Andy Ramm wrote:
>Greetings all,
>
>I'm interested in getting started in road racing. I'd like
>to race my '67 MGB-GT. Any advice on doing this would be
>greatly appreciated. In case it matters, I live in Northern
>California and am close enough to Sears Point, Thunder Hill
>and Laguna Seca.
Well, you may be in luck. '67 is the production car cutoff date for the
Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG). CSRG is one of the oldest and best
known vintage racing clubs on the west coast. They're a great group of
people, too. They have events at Sears and Thunder Hill, mostly. If
you want to get a taste of CSRG events, there's one coming up at Sears
on the weekend of the 28th-29th. You can talk to drivers of similar
cars, meet some of the other members, maybe pick up some forms, etc. I
strongly recommend it. CSRG has some technical restrictions on what
modifications can legally be done to the cars, but they're not as strict
as some other clubs.
Your car may be too new for the Monterey Historics crowd (HMSA). There
is a vintage program in the SF region of the SCCA that is trying to
grow. There may be a bit more red tape to go thru with SCCA, but they
are usually much less picky about originality. The safety gear will get
a more thorough going over than in most places. The SCCA events I've
been to were very well run, tho. The SCCA manages to have one event a
year at Laguna Seca, and sometimes one at Thunder Hill or Sears.
I'd also recommend a professional driving school, if you can afford it.
Once you have a car that's ready to go, the SCCA Drivers School is a
lower cost option, and gets you a license. The other clubs in this area
don't tend to have a formal licensing process, but there is a workshop
offered or even required for beginners. CSRG is having a workshop on
the 27th of this month given by Russell Racing, but that's probably way
too soon for you to be ready.
Let me know if you need specific contacts for SCCA or CSRG.
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