It's getting close to that time of year again and so I thought I would put together a post about exactly how to get in to wheel to wheel racing in Vancouver for anyone who's interested.


The first step is to enroll in the SCCBC drivers training program.
It's about 450.00 which is a great deal considering you get 2 full days at the track with coaching.

The course is 1 day in a class room explaining theory, educate, rules etc.
The two days at the track are a mix of drills, and lapping sessions.
There is also a written test on the bookwork from the class on the second day at the track so make sure you pay attention.

You do not need a race car for this, in fact they would rather you are not because it's loud inside a race car and you can't really hear your instructor talk to you.
They told me that you need to have a roll bar in your car to do the drivers training in an S2000 but there were a couple of BMW's there a Z3 and a Z8 and neither of them had roll bars so I think as long as you have a hard top you should be good to go.
Here is the link to the drivers training.
http://sccbc.net/driver_training.htm


After drivers training you need to get a medical check up and mail in for your application for your novice
license.

Once you have done the drivers training and obtained your novice license you will need to get your safety gear in order and take part in a minimum of three novice races.
I went to drivers edge to get all my safety gear, in total I think it came to about 1500.00 for all the gear. You need Gloves, balaclava, helmet, socks, suit, and shoes.
Rule of thumb is get the best you can afford. The guy at the shop is nice and will help you sort out exactly what you need.
http://www.driversedgeautosport.com/


The novice races are not categorized in anyway it's just a run what you have providing it passes tech inspection. In my Novice races there was myself in an S2000, a Z06, a VW rabbit, a few civics, and a gen 1 RX7. These races are all about getting comfortable on the track, looking for the flag stations and finishing. You can't upgrade until you finish at least 3 of these races. The other thing you need to do but for some reason no one tells you, or at least no one told me, is you have to do 2 days of volunteer work. One as a corner worker and one in tech. It's no big deal and kind of cool anyway.



Now here is the big part, the car.
There really is 3 options here.

1. rent
this is without a doubt the easiest and cheapest way to do it.
here are link to two cars that are up for rent for this season. The great things about renting the car is firstly the cost but second and more important is that you will get the owner of the car who will help you out along the way.
Here are two links to cars that are for rent for the coming season. Both of these guys would be awesome to have around to answer all your questions.
http://forum.sccbc.net/YaBB.pl?board=BSR.R...;num=1223514705
http://forum.sccbc.net/YaBB.pl?board=BSR.R...;num=1231815256

2. Buy a Car
This is the second easiest option and the second cheapest. You can buy a complete car for a fraction of what it would cost to build it. Here is a link to a post on the SCCBC forum about buying a used race car.
http://forum.sccbc.net/YaBB.pl?board=gener...;num=1233291955

3. Build a Car.
This is by far the hardest and most expensive route.
If you can do it the AP1 (2.0L) is a class killer. Unless someone shows up in a lotus the S2000 has a huge advantage over any other car that fits into it's class. The number one thing that you have to make sure is done right is building your cage. Mine was built by kingpin engineering in Langley the total cost was 3500.00, this included a window net, fabricating hardtop fasteners and properly installing my belts and seat. I would highly recommend going to see this guy, he has built a lot of cages and the tech crew at the track are familiar with his work so you will have less problems when it comes to tech inspection. The number one thing to think about is to not over build the car. Once you have the safety equipment on point
you should just really focus on learning to drive. Parts can all come later. Read the rule book and make sure your parts are all class legal. The S2000 runs in IP2.

I'll tell you from experience learning to drive better will get your times down faster then any mod. When I did my Novice races my car had a comptech SC and was dyno'd at 290 WHP. My lap times we're around 1:22-1:24. By the last race weekend I had taken of the SC and my power was down to 197WHP and I did a lap in 1:18.2
100 HP less a set of tires that had gone a full season and 5 seconds faster. It all came down to learning how to drive better.



That's pretty much it. really hope I get to see another S2000 out there this year.
Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions and if you do make it out to the track come by my pit and I'd gladly help out with any questions.

Garry

 

great recap/story... looking forward to more updates along the way.

I had the pleasure of the SCCBC school in 03' and HIGHLY recommend it even if you don't initially or at all intend to pursue your novice license.

 

Just wondering, besides the cost of the school, gear, and car rental, what other cost do we need to factor in? What is the cost of each event that we attend? Any membership fees?

 

Good little write-up. I'd like to get into W2W racing in the future (perhaps a loooong time in the future as budget dictates), this will serve as a good reference

 

[QUOTE=SumAznGuy,Feb 5 2009, 12:58 PM]Just wondering, besides the cost of the school, gear, and car rental, what other cost do we need to factor in?

 

For this: "They told me that you need to have a roll bar in your car to do the drivers training in an S2000 but there were a couple of BMW's there a Z3 and a Z8 and neither of them had roll bars so I think as long as you have a hard top you should be good to go. "

Would a Mugen FRP Hardtop be considered OK or would you need the OEM hardtop?

 

Great writeup. I am planning to race prep my car this year and start competing next year. I am getting my cage built to SCCA spec in the U.S though, because there seems to be more options there. The SCCA IT cage specs are the same as the IP specs I believe.


See you at the track!

 

The BMW convertibles and the S2000 have different style of rollover hoops, so I think it is up to the discretion of the tech inspector. Some complain the s2000 hoops being too low in relation to the seating position.

For racing under SCCA/SCCBC, only OEM hardtops are allowed. I would check with the organizers first to see if you can be allowed in with OEM rollhoops and a Mugen top. Chances are you would be able to. That's my guess anyways.