor as well. I wouldn't mind being in a more competitive enviroment but want to stay on the fun side of things. Should I just goto another local club track day at Road America, like the BMW club or etc.? Road America is only 15 mins away. What are my options, any ideas? Thank you.

Cashmo

I don't think NASA has much of a presence here in WI. There's only one SCCA PDX this year at RA, check out the Milw region web site for more info. Otherwise the f-body, BMW and Alfa clubs are probably your best bet. Midwestern Council runs high speed autocrosses down at BHF's too.

Lot's of Solo and ice racing options too. Check out this Chicago based list of events.

Jeff

AU N EGL

Here is the NASA MidWest web site:

http://www.nasamidwest.com/

There are at Road America in AUG 4-5 and in October 20-21

Falcon

Heck, join every car club that requires you to belong to go to their events. I belong to 6 or 7 different clubs.

Z06 Whisperer

And almost all the ones I do in our region don't even require you to join or even drive their make of car, though you often do pay a bit more then club members!

An upcoming example of a DE at RA is a weekend with the Milwaukee PCA on May 5th and 6th. Here's a link to their events this year. http://www.porschepark.org/events/de.php

Keeping with the DE format, PCA Nordstern is at RA July 16th and 17th (this is a Monday and a Tuesday). http://www.nordstern.org/Calendar/index.html

Northwoods Shelby is at RA August 17th, 18th and 19th. http://www.nwshelbyclub.com/events/

Badger Bimmers BMW CCA event at RA is September 7th, 8th and 9th. The 9th is only for advanced students/instructors, but if you are that level, you will do as much track time as you (and your car LOL) can handle.

And the SCCA RA and NASA events/links were mentioned above.

Blackhawk Farms just across the border in IL is another nice road course option (approx 2 miles long), although a bit further then RA for you LOL. There you can do DE's with the various clubs listed above as well as Chicago PCA. http://www.pca-chicago.org/?getpage=13

As for more competative type events:


At RA, Northwoods Shelby club last year offered a competative TT event--prizes were glass beer mugs. And NASA offers the TT option--please see their site for details on that. Unfortunately they are not back at Blackhawk this year.

If you like high speed autox's I used to do some of those with Midwestern Council at Blackhawk as well as a full year of low speed ones with them. I also did a competative ice autox with them. They are fun to do too!

PS I'll be at nearly all of them!!

Red Gump

if you're looking to compete, I'd say get licensed through scca--down here, pretty much all sanctions accept scca licensure but scca doesn't reciprocate.

Aardwolf

Thanks for the feedback. The racing for beer mugs sounds fun! With the SCCA TT, are there different classes for stock and modified cars? TT sounds like fun, but I really enjoy working on my car to and may have trouble fitting into a class.

UstaB-GS549

With Midwestern Council modifications are assesed points so you can pick and choose those that best suit you and your car. The C4 runs in X-Stock, X-Prepared, X-Modified and A-race. A-race has no rules or points limits. MCSCC uses Blackhawk as their home track and does not do DE or TT at Road America.

I like the Alfa club events at RA, but this year I might try a summer event.

0Vector Vette

Andrew,
If you are looking to actually race wheel to wheel there are lots of options out there. You can join SCCA and race at Blackhawk Farms (near Rockford) and Road America and I think there is a event at the Autobahn in Joliet, IL. You can also race with Midwest Council, they race mostly at Blackhawk and usually have an event at Road America. Nasa has 2 events at Road America.

However, you will have to modify your car some more. No automatic trans and you will need a full roll cage. I also most warn you, it is the most addicting drug in the world!!!!

If you are are really interested in doing this and need more advice, I can point you in the right direction. Let me know. I am planning on coming up tp Road America this weekend if the weather allows.

96CollectorSport

Andrew I think NASA is what you are looking for, because you can either keep doing HPDE's or you can do Time Trial or Wheel to Wheel they will find a class for you. SCCA doesn't offer you all of these options. Plus NASA runs all of there events that way, so if you want to go to Autobahn, Gingerman, Mid-Ohio etc you know what to expect.

I think that if you do the HPDE 1 or 2 with NASA you will learn a lot, I know I did. SCCA is more geared toward racing not HPDE's I've heard that they are trying to get into them, but I haven't seen them in my back yard yet.

IMHO the only reason to join SCCA around here is if you want to race wheel to wheel or if you want to autocross (great autocrossing going on down in Milwuakee). I just don't think they are as flexible as NASA when it comes to HPDE and Time Trials.

rudyarias

The beauty of NASA is that it allows you to test the waters.

Tintin

You need to decide where you want to end up with your racing. If you intend to run with say IMSA in GrandAm down the road I would probably do SCCA. Not because I don't think NASA is competitive, it certainly is, but because I don't think NASA is an ACCUS club member. This may have changed since I ran with them in their 12 hours of Thunderhill a few years ago but it is important if you want to advance to pro racing so you need to check it out.

ACCUS is the FIA ASN for the USA and it governs all motorsport including NHRA, NASCAR and IMSA as well as SCCA. (Horrors! The French govern our racing!) To race in a non FIA series will cause you to lose your race license if it is of sufficient caliber that they notice. That is why you see odd names in big races sometimes that you do not recognise and yet the apparent newcomer is really good...

Additionally , racing with a non member group will not help you get an FIA license so that you can compete in events on the International calendar. A license like I had required you to finish in the top 5 in 5 national pro events within the past year in order to be granted one and only ACCUS member races count.

If all you want to do is compete for fun, NASA has fewer rules and , in my opinion, more opportunities for competition. SCCA is very rigid and only allows certain types of cars in their races. SCCA also seems to have a lot of lawyers as members because they constantly protest each other for minutae. NASA will fit your car into a group or as I have seen , make a new classification for you. One other thing, I made tons of friends at NASA events but when I won an SCCA championship one year, I realised that no one had spoken to me or members of my team at all , even though we were the same fun bunch at both venues. Maybe that is just the San Francisco region?

As I said, you have to decide...

I got this from the FIA:

The eight organizational members of ACCUS are Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), Indy Racing League (IRL), Grand American Road Racing Association (GRAND-AM), Professional Sports Car Racing (PSC), the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), and the United States Auto Club (USAC).

Aardwolf

OK, thanks guys. Lots to read over!

BuckeyeZ06

You made some good points. This one made me take notice.

I was "warned" that Grand Am/Koni Challenge would not have the comraderie that I experience with SCCA T1. I was told the efforts were much more focused and making friends/having fun wasn't the primary goal. Not that these things couldn't happen, but the environment wasn' the same.

I haven't run a Koni rade yet (plan on doing 1-2 this year), so I cannot give any first hand information. What I thought was funny was your characterization of NASA/SCCA was the same as what I was told was SCCA/Koni.

I am running NASA events this year as well. I consider myself "fun," I'll try and see if I notice any differences.

I do think SCCA is much more serious. A person needs to decide whether that is a good thing or not.

Falcon

An ex-business partner of mine is running 2-3 cars in the Grand Am/Koni Challenge and I can tell you, that's serious stuff. The bucks turn cubic pretty quick and fun is secondary to doing well.

AU N EGL

ANd you need several BIG body guards around your paddock just to protect your cars and equipment.
Not quite, but do need to keep things lock up and good eye out.

Tintin

The racing I was refering to was amateur, certainly in a pro series the drivers know each other and may even be friends (there are no friends when money and winning are involved ) but you really have nothing to do with other teams in a pro level series, they are your rivals and the battle is on. I agree about protecting your gear too, we had dobermans... great pets, terrible enemies... excellent deterrent

Z06 Whisperer

Andrew,
Joking and beer mug prizes aside , and this is just my experience, but when I first started doing car stuff 4 yrs ago, I really wanted to do wheel to wheel. I found out quickly that although it seemed pretty straight forward to get licensed (various clubs have schools, you can rent race prepped cars, get the physical, etc), to get your own car race ready was a bit more differcult/costly. And I found different groups had different rules (GCR's-general competion rules) so it seemed easier to have your car set up for one club's rules? Because I'm a low budget operation LOL, the idea of having a trailor, traveling distances to tracks, taking folks along to help and so on, wasn't doable for me for to do "serious" and complete event schedule for the season. I'm not trying to say you shouldn't try if you want to. You can always change your mind about the path you have chosen too. There are ways to do anything--share a car with another driver, do just a few events at local tracks, etc etc etc.
Good luck with your decisions!!

Aardwolf

W2W is out for me, I don't want to much risk in losing the car. Maybe in a few years I will get a C5 to drive and keep the C4 for just a track car. I am on a budget to! I like the idea of the TT events with NASA, that looks like fun as does the HPDE 4. I like the passing rules, I'd have a blast with that. I am thinking of trying NASA this year and HPDE1/2 at their Road America event. Then see about advancing next year. I've got to sort out the car more yet, sway bars are needed and race seats.

rudyarias

Jeff Jorgenson will be at the MFBA event with his C6 Z06. He is the Classroom Instructor for NASA's Midwest Region. I will also be there with my C5 Z06. Feel free to look us up if you have questions about NASA's HPDE/TT.