New Classes On SCCA Club Racing Horizon

CRB Recommends Prepared Category, New IT Class, Realignment of Touring
and Motorcycle-Powered Formula Cars

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (July 6, 2006) - In the July FasTrack(r), the official
member notification bulletin for Sports Car Club of America, Inc., it
was announced that the Club Racing Board has recommended a number of new
classes for the 2007 season. Highlights include a place for SCCA Pro
Racing SPEED World Challenge cars to race, a home for ultra-high
performance sports cars in Touring, the next level of performance in
Improved Touring and a new motorcycle-powered formula car class.

 

Designed to fulfill the need for highly race prepared production-based
automobiles, the "Prepared" category (which the CRB calls a working
title) has been recommended, with B Prepared designated for SCCA World
Challenge GT cars and D Prepared designated for SCCA World Challenge
Touring Cars. Classes "A" and "C" may be created at a later date to fill
the performance level gaps above and between the new classes.

 

"The creation of Prepared is a necessary and somewhat overdue step
forward in the Club Racing division," SCCA President and CEO Jim Julow
said. "At the moment, there is not a real place for modern performance,
GT and touring cars to compete in race preparation. The new category is
similar to the current production category, in that it involves cars
that were once street based prepared to a high level. What is different
is the relevance of the cars to the current marketplace."

 

Only cars produced since 1990 will be initially classified. The CRB's
goal is to maintain these classes as the marketplace progresses. Each
car will reach a certain point, after it is out of production, that it
will no longer receive positive competitive adjustments within the
class.

 

"The historical similarity of having, for instance, a 'BP' on the side
of a baseline Corvette is not a coincidence. It's the natural evolution,
with a 20-year or so gap in the middle. However, lumping the new
category, which will run on DOT-approved tires and will likely have
approved aerodynamic devices, into the current Production name is not
the correct course of action," Julow said.

 

Recognizing the missing performance level beyond the current Touring 1,
the CRB has also recommended the realignment of Touring classes, moving
the current T1, T2 and T3 classes down one number designation to T2, T3
and T4. A new Touring 1 class will be introduced for vehicles with
performance levels similar to the Corvette ZO6 and a large number of
exotic sports cars.

 

"Throughout history, there has always been on performance level higher
than that of the current Touring 1 category," Julow said. "Call them
supercars or exotics-they beg to be raced. In reality, when the
realignment of Touring occurred a number of years ago, this probably
should have been the result, with the current Touring 1 being the second
performance level.

 

"Additionally, realigning the Touring names in this fashion gives Club
Racing a logical progression for the racer who buys a car, builds it to
Touring specs and then wishes to further develop it into a Prepared car.
While there will always be exceptions, the intention is for a T1 car to
progress into AP, T2 into BP, T3 into CP and T4 into DP."

 

Like Touring, the Regional-level only Improved Touring category will
have a new class to recognize cars with a performance level too high for
the current classes (S, A, B and C). ITR has been added to include cars
with stock horsepower levels around 200, like the 1997-1999 Porsche
Boxster, 1989-1996 Nissan 300Z, Honda S2000, V6 Chevrolet Camaro and a
variety of BMWs.

 

Finally, recognizing the popularity and practicality of motorcycle
engine power in racing, the CRB has recommended the creation of Formula
1000 for regional competition. Formula 1000 will include chassis
eligible, or similar to, Formula Continental, but with a restricted
1000cc motorcycle engine.

 

"The Club Racing Board has taken a lot of input and developed a cohesive
plan to move our racing classes into the future," Julow said. "I applaud
their efforts and look forward to seeing these classes move from the
conceptual phase into reality."

 

All of the classes are subject to Board approval at the August 2006
meeting. Each of the new classes would receive "Regional-only" status
for the first year, with the possibility of being recognized as a
National class in 2008 (excluding ITR), should numbers qualify it as
such.