evil girl

Ok, question. i read in the "spa @ holtz" thread that the cost for scca membership is $75 for one and spouse.
So that would exclude any costs of paying at the race itself, correct? I'm going to go to SCCA's site for the fingerlakes to get more information, but i figured i'd ask the question anyway..

I figure that it will be packed that day. How early should we be there?

Triple-H

This is a question for Skip or Jeff...

jguerdat

[QUOTE]Originally posted by evil girl
[B]Ok, question. i read in the "spa @ holtz" thread that the cost for scca membership is $75 for one and spouse.

NoTorq

Last year at the first auto-x my friend Owen got there at 7am and it was already packed. He wasn't even registered yet when I got there about 8:30. Seemed like there were a lot of people at that event! A lot of students at RIT joined in I think. We'll try to be there around 7ish, I want to get there kinda early to let the butterflys settle a bit.

Triple-H

And remember, there is the GVC BMW CCA/NR PCA/MOCA
events. Our results do not enter into the SCCA competition, but we have a blast and our events are great experience and less crowded, i.e. more drive time.

Now also note the April 28 date!. This is our once a year school.
If you ar enew to AutoX, this should be a priority!!!

See ya!
__________________________________________________ _________
Autocross News
By Tim Moriarty

This year the Mercedes Owners Club of America is joining the Genesee Valley Chapter of the BMW CCA and the Niagara Region of the Porsche Club of America in the Autocross Series. We welcome their participation. The year is shaping up nicely with five events in Rochester and at least one in Buffalo. The dates are listed below, come on out and have some fun testing the limits of your car in a low speed, safe, precision driving event.

The first event will be an Autocross/Safety School and entries will be limited to 25 students. Please contact me to reserve your place as soon as possible, these spots will fill up fast. Our chapter has many talented instructors to draw from. You won

Testut

The costs of admission are separate from SCCA membership, as Jeff pointed out. In the Glen Region-SCCA it costs $12 for SCCA members and $20 for non-SCCA members, while in the Southern NY Region it costs $20 for SCCA members and $22 for non-SCCA members.

Times for events differ by regions, too. In the Glen Region registration starts at 8:30 AM and lasts until 9:30 AM. Registration times are rigidly enforced and no latecomers are permitted. The first car is on track at 11:00 AM. In the SNY Region registration starts at 10:00 AM and first car is on track at noon. SNYR also tends to be quite laid back about latecomers, but that was last year. Who knows about this year.

Finally, the number of attendees varies a lot by region. Glen Region typically averages 40-50 people with some events sparsely attended and others as much as 70-75 drivers. Southern NY is usually about 30-40 people maximum and sometimes only attracts a handful of people.

There's also Western NY-SCCA and Central NY-SCCA. I've never attended a WNYR event, so I can't comment about them, but when I've attended CNYR events, which is rare, there are usually about 100+ cars.

Each SCCA region has a very different flavor and personality. Some are more regimented than the DMV and others are incredibly lax. IOW, if you didn't enjoy your experience with one region, try another and find the match the best for you. And as Doug pointed out, there's also the various marque clubs (e.g., PCA, BMW-CCA, Corvette Club, Mustang Club... ) who occasionally open their doors to other marques.

jguerdat

Last year was a huge fluke - a newspaper article showed at the same time and we had a novice class almost the size of our normal autocross population at other events. I don't know if we're going to have the same phenomenon this year - last year was the only time something like that has happened. Any way you go, arriving early helps a lot, especially for inexperienced folks.

SCCA will also hold a driver's school (May 4-5 - pick one of those and get signed up early to ensure a spot). I'll be instructing, probably for both days and will try to get assigned to the appropriate group that will include S2Ks. You can still learn a lot form someone who's not S2K-related so don't let me be the limiting factor.

Doug is right that you get much more seat time at the BMW events which can be used for lots of experience really fast - as long as you take the time to actually go faster. The one event I've run there, late last year, had a number of folks who apprently had been doing those events a lot but weren't up to speed, competitively. Depends on what you want - a chance to just play around (no offense intended) or competition. Personally, I'd use the BMW events as practice and the SCCA events to see how I really compare to others. But that's me, and I tend to be be rather competition anal. There is a novice class that is all indexed times. This is handy since you get to compare raw times as well as to use the index (a multiplier per class - faster classes have a worse multiplier so you HAVE to be faster) and the competition is amongst the novices instead of old farts like me who have been doing this since the early '70s (yes, that's the NINETEEN-70s).

It's also interesting (to me) that at the SCCA events, you have to be a quick study - learn where you can go fast in 3-4 runs. I still maintain that autocrossers make better road-racers than road-racers make autocrossers since the need to maximize performance in a very short period of time is counter to anything that lets you do practice laps or so many laps that you slowly build up courage and speed. What trips your trigger may be something else entirely.

So, the mix or lack thereof is strictly up to you. You'll get more seat time with much less pressure at the BMW events. You'll be competing more and learning to be a quick study at the SCCA events. The choice is yours.

Testut

I would recommend reading Solo II Novice Handbook to all of you autocrossing for the first time or even if you've autocrossed a couple of times before. It's written by the Glen Region's own Kate Hughes (sister of Adrienne and brother of Karl for you old timers familiar with the Hughes Dynasty). It is a very helpful book for the novice, complete with many practical suggestions and Kate does an excellent job of reminding us all what it was like to be a novice.

Triple-H

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Testut
[B]I would recommend reading Solo II Novice Handbook to all of you autocrossing for the first time or even if you've autocrossed a couple of times before.

jguerdat

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jguerdat
[B]Yer right - membership costs $75 and events cost $15 per driver per event.