Does anyone know the costs, my knowledge base tells me:

GCR book: $25
Novice permit fee: $55

Once I submit all paper work they give me a novice permit which allows me to enter an SCCA driver school and later events. I believe the costs to enter a driver's school is anywhere from $100 - $200. I also need my own car or rent/lease a car... thats something else I got qs about. Once I attend 2 schools and 2 regional events I am eligible for the regional license.

I know there are all these driving schools like Skip Barber, Petty and so on and you can use that to waive the second driving school requirement. But, those cost a lot more money to attend... I believe somewhere in the $5k range.

I basically want to get a regional license in the next year or so. So I guess my question is does anyone here have a regional license? Also how expensive does it get to prepare my car for racing. I intended to run my Accord in Showroom stock C but its ineligible. So I might buy an old CRX and try the other categories.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

To go racing in wheel-2-wheel events will be quite costly up front. You need a copy of the SCCA GCR to get started. The eligible cars are listed on "spec lines" and you will see all of the classes that are available. Solo has its own rulebook. SCCA #1-800-770-2055. NASA is another choice and has its rules on their website (www.nasaproracing.com).

Getting started with any car will cost you a good bit more than the price of the car. If it is a dedicated track car, you will need something to tow it with. If you want to do Solo and autocross (much less costly) you will not have this issue. Our CRX cost $3000 to start with and is now worth about $10,000 for all that has been done to date. Plan on the price of the car doubled for your budget.

Schools come in several flavors. I have done Petty ($2500) at Charlotte/Lowe's and SRE ($4000) at Pocono twice. These are stock car schools and may count toward HPDE events more so than SCCA. I think that the region will look at the performance/seat time in evaluating your ability to advance in the school environment. I do know that it has helped with my progression in HPDE events to have done the stock car thing at Pocono. WHy harp on HPDE-you run what you have. I happen to use a dedicated race car to gain seat time on the tracks I run. Knowing your car and the track will help in the world of w2w racing. The environment does not allow for "competition" so you have less chance of doing something harmful to the car. Not only that but you have a minimal investment compared to a dedicated car. For more on HPDE look at the NASA and PDA websites. There are others out there-these happen to be the ones I know.

If you cannot budget at least $5000 for your first year-wait. This will include the basic car and safety equipment for a regional license school environment. Keep in mind that travel expense can eat away at the money too. A typical weekend for us costs over $500 (entry, motel, food and fuel). SOme tracks will allow camping.

What do I recommend. Consider a car that is track ready and meets your budget. This can either be a rental or purchased (there are several rental/instructor deals out there for NASA and EMRA licensing in the northeast). You can indeed go to Bertil Roos at Pocono and they will give you a serious school on the roadcourse-that will also count. Not cheap-but effective. Remember the fees you are looking at are the tip of the deal-you also will need a comprehensive medical exam, btw.

If you have additional Q's drop me an e-mail.

 

Thanks for the response.

I thought $5k a year would be around what I'd expect. The reason I want my own car is because that way I don't have to deal with any problems if I wreck it. We are getting a truck soon so if I do get into this I'll have a tow vehicle.

I was intending on the Improved Touring class. Getting a used CRX (84-87) for around $1k or so and working on it. I've checked a couple of SCCA sites and other race sites but haven't found a race spec CRX. Would you say spending around $5k would have me a car atleast race ready, not winning ready but atleast able to do a race.

I know clothing is also expensive, I looked at the prices and it came to around $2k or so for helmet, gloves, undies, shoes and suit. Is that about a good estimate for clothing?

I have a good few years in go karts, nothing spectacular just the stuff you can race without a license. What would you say would be a good way to start?

 

Would you mind too awfully if I ask why you picked the SCCA route instead of the NASA route?

 

Haven't decided which route I am going to take, just looking for the most cost effective route.

 

NASA doesn't have crap in my area, but theres tons of SCCA stuff here, rally, iceracing, Solo trials, autocross, etc...

If you're not living on a coast, NASA really isn't very useful.

 

Honest Sean I think you do not know what you are getting into. Without any prior experience it's going to be extremely tough to do what you want to do.

I would start with autoxes and see how well you do or take a HPDE or two and how well you do before dropping any cash for a car.

 

I know it'll be tough, thats part of the challenge. Thing with autoxing is there are hardly any events around town, there are a few here in PA but its a 3+ hr drive just to get home. I am looking for some autox events for over the summer.

 

Tough...and potentially devastatingly expensive.

I wanted to work up to suggesting the NASA route because of how they support their HPDE drivers from Group 1 all the way through Group 4 and into competition licensing.

Their programme is a little more organised and a little more safety conscious, and it shows in the collision rates in their races.


There's a relatively new but burgeoning NASA group headed by Manveer, and they have the Beaverun track in PA as one of their home courses, along with old favourites like Mid Ohio.

You also might not be far from the very strong NASA-Virginia group, who have quite a few events at Summit Point this year. The completion of Shennandoah means there are now three different tracks at Summit Point, and we are going to make use of all three of them.

I'm not entirely sure what your background is, but there's such a huge difference between parking lot autocrosses and what's required of you on a road course, you really might want to get into the NASA HPDE programme or something similar before you go too far in your thinking or spend too much money.

NASA-Virginia Region

Sorry about the dancing baby. I can only chalk it up to the winter withdrawal symptoms.

I'm thinking that Summit Point's tracks will be close enough to Pennsylvania that it won't be too bad a drive for you. There always seems to be a lot of people from PA there when we're there.

Considering the reputation and excellence of Virginia International Raceway, you might want to even hazard your way down for that...it's well worth the drive. It's probably my nomination for the best track on the east coast. The owners keep it very low key and private, refusing to build more spectator stands, so it's kind of an unusual situation where you have a huge, very safe track and not many people roaming around.

Very best of luck.

 

I also suggested HPDE


Tough challenge is one thing but setting yourself up for failure? Racing cars isn't exactly learning how to type.