SCCA opener at PIR this last weekend, and the new format.

djjerme

djjerme

Well-known member
Spent some time Sunday at PIR helping out a fellow newbie PRO3 racer during the SCCA race this last weekend.

A couple things I noticed at the race that had been discussed before in regards to conference weekends that I saw:

-Due to some low attendance in certain classes, they combined a few and allowed Hooked on Driving to run a HPDE class intermixed all weekend. This worked really well, and got people who were not there to race interested in possibly moving up to wheel to wheel.

-Some open wheel classes where intermixed with closed wheel in the Vintage race. They used a split start, and have to say it looked great. There was no incidents that I saw between open and closed wheel cars, and everyone played nice.. I think conference really should consider a little more flexibility with class vs. run group structuring, we are all racers and should have the same respect for each other out there.

It was beautiful weather and good racing, lets hope the rest of the year is more of the same!


:)
 
Thanks for the observations, note that Conference CONSTANTLY considers car/class/grouping issues and best use of expensive track time and its implications on sport sustainability and overall safety. Not criticizing, but posts often imply that since we havent made a particulat change it is because we haven't considered it fairly.

If anything, Conference has a history of overanalyzing a plethora of ideas and suggestions and then institutes the best of those that pass a rigorous examination emphasizing benefit to the membership as a whole and participant safety.

There has been abundant data available concerning the mixing of open and closed wheel classes available from other amateur clubs and the history of Conference itself. 3000 pound sedans pose a signficant risk to 1000 pound formula cars and sports racers - there are typically some vast performance differences between the two resulting in large delta V disparities at critical places on the track and the overall visibility of the OW classes where the entire car is two feet below the window opening of the CW vehicle have led to Conference to keep the two separate over safety concerns. Regardless of intent, penalties, habits, or training, it is impossible to insure that participants will "play nice" so Conference has chosen to be safe rather than sorry.

Where it has been employed, which is mostly enduros or vintage events, there is an expectation that participants are likely not running at maximum vehicle potential or driver ability throughout and have lower amounts of drivers on track simultaneously which should provide a slight amount of increased safety margin. I know that sport racers run regularly at the 25 hours of Thunderhill which has high number of participants on track and end up typically having lots of incidents.

There are always lots of potential effects that come with any change, trust that we are doing our best to consider them all and give our members the best possible experience. Thanks for keeping ideas in front of the membership and keep it coming!
 
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Agree 100% with Rick's statement especially concerning the mixing of open and closed wheels cars in vintage. Vintage racing is just a different animal and I could not realistically see that mixing of OW and CW working in a points racing, all out effort. The comment in Jeremy's post regarding the mixing of a HPDE event within the race weekend, is exactly what NASA will bring to the table and be very successful at, I would imagine. I know March and April events can have fewer entries due to concerns about the weather, but with SCCA this past weekend...if you throw out SM and SRF, they probably had less than 30 total entries for the double weekend. Makes me appreciate the large grids of Conference.
 
Bill, vintage is still wheel-to-wheel, things happen (see this video http://www.davesdroppings.com/?cat=5 from a SCCA Vintage Race), it is also points driven for SCCA vintage group, it is toned down somewhat compared to a spec class (SM, PRO3, etc.) and some other competitive classes (as you have to agree to respect the other cars). The OW and CW cars do work out well, you just have to keep an eye out for low height cars (though some of the CW vintage cars are also low). I would agree that OW and CW works well in vintage and may not other races classes.

I agree that intermixing the HPDE cars in race weekend adds to overall success (future racers) and for a fun weekend, we will see in May how the NASA thing goes.
 
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I have raced in the SCCA vintage OW/CW pairing and will not do it again. There is a huge speed difference between the vintage closed wheel cars and then you throw in the OW cars with there low heights and increased speed leads to a lot of mirror watching. I'm assuming it can't be fun for the CW driver and as a OW driver I have to be very careful with my passing and hope they see me. It is not a good combination.

Tim Bland
84 Anson SA4
 
I second that Tim. I do not even like running with SRF's during combined practice at SCCA events. To much potential energy difference that can turn into kinetic energy in a nanosecond.

Real story here is that there was no group 2 (formula and sports racers). As I recall the restricted regional format was what NWR tried years ago just before they could not afford to rent PIR and went into exile at Bremerton.

Of course the experiment was to replace group 2 with HPDE cars. Will it become permanent? Who knows. At least in Conference we have the option to combine 3&6 if we want to make room for HPDE cars.

The real culprit in the wasting of valuable track time is clearing the track between run groups. 2013 rule changes have mitigated this problem to a degree and we at NWMS have taken advantage of the changes to revise our schedule accordingly.

For 2013 single entrants who also enter our special races will be able to log 3 hours of track time (180 minutes). Double entrants that enter our special races will be on track 5 hours and 15 minutes (315 minutes). If you are running a Pro3 car and double enter etal, up to 5 hours and 50 minutes of track time will be available. I suggest you all start hydrating on Tuesday.
 
greg_coffin said:
For 2013 single entrants who also enter our special races will be able to log 3 hours of track time (180 minutes). Double entrants that enter our special races will be on track 5 hours and 15 minutes (315 minutes). If you are running a Pro3 car and double enter etal, up to 5 hours and 50 minutes of track time will be available. I suggest you all start hydrating on Tuesday.
Click to expand...


Greg that's awesome news... You all have been my favorite event every year. I have made Spokane every year that I have been racing (2010 before us 944 guys switched from Scca). I have a tough schedule ahead this year and baby due July 8th... Certainly makes this an almost impossible event but with this info I am going to try hard to make it happen.


(disclaimer still haven't made it to mission or ORP due to schedule conflicts).
 
Congratulations on the new member to your family! Charlie's first race was when he was 10 days old and a few months later he was on the podium with me to accept the "Mayors Trophy" at the Eloy Grand Prix. As I remember I had the trophy girl kiss him instead of me. Lol
 
Know how you feel Mike, my wife is due May 12th (though it's probably going to be sooner..) So my race season is in limbo. Trying to get to at least the season opener at PIR before I am sequestered..
 
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