The SCCA Convention starts today.
I am sending a letter to all SCCA management people and board members that I can reach.
There will be a lot of interaction between leadership types and, hopefully, we can get the class back going in a positive direction.
If you feel this situation has been mishandled and needs to be sorted out, please contact anybody and everybody that you can today.
Hopefully, somebody can post links to send letters to the CRB and BOD.
SCCA People
There has been a messy misunderstanding developing in the Formula F class that is proving devastating to some members including myself. For several years, our class has been allowing cars that have FIA safety pods to race in SCCA FF. In the interest of safety, the FIA instituted rules that required Formula F/1600 cars to have extended side panels as a form of side protection. These side panels are very heavily regulated to have no aerodynamic benefits and a composite construction. They are heavy and add atleast 60 square inches of frontal area beyond the maximum width allowed by the traditional SCCA rules. SCCA wisely decided that it would be cost prohibitive to force American cars to conform to these rules, but allowed the cars with FIA safety pods to run in SCCA events. Some of the more well-funded teams removed the FIA safety pods, reconfigured the radiators, etc and raced the cars to the SCCA rule set. Everything was good. Formula F was in the best health of any of the SCCA formula car classes.
Somebody, in 2017, misunderstood how strictly regulated the FIA safety pod rules were, and surmised that they are creating extra downforce and should be handicapped. Nothing could be further from the truth. Well-funded teams are spending $5k+ to receive the performance benefits of removing the FIA safety pods. A devastating rule was put into place adding 25 lbs to minimum weight to cars with the FIA safety pods. Various alternatives have been proposed and discussed that are even more oppressive. Some alternatives would hurt other competitors by reducing minimum weights, etc.
People with cars using the FIA safety pods are doing fewer SCCA events and more non-SCCA events (FRP and Canada for example where all cars run the same minimum weight). But many SCCA members don't have access to these other events. I have a pair of cars with FIA safety pods (and spares inventory) which I use to provide arrive-n-drive service to racers. I would like to subsidize the pro racing (FRP) with SCCA events but have had to change my business model to subsidizing pro racing events with Canadian race events. I can just not justify spending $15K to remove the FIA safety pods.
In the year 2018, I would be concerned about the legal ramifications of requiring competitors to remove items from their race cars that do nothing but improve safety.
The only solution to this mess is to immediately rescind all rules that handicap or ban the FIA safety pods. It is not fair to penalize those with them, just as it would not be fair to mandate their use. The rules were fine as they were in 2016. Formula Race Promotions (FRP) have the same minimum weight for all cars and have announced they will continue to do so.
At the recent Sebring ST event, I took photos of most of the cars in attendance. http://www.riceraceprep.com/2018/01/...g-ff-pictures/
The yellow car with black sides is the lone car in attendance using the FIA safety pods. You can see that it is clearly the widest car and has more than double the total frontal area relative to some other competitors.
I hope this letter and the photos will bring understanding to this messy situation and bring a speedy resolution.
Please take the required steps to rescind the recent rule changes, and help the class continue to grow.
Thank you.
Greg Rice