East Coast Sports Car Club?

[Keith Carter]

Any of my East Coast racing friends have any suggestions for a beginner/extreme novice for a sports car club that would let them race a Spec Miata? They will have an SCCA Novice permit, but she is really off the pace and needs more seat time. I was thinking that a club that is similar to the Midwestern Council our here in the Midwest where they will recognize her novice permit and allow her to get some more seat time before going to an SCCA Divisional. She's been through a school and knows the flags and GCR, but she just needs more time on track. One suggestion was for her to sign up and do some SCCA CRE (Club Racing Experience) events, which I thought was great so it would get her on track without going wheel to wheel first. I was just wondering if there were other options out East (Boston area) close to Limerock and Palmer where she could get track time in a Spec Miata where the competition isn't as fierce and fairly laid back.

[Peter Olivola]

The Council equivalent on the east coast is EMRA. It's a conglomeration of member clubs. I don't know if that includes anything in the Boston area or which tracks they currently use.

[Keith Carter]

The Council equivalent on the east coast is EMRA. It's a conglomeration of member clubs. I don't know if that includes anything in the Boston area or which tracks they currently use.

Thanks, Peter! It's a start!

[Todd Butler]

FWIW...You don't say where on the east Coast but Lucky Dog is running some endurance races at Charlotte. It's mixed class racing, Miatas are in the C or slowest class, but lots of cost effective racing (yes I know an oxymoron wrt racing). It would take me about 3-4 SCCA weekends to get the same track time I get in a single LD weekend (2 hours each day racing) and cost about 3-4X more to do those SCCA weekends! While LD does not require a racing license, they are very strong on no contact driving. I can't speak for how LD in Charlotte will be, but the 2 events I ran out here (Sonoma and The Ridge in Shelton WA) about 80-85% of the cars would be at home in an SCCA regional weekends and at least out here, most of the drivers are SCCA, NASA, or ICSCC vetrans. Yes some Lemons fright pigs, but less and less of them as time goes by in LD racing. LD also has an interesting take on yellow flags. it's line of sight. If you can see the flag station and the yellow is out, it's no passing till after the incident. There's effectively no racing to the flag station.

Note nothng says she'd have to have a 3-4 person driver team and run the entire 7-9 hour enduro. Run 2 hours (the LD single driver single stint limit) and park it for the day.

LD and actual racing aside, if it's just an issue of building up speed, consider high performance track days.

[mikey]

Why not just do HPDE track days until she is more comfortable in the car?

[tgaluardi]

How about "Track Night in America" Many at Thompson and a few at Palmer.
Also, SCDA has events at Lime Rock, and NHMS. I think they have 4 run groups
and plenty of track time. They will also provide coaching.

[FVRacer21]

Btw - for all looking to pick up speed, don’t overlook the indoor karting tracks. With Boston F1, the track at Mohegan Sun and OnTrack in Wallingford Ct. , these are NOT the old concession tracks of yore.

Relatively cheap time to learn to go fast and race technique.

ChrisZ

[sc94]

Already mentioned;
EMRA Racing – Eastern Motor Racing Association
And also;
NASA Northeast | National Auto Sports Association North East (nasane.com)

[romoman]

Have her do some track days with SCDA. They have some great Miata drivers, classroom sessions, and decent track time. They usually have some former Skippy instructors or Elivan available for coaching too.

[Terry Hanushek]

The New England Region runs Club Racing Experiences (CRE) with some of their regional races. The next CRE will on 7-8 August at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. There may be a CRE on 21 August at Thompson Speedway and probably be one on 11-12 September at Palmer. These CRE events offer track time with coaching in a lower pressure environment.