Here is my letter to the BoD/CompBoard.
To me this is very much about "doing what you say". SCCA promised us a National Class for 5 years. I don't care if that was a good idea or not. They said that they would and they put it in writing. Many of us have a substantial investment based in large part on that word. Now 15 months later, they want to back out of the deal. Unacceptable.
Anyway, here's the letter:
Brandon Dixon
Citation Engineering
SCCA Member #364251
To members of the BoD and CompBoard:
The following section of the GCR was revised in the January 2007 Fastrack:
9.1.12. PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS FOR NATIONAL CLASSES
A. A National Championship class shall retain its National Championship status as long as its annual average number of entrants remains at 2.5 or more per National event.
B. When the average number of entrants in a class at Nationals falls below 2.5, the class shall be allowed one additional year to bring the participation level above the current requirement. Alternatively, it may be immediately consolidated into an existing class. If, in the grace year, the class does not exceed current requirement per National race, it shall either be consolidated into an existing class or revert to a Regional only class.
C. Based on member input, a Regional Class meeting or exceeding the participation requirements outlined in paragraph 9.1.12.A. for one (1) year may be considered for inclusion in the National Champion¬ship racing program, except Improved Touring.
D. Based on member or manufacturer input, the CRB may recom¬mend the creation of new National classes to the BoD for approval. National classes created under 9.1.12.D shall be given five (5) years to attain an average of 2.5 cars per National event before being considered for consolidation or reversion to Regional status per paragraph B above.
Note 1: For the purposes of this section, “entrants” shall be defined as drivers classified in the final official race results of National races as finishers, did-not-finish (DNF), or disqualified (DQ). Drivers classified as did-not-start (DNS) shall not count as entrants.
Note 2: For the purposes of this section, GTL shall be considered a new class from 2005, T3 and Spec Miata from 2006, and B Prepared, D Prepared, FE, and Formula 1000 from 2007.
This launched to FB class and granted it National status. Section 9.1.12.D makes it clear that FB should have 5 years from 2007 to establish the 2.5 cars per National event participation level before being considered for consolidation or reversion to Regional status. This gave many manufacturers such as me the green light to work on the design and production of cars and conversion kits for this class. There was clearly no guarantee of a Runoffs bid, as the class limit had been imposed and thus the only way to secure a place at the Runoffs would be to get the required participation level. The people involved in this class were counting on this and believed that we could get the required participation to both secure National status and also get a Runoffs bid within the 5 year grace period.
The recent BoD ruling as published in the June 2008 Fastrack ignores all of the above. Now FB is supposed to be either consolidated into FA with “competition adjustments” or become a “subclass” of FA run under the current FB rules at National events. Neither of these is acceptable.
Using “competition adjustments” to make FB cars competitive with FA cars is an impossible task. I have been told by multiple BoD members that this is NOT what the BoD intended even though the specific wording in Fastrack would make me think that this is exactly what the CompBoard is to do. Please do not force the CompBoard to try to do this.
FB should not be relegated to being a regional only class and allowed to compete in National events as a “subclass” of FA. Please honor the words of section 9.1.12 above. Give us 5 years to make the numbers. The June 2008 Fastrack also indicates that FB will have a National Championship race at Road America in 2009, although probably FB will be racing concurrently with another class. So in 2009 FB deserves a National Championship race but after that we should be merged with FA somehow?
This recent Fastrack ruling has already had a detrimental effect on the class. Prospective customers have indicated that they would now hold off coming to the class to wait and see how this turns out. FB is in the very early stages and as such is very fragile. If this is not clarified/fixed quickly, I fear that the BoD will have effectively killed FB. FB has brought more new cars and new manufacturers to SCCA than any class in a long, long time such as Stohr, Piper, Citation, Novak, Speeds, Phoenix, Pacific, Hickman, Gloria, Mallen-Alley, plus numerous one-off homebuilt designs/conversions. Imagine the impact to the club if all of these manufacturers watch SCCA kill off the class by constantly changing the rules and thus scaring off the potential customers.
My investment is this class is substantial. I have “tooled up” to produce 6 *new* FB cars, including investing in CNC machine tools, CAD/CAM software, a substantial inventory of parts, and raw materials. I did this based on what was promised above. I have no doubt that, given the opportunity; we can produce satisfactory participation numbers. The instability and threat of not honoring the written agreement of section 9.1.12 is driving customers and manufactures away. I am fortunate that much of my investment will carry over into car production for the F2000 Pro Championship Series and I fear that several manufacturers will concentrate on that series unless SCCA shows support for FB.
One last time, please stay the course and honor section 9.1.12 for FB.
Thank you for listening!
Brandon Dixon