SCCA Phasing out Nationals

[KenT]

[FONT=Tahoma]Sports Car Club of America Revamps Road Racing Program[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma]U.S. Majors Tour to Replace SCCA National Racing by 2014[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]TOPEKA, Kan. (Oct. 18, 2012) – [/FONT][FONT=Arial]Sports Car Club of America’s Board of Directors announced today the most significant change to its amateur road racing program in 50 years. Following the 2013 season, “National” racing will be phased out, with the U.S. Majors Tour serving as the top level of a two-tier SCCA Club Racing program in 2014.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]“As the U.S. Majors Tour gains momentum, it will take its natural position as the premier level of competition within SCCA’s amateur road racing program,” SCCA Chairman Jerry Wannarka said. “By 2014, amateur road racing will have two levels of racing – the U.S. Majors Tour and Regional Racing, with the Majors program focused on clustering the best and toughest competition and Regionals focused on local racing programs.”[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]SCCA’s amateur road racing program has been tiered for more than half a century, with “National” racing serving as the top level. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]“Over the years, SCCA’s ‘National’ program has evolved across the country into something with little cohesion,” Wannarka continued. “With only a handful of General Competition Rules requirements separating a National event from a Regional event, these two programs have morphed, in many cases, into one type of event that is managed entirely at the local level.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]“The changes over the next year will take the premier events, geared toward our National Championship drivers, and provide a better link through a series managed by the SCCA National Headquarters. For non-Majors events, this change will remove the limitations that holding a National event have historically placed on our Regions, providing the flexibility needed to customize their Regional Racing programs.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]“The focus of the Regional Racing format is on the experience of getting on track and racing wheel-to-wheel. The U.S. Majors Tour takes that same experience and focuses on the intense competition of Championship racing within the SCCA.” [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]A path to the National Championship Runoffs will exist through both the Majors and Regional programs. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]For 2013, that path includes Majors Conference Championships (comprised solely of Majors events) and the National and Divisional Point Championships (including all Majors and regular National events).[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Details of the 2014 path are still being determined, although the Board has committed for paths to exist for Runoffs-eligible classes through both the U.S. Majors Tour and Regional Racing.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]“The goal is to have a very direct path to the Runoffs through the U.S. Majors Tour,” Wannarka said. “But, there will continue to be an additional path through local events that a driver might support throughout the year. It is important for both the U.S. Majors Tour and the Regional Racing programs to thrive. The Runoffs need to support this initiative with a qualification path for each.”[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Details on Championship point structures, 2013 events and Runoffs criteria will be announced in the coming weeks. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Additional information is available at www.sccamajors.com. [/FONT]

[KenT]

I meant phasing out Nationals. Can't change the title though unfortunately

[kea]

Ken,
Thanks for the "heads-up" on SCCA club racing.

[starkejt]

Is there anything significant other than changing the name from National to Major? This seems a bit like, "I will no longer be sh!tting my pants. From now on, I will be restocking my britches with fresh inventory."

[Wren]

Is there anything significant other than changing the name from National to Major? This seems a bit like, "I will no longer be sh!tting my pants. From now on, I will be restocking my britches with fresh inventory."

It is tough to tell from the webpage. It looks like they will severely reduce the number of "nationals" and tell people who can't make it to the majors to just go run around with regional guys.

It says there will only be 6 majors for the entire east coast.

If this belief is what drove that decision:

[FONT=Arial]With only a handful of General Competition Rules requirements separating a National event from a Regional event, these two programs have morphed, in many cases, into one type of event

[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Then they are clueless.[/FONT]

[Stan Clayton]

The devil is in the details, of course, but I like this...

[FONT=Arial]

A path to the National Championship Runoffs will exist through both the Majors and Regional programs.

[/FONT]

[Steve Davis]

IMHO, it is SCCA's effort to make some better events for most of us. The proliferation of tracks in recent years has upped the number of 'event weekends'. There are even fewer of us now than in the past .. now spread over almost twice the number of events in a given division (at least FOR SURE in SEDIV). Attendance has been poor at any events that are not 'doubles' and even they are suffering as the year progresses - with fewer and fewer participants as the calendar goes on during the season.

I have no idea how this will work out, but it seems that SCCA is TRYING to make a certain (as yet unknown) selection of events more attractive - touting larger fields (which MOST of us would like).

The 'stick' with this is that it means significantly greater tow distances to participate - like THREE TIMES FURTHER for the Eastern Conference anyway. Most of these events have been in place for years. SCCA is just trying to make them attractive enough for us to TRAVEL THAT FAR to be there.

I'd LOVE to be *ABLE* to travel that far, but fuel prices and travel TIME tends to interfere quite a bit. It remains to be seen if the events will 'attract' like SCCA hopes.

In my case, the closest NEDIV track to me is Summit Point. Although that tow is tolerable, their National event weekend conflicts with a similar National at Road Atlanta just down the street. IMHO SCCA will *HAVE* to resolve such conflicts across divisions in order to have any hope of making the Majors program work.

Adding... SCCA better 'darn' well see that these Majors events are "Competitor FRIENDLY" if they want them to work. If I travel for 20 hours (one way) to get to an event and arrive 20 minutes after registration closes (due to 'whatever' unplanned delay), there BETTER be a way for me to get 'situated reasonably' for the night or I won't be making any more trips like that. These are going to be "weekend" events - not like the Runoffs, so we HAVE to allow more leeway for them to work for longer tows. ... IMHO....
We'll see
Steve, FV80

[Daryl DeArman]

Is there anything significant other than changing the name from National to Major? This seems a bit like, "I will no longer be sh!tting my pants. From now on, I will be restocking my britches with fresh inventory."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6YkEUPKEX4

[starkejt]

Are we confusing simile and metaphor?

[Rick Kean]

[FONT=Arial]"The changes over the next year will take the premier events, geared toward our National Championship drivers, and provide a better link through a series managed by the SCCA National Headquarters."[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]
From down here, this sounds like a Topeka Management Takeover of the historically successful (best attended) Nationals so that their management layer can more effectively market the Majors' results. Think naming rights.

Rick
[/FONT]

[Daryl DeArman]

Are we confusing simile and metaphor?

Happens all the time....damn. I'll get to use that video someday.

[flat tappet]

[FONT=Arial]"The changes over the next year will take the premier events, geared toward our National Championship drivers, and provide a better link through a series managed by the SCCA National Headquarters."[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]From down here, this sounds like a Topeka Management Takeover of the historically successful (best attended) Nationals so that their management layer can more effectively market the Majors' results. Think naming rights.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Rick [/FONT]

WTF?.....LOL.Was the National program so badly broken that it needed to be fixed like this? This sounds like just another way for Topeka to dispose of grassroots racers. we have just one National race at LRP now I believe(The John Stim memorial put on by the MOHUD region). Will that now become another regional?

[BWC54]

In the 2012 Majors not all the national classes were included. So will all the Natioanl classes be included in the 2014 program or just the classes with the highest avg. car counts like in 2012?

In 2012 you had to travel out of division to participate in all the Majors events. So will more time and travel be required to do a full Majors schedule in 2014?

[John LaRue]

I am not sure where they are headed with this, but it looks to be in the proper direction. The key will now be how the class and run groups are handled. If the Majors cater to the highly subscribed classes (thus allowing fewer groups, better run groups and more track time) and the lesser subscribed classes are run in the regional events this could be the answer. I would anticipate that the classes which would be included in the Majors would depend upon strict participation figures and that they would be determined annually; a class could work to attain "Major" status. This may also make Runoffs appealing to a broader group of racers.

[TimW]

I am not sure where they are headed with this, but it looks to be in the proper direction. The key will now be how the class and run groups are handled. If the Majors cater to the highly subscribed classes (thus allowing fewer groups, better run groups and more track time) and the lesser subscribed classes are run in the regional events this could be the answer. I would anticipate that the classes which would be included in the Majors would depend upon strict participation figures and that they would be determined annually; a class could work to attain "Major" status. This may also make Runoffs appealing to a broader group of racers.

It sounds like they are mimicking the aspects which have made Rand's series successful, notably fewer but higher quality events worthy of a slightly higher incremental weekend cost (via longer tows, for example). Its about time we stop doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

[Speed Sport Engineering]

I think this could be a big benefit to club racing. I thought the orginal plan for the majors was to have them reserved for the largest, most competitive classes. This is a back door way of eliminating national classes, which everyone agrees was needed.

Here's the problem: If the majors are reserved for the most subscribed classes, but the majors events are divisional, then what defines the "most subscribed" classes - the divisional numbers or national?

It seems that to have the majors maintain some sort of national integrity, it would have to be based on national numbers. But in some areas, that won't work very well. So I see almost all national classes be invited to the majors events, and we are right back were we started.

[John LaRue]

I am not an expert on this Majors program, perhaps Butch can chime in. My comment about Majors being only for the best subscribed classes is only my opinion. As I recall from the meeting at Runoffs the Majors had three type of events: Showcase, Invitational and Hallmark, I could be wrong on the titles. "Showcase" events would include all of the classes; "invitational" events which were to be limited to the best subscribed classes and the "hallmark" events were for the celebration type events (i.e.FF 40th). As noted, I too think this program is the perfect way to back into the class reduction without displacing anyone.

[Tiago Santos]

Who knows how it'll pan out, but it sounds good to me. In my mind, it promotes Regional racing as well, which can only be a good thing.

The split between regional and national racing isn't making much sense anymore, so to me this is basically getting rid of that split, and creating a new tier - which, like Tim said, seems to be grabbing some good elements from the Rand series'.

[ken kaplowitz]

I think you have missed the part about only the top 10 classes get to run.
ken kaplowitz

[Jim Garry]

[FONT=Arial]

[FONT=Arial]“Over the years, SCCA’s ‘National’ program has evolved across the country into something with little cohesion,” Wannarka continued. “With only a handful of General Competition Rules requirements separating a National event from a Regional event, these two programs have morphed, in many cases, into one type of event that is managed entirely at the local level.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]“The changes over the next year will take the premier events, geared toward our National Championship drivers, and provide a better link through a series managed by the SCCA National Headquarters. For non-Majors events, this change will remove the limitations that holding a National event have historically placed on our Regions, providing the flexibility needed to customize their Regional Racing programs.[/FONT]

[/FONT]


This is an exact replica of the current SCCA Solo program. About 20 years ago the Solo program enacted the "National Tour" program because the Divisionals (formerly what today's National RR events are) were all running their own brand of event.

The Tour events were created so that competitors knew what to face when they arrived at the National Championship event and also to let drivers know what they were going to have to do when they arrived at these Tour events.

And it made the Tours very sought after events. These events now normally get from 200 to approaching 275 entries.

It has made for a much improved National program. And at the same time, Regional events are encouraged to offer their own classes, etc. The entire deal has worked out incredibly well.

Don't know if it will transfer as well to Club Racing. Just offering some history.

EDIT: But all classes are allowed to enter the Tour events and the National Championship.

[Matt King]

I think you have missed the part about only the top 10 classes get to run.
ken kaplowitz

Where in the press release does it say that will be the case for 2014 and onwards?

[steve everard]

Was 10 a number given by scca ?

[Jnovak]

I am in support of this initiative. IMO National Racing is not nearlly what it was due many things including the the proliferation of classes. The Majors will be limited to the top ??? number of classes (10 right now). At the town hall at the Runoffs it was mentioned that there could be some flexibility in the number of classes.

This plan will make a Majors Championship something very significant and I think that makeing the Regionals an alternative route to the Runoffs makes a lot of sense.

It may take a few years for this proposal to sort through all the issues but I think it has a lot of potential.

Thanks ... Jay Novak
SCCA member for 44 years

[iamuwere]

Q: What are the elements of the Majors program?
A: There are currently four:
• BFGoodrich Tires Super Tours are the same as they have been, similar to traditional Double Nationals (at least one per Conference).
• Showcases are double race events where all National classes are invited
and the best subscribed receive prime-time slots (3-4 per Conference).
• Invitationals are double race events for best-subscribed classes
in a Conference (a goal of one per Conference).
• Festivals are special events such as a class anniversary or specific
marque, and will be occasional by nature (a goal of one per Conference but not required).

[iamuwere]

http://sccamajors.com/details/SCCA_m...acts_sheet.pdf

[Wren]

Q: What are the elements of the Majors program?
A: There are currently four:
• BFGoodrich Tires Super Tours are the same as they have been, similar to traditional Double Nationals (at least one per Conference).
• Showcases are double race events where all National classes are invited
and the best subscribed receive prime-time slots (3-4 per Conference).
• Invitationals are double race events for best-subscribed classes
in a Conference (a goal of one per Conference).
• Festivals are special events such as a class anniversary or specific
marque, and will be occasional by nature (a goal of one per Conference but not required).

That is for 2013. It doesn't say what will happen when they stop running nationals.

If they invite every class then you just get to tow a lot further for your 45 minutes of cluster****(probably worse) track time. If they only invite the top 10 classes then everyone else is going to be forced to go run with regional guys.

[Amon]

Wren,

If I remember correctly (probably not), only the top 15 or 16 classes made
the participation rule for the past year, so many classes should be moved to
regional status if they upheld the initial rules intended to prevent the mess
we're currently involved in.

Mark

Protoform P-1 FV

[Tiago Santos]

I guess the stigma of regional racing lives on Is there a different driving standard held by National drivers? I always thought the only difference was an extra 2 or 3 regional races and a couple hundred bucks in entry fees. From my (admittedly, short) experience with SCCA Nationals, it hardly means there won't be any slow or inconsiderate drivers in the field.

[dd46637]

I am not sure how all ths will work out. I do see one benefit.
The " conferences" have put Great Lakes and Cendiv back together as the Northern Conference.
At least for the Majors this should reverse (IMO) a bad decision in splitting the 2 up.

Dave

[Jnovak]

That is for 2013. It doesn't say what will happen when they stop running nationals.

If they invite every class then you just get to tow a lot further for your 45 minutes of cluster****(probably worse) track time. If they only invite the top 10 classes then everyone else is going to be forced to go run with regional guys.

I think that the number of classes that can attend the Majors will evolve over the next few years. There is no hard rule as to the number of classes that can run in Majors. Let's say for the sake of discussion that there would eventually be 8 run groups at the Majors. Let's also say that there could be no more that 2 classes/run group. That would mean that the Majors could support 16 really solid classes with lots of cars in each class. Eventually there will be classes that will get lots of support and those that do not. Those that do will be in the Majors & those that do not will be in the Regionals. Remember that there are multiple classes that can merge with each other and thus make Majors status. This will encourage class consolodation.

I think this is the way it should be. We will probably be hurt by this as FB is not yet mature enough to generate adequate numbers to be a part of the Majors. However as long as the club has a process that will allow for classes to grow to Majors status that is fair (IMO)

Thanks ... Jay Novak
SCCA member for 44 years

[GT1Vette]

More later, but right now I want to clarify that starting in 2013 ALL Runoffs classes (28 classes in 2013) will be invited to run the vast majority of Majors events. The only exception is the Invitational event, which will be for the "Top Ten" only. After I sell a region on hosting such an event we'll have hard data on which to determine the viability of that format going forward.

And yes, the Solo National Tour is a very good analogy for the Majors concept.

As I said, more later...

[BWC54]

More later, but right now I want to clarify that starting in 2013 ALL Runoffs classes (28 classes in 2013) will be invited to run the vast majority of Majors events.

So what's the difference between a Majors and a double National? Except there will probably be fewer and I'll have to tow farther.

[Northwind]

So another question is:

How will this affect the Competition License structure and the requirements?

Will there now be just two levels, a SCCA PRO License and a General Competition grade requirement?

[farrout]

Sounds like the Regional program gets a boost in entries if the current number of Nationals is reduced to the Majors mentioned. But in SEDIV, we have a large number of NAtionals and Regionals so something is going to be reduced.

Looks like SCCA threw that "teaser" out to everyone and it only tells 50% of the true story.

[GT1Vette]

So what's the difference between a Majors and a double National? Except there will probably be fewer and I'll have to tow farther.

Getting ready to head up to Road Atlanta for night qualifying so I'll give the short answer:

Would you rather have 60 entries spread over 15 weekends (4 per weekend) or 60 entries (you'd lose some that don't want to tow but you gain some that want the competition) over 6 weekends?

The Majors aren't for everyone. If you want to stay close to home and/or your local clubs offer enough competition to satisfy you, you're not a customer.

Again, more later...

[Steve Demeter]

So it sounds like the "Customer" is the guy who wants / is willing to make ridiculously long tows to race and the heck with the rest of us.

Just my interpertation without knowing all the facts.

Starting to sound like Obamacare. Just pass it then read it later.

How, if at all, was the general membership who hold active competition licenses asked what they want?

[Keith Carter]

They way I understand it, is....

Today's National and Regional events will be consolidated to "Regional" since they are all run in a specific region. This will bring participation and competition for up for the guy who wants to stay local.

Today's Super Tour is getting beefed up and will turn into a "Pro" type series for SCCA club racers who want to travel to more exclusive events which is called the Majors next year.

It may not formally be what is happening, but that's how I understand how it is kind of working...

[Bill Bonow]

Again, more later...

I will gladly wait to hear the whole story from Butch


Here is a novel idea.... How about we all give it more than a few hours before we start with the stonings.

From everything I've read so far, I am interested and ready to hear more.

[flat tappet]

They way I understand it, is....

Today's National and Regional events will be consolidated to "Regional" since they are all run in a specific region. This will bring participation and competition for up for the guy who wants to stay local.

Today's Super Tour is getting beefed up and will turn into a "Pro" type series for SCCA club racers who want to travel to more exclusive events which is called the Majors next year.

It may not formally be what is happening, but that's how I understand how it is kind of working...

Thanks, Keith for a reasonable explanation!Makes sense and should help our regional races in the Northeast.

[Wren]

Wren,

If I remember correctly (probably not), only the top 15 or 16 classes made
the participation rule for the past year, so many classes should be moved to
regional status if they upheld the initial rules intended to prevent the mess
we're currently involved in.

Mark

Protoform P-1 FV

There was no participation requirement. The 2.5 rule was done away with. The introduction of rationals meant that there were a lot more nationals and the rule didn't make sense anymore. I see that the BOD was in hurry to make rationals the second dumbest thing they have done lately.

I guess the stigma of regional racing lives on Is there a different driving standard held by National drivers? I always thought the only difference was an extra 2 or 3 regional races and a couple hundred bucks in entry fees. From my (admittedly, short) experience with SCCA Nationals, it hardly means there won't be any slow or inconsiderate drivers in the field.

The difference is very real. I'm a regional racer who spends most of my time at nationals. Attitudes, budgets, cars, prep level and a lot of other things are very different in my experience.

This means that someone straight out of driver school is going to be in the middle of a race(probably not in his class) with national champions.

I think this is the way it should be. We will probably be hurt by this as FB is not yet mature enough to generate adequate numbers to be a part of the Majors.

I don't care anything about FB, my concern is much more from my regional racer perspective. Running with national guys isn't fun for them or me.