United States Endurance Racing Association

United States Endurance Racing Association

Category	motorsports
Inaugural season	2006
Official website	usenduro.com

The United States Endurance Racing Association (USERA) is a road racing sanctioning body that conducts endurance and sprint race events in the United States and Canada. The USERA Endurance Championship was established in 2006 as a low cost, professional endurance championship for drivers looking to move beyond regional and club racing programs.

The USERA Endurance Championship was initially run with spec Mazda Miata sports cars and there were 6 race events held in 2006. At the end of 2006, the series was expanded to include the Spec Racer Challenge as a series for SCCA Enterprises Spec Racer Fords. There were two events held in 2007. No events were sanctioned in 2008. In 2009 USERA sanctioned a double race weekend for the Spec Racer Challenge at Lime Rock Park. USERA also added Formula USERA as a supporting race at Lime Rock in 2009.

In 2010 USERA attempted to create the American Touring Car Championship (ATCC). ATCC was designed for near stock touring cars using standing starts common to European-style touring car racing. The series failed to gain support so no ATTC events were hosted. USERA also promoted and operating the 25th Anniversary Spec Racer Ford Celebration event at Road Atlanta, which celebrated the 25th anniversary for the Spec Racer Ford.

Type of Cars

The United States Endurance Racing Association, or USERA, sanctions sports car road racing events in North America. There are three main series that have been sanctioned by USERA, including the USERA Spec Racer Challenge, the Formula USERA and the USERA Endurance Championship. The USERA Endurance Championship has been conducted with two spec series cars. The first was the Mazda Miata built to club racing "Spec Miata" specifications. The second was the SCCA's Spec Racer Ford purpose built sports racer. The Spec Racer Ford is also used in the USERA Spec Racer Challenge series.

Formula USERA is designed for open wheel road race cars built to club racing specifications including cars from SCCA Formula Enterprises (FE), Formula Continental (FC), Formula Mazda (FM) and Formula BMW (FB). Unlike in club racing events, for Formula USERA, all cars run together for the overall race victory, making Formula USERA a rarity today where cars from different manufacturers with different engines are competing for a single championship.

Latest Season

The USERA Spec Racer Challenge and Formula USERA ran as supporting race events for the NASCAR Camping World Series on August 14–15, 2009 at Lime Rock Park.

No ATTC or USERA Endurance Championship events were run in 2008 or 2009.

In 2010 USERA sanctioned and hosted two races. The first was the 10th Anniversary Celebration for the SCCA Spec Racer Fords at Road Atlanta. This became the largest single gathering of Spec Racer Fords to date. The second was a Spec Racer Ford event at Lime Rock Park.

Endurance Race Format

The endurance races are typically three hours in length, and on many race weekends there are double races, with one race on Saturday afternoon and the second on Sunday afternoon. One night race was run at Nashville Superspeedway, and the format of that event was altered slightly to run two one-hour "sprint races", with a 20-minute break in the middle.

Sprint Race Format

The print races are typically 30 to 60 minutes in length and on many race weekends, there are double races, with one race on Saturday afternoon and the second on Sunday afternoon.

Points System

Drivers and Teams each season championship points based on their finishing position. Points are awarded to the top forty drivers in each race. Extra point are awarded to the driver who wins the pole position, leads a race lap and leads the most laps.

Previous Champions

2007 USERA Podium at Mosport International Raceway

Currently, the driver's championship is awarded per season. The overall driver's championship is the driver gaining the most points overall throughout the season. There have been three USERA Endurance Champions. Chris Puskar and David Daugherty shared the inaugural 2006 Driver's Championship co-driving the Puskar Motorsports Spec Miata entry. In 2007, Herb Sweeney IV won the Driver's Championship in the abbreviated Spec Racer Championship. In 2009 Lee McNeish won a pair of special USERA Spec Racer Challenge races held at Lime Rock Park.

Season	Driver Champions	Team Champions
2009	Lee McNeish (USRC)	McNeish Racing
2009	Matt Schneider (F-USERA)	JAY Motorsports
2007	Herb Sweeney IV (UEC)	Sweeney Racing
2006	Chris Puskar (UEC) David Daugherty (UEC)	Puskar Motorsports