I've noticed, and been bitching steadily since the karts were foisted upon us
top-down and unilaterally.
SCCA (and even the members) keep saying that they want to attract new members,
and the new people supposedly are driven off because their cars aren't
competitive. Many of these new classes are being touted as fixes for this
problem. It doesn't work.
It doesn't work because:
a) No newbie is going to be nationally competitive in anything they drive.
b) No matter what your rule set, it is HIGHLY unlikely that any car modified
without said rulebook in hand
is going to be both competitive and legal.
c) It will still be found that one or two cars are best for a given class, and
the others will feel "excluded".
D) THE PEOPLE ALREADY *IN* THE SPORT KNOW ALL THIS. WE WILL *HAVE* THE CAR FOR
THE CLASS, FULLY PREPARED, AND KNOW HOW TO DRIVE IT!!
You're right back where you started, but now with zillions more classes! And
don't forget concomitant 'Ladies' classes - Katie, you and I know better than to
even go there.
I was even ON the original ST development group, along with Boris, Charlie, and
several others. However, my point was and is that we should be developing
NATIONAL rules for REGIONAL-ONLY classes.
One of the greatest values that SCCA provides is a standard set of rules applied
(largely) nation-wide. There are half a dozen non-SCCA autox clubs and series
here in the Bay Area, and I can run ALL of them with a high probability that my
car will have the appropriate and legal modifications. I can go to another
state and enter a local event with the same likelihood that my car will be able
to run. This is a MAJOR improvement over The Way It Was In The Old Days, as
related by several of your nearest and dearest, and I have to agree with them.
Now, what has been the problem with regional-only classes such as SFR's own OSP
(DOT registration, no slicks, anything else goes)? Very little, actually; they
seem pretty universally popular, and a good place for NOC modded cars to fit.
However, you lose that ability to move freely between different clubs (which
typically implement only the official SCCA classes) and regions - your beloved
rotary Suzuki Sprint with the automatic ends up in DM again. Why isn't OSP
dominated by a SCCA hot-shoe with an Escudo on DOT tires? Because they can't
win cash/championships/trophies! (at least not in the "real" national events)
So they stay in one of the normal classes, perfect.
If SCCA really wants to attract new members in this manner, what they need to do
is what every single professional sports organization in the world does -
sponsor minor-league sanctioned leagues. These ST/STU/whatever classes would be
perfect (if there weren't so many of them). Set them up, define the rules,
define the classes, and make them nationally recognized, but regional only
classes. NO national championships, NO Pro Solo or Tour entries. By the time
people begin to chafe at not being able to run at Nationals, they will:
a) Know whether they have the interest, commitment, money, and talent to pursue
their goal.
b) Know what kind of car they really want to drive, which may well be
completely different than what
they entered the sport with.
c) Have an opportunity to acquire and set up that car. Reality is that if you
can't afford a new/used car
within a couple of years, you can't afford to autox on a National level
anyway.
There are probably several reasons why this hasn't happened yet, but two of them
jump out at me. First, it is a pain in the butt to set up and administer a
whole class structure that doesn't provide any immediate tangible results
(entries at National events). Therefore, it usually falls on the people already
IN the sport who have an interest in making it happen. Unfortunately, those
people by definition have various ulterior motives - financial, enthusiastic,
fanatic, or personal. They want to see those programs succeed, and the current
definition of success isn't moving new drivers through regional classes into the
existing structure - it's adding new national classes to that already topheavy
structure. Until that direction and goal changes, you're going to see this type
of "entitlement" growth continue. It will reach a point where the regions begin
to recombine/bump classes because they can't support them all. Now you've come
full circle, and lost the entire value mentioned above - you can't go run in a
different region because your class isn't guaranteed to be supported...
KeS
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-autox@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-autox@autox.team.net]On
> Behalf Of Kelly, Katie
> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 13:54
> To: autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: RE: The SM 5 year plan
>
>
> An anonymous source just told me that the average autocross has 60 entrants,
> and now we have 62 classes.
>
> I would like to know where the SEB is in all this, and I'm trying to
> understand why so few people so far have failed to notice how chaos and
> pandamonium now govern Solo II, and I want to know why so few of you find
> that alarming. Anyone but Dennis Grant, please humor me with a response.
>
> Katie
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