Aaron (dt) and I were talking at Laguna about how there's a core of serious go-fast addicts among us S2Kers, but there doesn't seem to be a steady influx of new people joining. I think part of the reason is that we hardcore types have made a ton of progress and, frankly, are now probably kind of intimidating. People see stripped-out race cars on slicks with $5K suspensions and think, "why bother?" But we were newbies once, too, and a big part of why we stuck with it was how we all progressed together, came to appreciate what our cars can really do, and of course made great friendships along the way.

Anyway, I was kinda tongue-in-cheek in this thread about a Speed Ventures "King of the Streets" challenge, but actually I think this might be a viable idea to try to jump-start a new generation of go-fast addicts.

So, the basic idea is this:
Speed Ventures has 8 track days scheduled at Streets of Willow Springs this year (4 Fridays and two 2-day weekends), and as we know, Streets is a great track for beginners. I propose a SV mini-challenge open only to "rookies". If needed, we can rigorously define a rookie, but it's basically Yellow group and maybe the slower half of White group drivers -- no one with a racing school or more than a few track days before they start. The idea is to be as inclusive as possible. No make/model restrictions, but street tires only. The best 4 event-days would count toward the championship. Classing could be very broad (say, under/over 350hp) if it's thought that would encourage competition, or else very fine (like the SV T-classes) if it's thought that this would ecourage participation by giving people more hope of a class win. Other prize ideas might be "Most Improved Driver" (i.e. biggest laptime reduction), "Fastest CW lap", "Fastest CCW lap", etc.

A key element would be to provide free timing for KotS competitors at each Streets event, to further entice our rookie friends. (Remember, it's that first time you start to see your times drop that you really get hooked! ) Another nice thing that will probably encourage them is that they can always count on being familiar with the track, which can help them overcome their jitters.

OK, I've rambled enough. What do you think?

 

I think this is a great idea. It's basically a rookie-of-the-year recognition? I like the idea of opening it to all our S2000 events, however, since so many drivers live up north, but the streets is certainly the best track for beginners.

I would like to point out, however, that the stock class is wide open and up for grabs since most people with experience can't really bear to not modify the hell out of their cars and then get bumped up to MODIFIED.

So, I would like to offer a Rookie Cup of some kind, but I would also encourage rookies to go after STOCK class top honors. None of the really experienced guys are running in it.

Any thoughts on this Mr. McC?

 

SCCA has a novice class for auto-x. We could have MOD-N that you can only compete in for your first year.

 

Yeah, reality is 1/2 the novices are going to have modified cars, so trying to get them all in stock won't work, I'm sure.

 

Yup I tried to explain this to bitterman before

He's not what I would call. Sharp

 

 

First, to clarify: I'm not talking just about S2000s, but *any* rookie driver.

On classing, one of my thoughts was: with the possible exception of R-compounds and/or stupid-chargers, mods don't mean squat to a novice. (Case in point: did anyone see that track video in Car Talk where a Civic owns an F40?) Hence the idea of very broad RotY classing, e.g. "under 350HP" and "over 350HP". The only drawback, as I mentioned, was that having too few classes might discourage people from thinking they had any chance to win anything.

Remember, too, that most rookies don't have enough competitive juices flowing to motivate them to seek out the class where they have the best chance to win. But that's the whole point of the RotY challenge: to get those juices flowing so that someday they can become full-blown cheating bastards!

Also, of course, no matter what RotY class someone's in, they're also automatically in whatever regular class they'd qualify for, so if their best chance is to win Stock then with their new-found cheating bastard skills, they'll recognize that pretty quickly.

 

I think the intimidation factor might be the idea of SV events being primarily competition driven as opposed to going out and having a blast on the track, though I know the two are not mutually exclusive. That Back-Cracker got many S2000s to attend the 2/6 event is interesting. I think he approached it as a social event, though I know there is this thing about North vs South, but this might also take the pressure off individuals. Early on it was great just to be on a track with the new S2000 with a bunch of newbies, but I guess the cost for this being a social event is a bit higher than MegaMeets, etc.