New Club Racing Proposal

[patman]

So this should have been a part of your competition planning.

Brian

How should I plan, in your estimation?
If we go by the rules- gcr3.7.4c, than 16 of 29 classes in majors are below the threshold this year. (15 in '23) So do we enforce it or not? Apparently not, so how do I know if my class is coming back? What about the probation year, where was that? And is the decision made by the CRB? Or by SCCA employees? Why have these rules if they aren't followed?

If the club membership doesn't get input to these decisions, then why don't we have club management who are held to a standard of foresight and planning? I keep hearing "it has to be run like a business." So where is the 5 year plan for this business? And are we customers, or shareholders, or both? (Or neither)?
What healthy business makes knee jerk decisions with no planning that alienate large chunks of customer base? Or tells it's customers that services are dependent on customer numbers, but the business is not responsible for marketing, and customers have to do their own recruiting? And if services are cancelled with no warning, it is the customer's fault because they should have bought more?

You think *I* should plan better?
How about SCCA management plans better?

[mmi16]

Most ongoing organizations desired to increase their footprint in their area of activity. SCCA is not most organizations, it wants to end many existing classes and bring in new Miata classes.

Miata's are not the answer to every issue.

[John Nesbitt]

Most ongoing organizations desired to increase their footprint in their area of activity. SCCA is not most organizations, it wants to end many existing classes and bring in new Miata classes.

Miata's are not the answer to every issue.

A better formulation might be: Most ongoing organizations try to follow, or better still, anticipate where the market is going. In our world, the market very clearly leans toward production-based, spec or semi-spec cars. For all kinds of reasons, including lower maintenance effort, lower cost, and perceived relative safety. Even in the purpose-built category, SRF3 and FE2 are the classes prospering. The fact that Mazda actively supports motorsports does not hurt, either.

I would be very cautious about castigating Miatas. Those shoals of SM, SMX, STU etc. entries are subsidizing other lower-subscribed classes.

[mmi16]

A better formulation might be: Most ongoing organizations try to follow, or better still, anticipate where the market is going. In our world, the market very clearly leans toward production-based, spec or semi-spec cars. For all kinds of reasons, including lower maintenance effort, lower cost, and perceived relative safety. Even in the purpose-built category, SRF3 and FE2 are the classes prospering. The fact that Mazda actively supports motorsports does not hurt, either.

I would be very cautious about castigating Miatas. Those shoals of SM, SMX, STU etc. entries are subsidizing other lower-subscribed classes.

Real race cars don't have fenders, doors or roofs.

[Hardingfv32]

A way of looking at time allotment at the Runoffs: Qual and Race time only.... 2220 min of track time for the event divided by 520 entrants equals 4.3 min. Think of it as each entrant bought 4.3 min of the total event time allotment. Now each entrant allocates his time allotment to the class he is in. SM would get a contribution of 211 min and FF 56 min.

Using the 19 Qual groups, each group should get 117 min of the event time allotment. 117 min divided by 4.3 min, the individual entrant time allotment, you get a class/group size of 27 entrants for the average.

So groups above 27 entrants are being shorted based on their financial share of the total entrant fees.

Brian

[John Nesbitt]

Real race cars don't have fenders, doors or roofs.

You should try that line on the EF/FP/HP drivers.

We have all spouted that line. And had a good laugh while doing so. The fact of the matter is that most cars racing today are production-based, and the vast majority of cars on track built in the past 10 years are production-based.

Be careful what you ask for. If the only racecars allowed in 'your' SCCA belong to 'your' class or meet your definition, SCCA Road Racing would disappear.

[Hardingfv32]

You think *I* should plan better?
How about SCCA management plans better?

Believe it or not, all the changes being discussed are driven by the membership. SCCA is a membership association. As such the club is subject to the constant changing trends within its membership. Changes to even recent club plans should be expected to change if membership trends dictate it. The majority is not going to have any patience with the minority.

So your personal plan should acknowledge this possibility of unknown possible changes. This is even more relevant for P1/P2 which has been in a state of fluxes for a decade or two.

Brian