Houston area and all FF & CF racers

[LenFC11]

After a long hiatus from racing and relocating to the Houston area I am considering getting back into a car again.

FF & CF are the cars I would consider. Where are you guys racing? What groups are you racing with? How many cars in class?

I am most likely interested in doing 3-4 events a year. SVRA COTA would very likely be one of those events. Good fields. Close to home.

I am not interested in long tows. 4-6 hours pretty much max. The one off big event that attracts a gathering of cars would always be considered

I also would consider if any local racers need a teammate and has room in their trailer for another car and looking to share expenses. This would be a great option for me and one I would be very much interested in.

I am very capable of maintaining my own car but would also consider the possibility of local prep shops for storage and or maintenance and transportation.

I am open to many scenarios to make this easier on myself as time and space is more limited now then it was in the past. I just want a few more years and few more races before hanging up the helmet for good. As we all know this addiction never goes away.

Please feel free to express all ideas. Looking forward to hearing from you all and seeing what Houston has to offer to an old FF racer

I would also be open to leaving my car in other areas of the country with healthy FF or CF fields. NE is of interest as I previously raced F1600 & F2000 series and know the tracks better. I understand the right coast series runs with them now.

I believe west coast also has a good field of cars. I am open to finding a spot here as well.

Thank you all and look forward to a possible return

[CARSHouston]

Welcome to Houston.
In this area vintage seems to be stronger than SCCA.
I have a shop and I'm working on FV and FF for vintage and GT and prod cars for SCCA.
I do have a friend with a couple of Hawke FF for sale.
I'm at 290 and 34th street, you're welcome to stop by any time.
PM me for contact info and directions
George

[mboian90]

Hi Len,

Myself and one of my good friends have been holding down the FF field for SCCA the past few years. I ran the full 2022 SOWDIV schedule last year and the average FF/CF field was ~3 over the 7 events. I know that isnt very exciting but its the reality. The COTA Super Tour a few weeks ago did have 15 entries which was a lot of fun.

The closest track is MSR Houston in Angleton. The SCCA events are typically run memorial day weekend and labor day weekend which means it is HOT and that deters a fair amount of people. Track wise, there isnt much elevation change which some dont like but I still consider it a technical track. None of the braking zones are a nice straight line which makes you have to work for a good lap time. More often then not we get put in with the wings and things class at those events which I dont mind. We have raced together enough that I trust the fast guys coming up behind me and I also usually have some battles with the tail of the FX/FM field.

SCCA also races at MSR in Cresson and Eagles Canyon which are near Dallas/Fort Worth (4-5 hour range). Eagles Canyon is easily my favorite track, great flowing layout and a well kept facility. I find it more entertaining than taking a nap on the straights at COTA. Cresson is a short and busy lap but still fun to rip around in a FF. It has some fun sweepers and the tight first few corners are a good test of the cars ability to transition. As an autocrosser I enjoy that, others maybe not.

I am a one man team so I dont think I qualify as the "prep shop" you are looking for but I am more than willing to help where I can if it gets someone out there with us!

Matt Boian
FF 14

[JoshuaJustice]

The majority of the FF field in Texas and Oklahoma will be found in the Vintage events at https://corinthianvintageautoracing.com/ , and you can see their schedule and results there for the past few years. It's probably too late for you, but there is a race this weekend at ECR, at the very least consider coming up here and meeting some drivers. I don't know enough to comment on why they're all in Vintage rather than SCCA, other than I do know the Vintage tires in 2 of the 3 classes are more reusable and therefore cheaper in the long run than the SCCA slicks, but they easily get around 20 FFs across the three classes. Unfortunately it seems like CVAR was last in Houston in 2021; my understanding is there has been difficulty in them getting a variety of tracks because of other race series (SCCA, NASA, BMW, Porsche) and HPDE organizers (Chin, Apex, Edge) outbidding them for the dates and tracks they want, which is why the CVAR schedule is mostly ECR and Hallett this year. The Dallas-area events (MSR-C and ECR) are about 4 hours from you in Houston, Austin is closer, and Hallett is going to be more like 8. If you're already planning to get a FF/CF that's vintage-eligible for SVRA purposes, CVAR's probably going to be your main focus aside from you just showing up to the MSR-H SCCA races due to proximity.

[stonebridge20]

Since you're open to suggestions, Ric tells me that there's no formula car made that would accommodate your rather large dimensions right now so maybe you should probably start by eating only sliced turkey and maybe a little lettuce for a few months?

[cgscgs]

I have a 1981 Tiga FF which I run in the midwest, usually about six events per year.. I started in SCCA but like many I have migrated to vintage. I found that the SCCA Full Competition license is accepted by just about every other group so I run one SCCA Regional each year to keep that current. I have also found that everyone accepts a SCCA Annual Tech so I have that done every spring before the season begins. YMMV

[racingflyboy]

Here in Colorado, RMVR typically has at least 25-30 FFs - mix of Vintage and Club. We've had as many as 50 for our Race Against Kids' Cancer charity event, where we included Modern FF's as well (had 3 or 4 of them as I recall). Unfortunately, Colorado is a long haul from Houston. Maybe keep a car here and fly in? Several of us typically head to Hallet to run with CVAR in Oct at least.

Best wishes

Steve

[LenFC11]

Lots of good information here…. By most…. I appreciate it! I will look into some of these options.

I would not mind leaving a car in other parts of the country if found a good teammate to work with

Mike. Thank you for your excellent insight. What would the world do without you!?!?!

[stonebridge20]

Mike. Thank you for your excellent insight. What would the world do without you!?!?!

You'd only have Ric to stand on your nuts every once in a while then.

Doesn't sound like much fun.