Sports Car Club of America

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The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rally, and autocross in the United States and was formed in 1944. It runs many different programs for both amateur and professional racers.

The club racing program [1] is the road racing division where drivers race wheel-to-wheel on either dedicated race tracks or on temporary street circuits. To compete you will need a regional racing license. Both modified production cars (ranging from lightly-modified cars with only extra safety equipment to heavily-modified cars that retain only the basic shape of the original vehicle) and designed-from-scratch "formula" cars can be used in club racing.

Most of the participants in the Club Racing program are unpaid amateurs, but some go on to professional racing careers. The club also is the source for race workers in all specialties, without whom racing organization and operation would not be possible.

The annual National Championship for Club Racing is called the "Runoffs" and has been historically held at Riverside International Raceway (1964, 1966, 1968), Daytona International Speedway (1965, 1967, 1969), Road Atlanta (1970-1993) and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (1994-2005). In 2006, the "Runoffs" moved to Heartland Park Topeka. The current SCCA record holder is Jerry Hansen with 27 titles. Hansen is the father of TLC and Spike TV television personality and author Courtney Hansen.

The Solo program [2] is the autocross program. One car at a time, running a course laid out with traffic cones on a large paved surface, such as a parking lot or airport runway.

Competitions are held at the Regional, Divisional, and National levels. Each Division typically crowns a Divisional Champion in each class, awarded by winning a single event. Similarly, a National Champion in each class is awarded by winning the class at the National Championship (usually referred to as "Nationals") held in September. 2006 ushers in a new site for The Solo National Championship, replacing Forbes Field with the newly renovated Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kansas. Individual National-level events, called "National Tours", are held throughout the racing season.

The professional autocross series, called ProSolo, runs two cars at a time on mirror-image courses and features a drag racing style "christmas tree" start, complete with reaction times and 60' times. Class winners and other qualifiers (based on time differential against the class winner) then compete in a handicapped elimination round called the "Challenge". Points are awarded both in class competition and in Challenge competition, and an annual champion is crowned each September at the Pro Finale event in Topeka, Kansas

Road Rallies [3] are run on open, public roads. These are not races in the sense of speed (obviously, speed limits are to be obeyed), but of precision and navigation. The object is to drive on time, arriving at checkpoints with the proper amount of elapsed time from the previous checkpoint. Trick is, you don't know where the checkpoints are.

The SCCA ProRally is a national performance Rally series similar to the World Rally Championship. At the end of the 2004 season SCCA dropped ProRally and ClubRally. A new organization, Rally America, picked up both series starting in 2005.

The SCCA also has many professional series (Pro Racing) [4] like the Trans-Am Series and the more popular SPEED World Challenge.

Contents

[edit] Divisions and regions

The SCCA is organized into regions and local areas, each organizing events in that area to make the events more accessible to people throughout the country. There are eight large areas of the country which form divisions and which are further sub-divided into regions.

[edit] Northern Pacific Division

The Northern Pacific Division consists of Alaska, Northern California, Idaho, Western Montana, Northern Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. It is broken into two major areas, Area 9 covering California and Nevada, and Area 11 covering the rest of the division. Notable events operated by this region include the Rose Cup Races, an annual SCCA National event held at Portland International Raceway. The SCCA regions within the Northern Pacific Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Southern Pacific Division

The Southern Pacific Division consists of Arizona, Southern California, Hawaii, and Nevada. It is entirely within Area 11 (which is shared with the Northern Pacific Division). The SCCA regions within the Southern Pacific Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Rocky Mountain Division

The Rocky Mountain Division consists of Colorado, Eastern Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, and is entirely within Area 8. The SCCA regions within the Rocky Mountain Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Southwest Division

The Southwest Division consists of Louisiana and Texas, and is entirely within Area 7. The SCCA regions within the Southwest Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Midwest Division

The Midwest Division consists of Arkansas, Southern Illinois, Western Iowa, Kansas, Northern Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Western Tennessee, and is entirely within Area 6. The SCCA regions within the Midwest Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Central Division

The Central Division consists of Kentucky, Northern Illinois, Indiana, Eastern Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Southern West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Geographically the largest SCCA division, it is divided into two Areas, with Area 4 covering Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia, and Area 5 covering the remaining regions. The SCCA regions within the Central Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Southeast Division

The Southeast Division consists of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, and Southern Virginia. The division is split into two areas, with Area 3 covering the Gulf Coast regions, and Area 12 covering the remainder of the division. The SCCA regions within the Southeast Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Northeast Division

The Northeast Division consists of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Northern Virginia. The division is split into three areas: Area 1 covering New England and the New York City urban area, Area 10 covering Upstate New York, and Area 2 covering the remainder of the division. The SCCA regions within the Northeast Division are as follows, with some of the main SCCA raceways listed:

[edit] Trivia

  • Until the 1960's, John Bishop was an SCCA staff member who also illustrated magazine covers for the club. He resigned over disputes about professional racing and formed IMSA.

[edit] Criticism

  • The SCCA is often criticized for bureaucratic rules and structure
  • The fate of ProSolo and its support for the 2007 season is widely debated [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.scca.com/Club/Club.asp?IdS=001DEE-9734710&x=030|010&~=
  2. ^ http://www.scca.com/Solo/Solo.asp?IdS=001DEE-9734710&x=050|010&~=
  3. ^ http://www.scca.com/Rally/Rally.asp?IdS=001DEE-9734710&x=040|010&~=
  4. ^ http://www.sccapro.com/index.html
  5. ^ http://sccaforums.com/forums/thread/223747.aspx

[edit] External links

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