This article first appeared in the April, 2016 edition of SportsCar Magazine. SCCA members can read the current and past editions of SportCar digitally here after logging into their account; To become an SCCA member and get SportsCar mailed to your home address monthly in addition to the digital editions, click here.

With the 2017 Club Racing season underway, there are a few things you need to know

Primum non nocere, “first, do no harm,” is a medical edict to which the Club Racing Board tries to adhere. Unfortunately, sometimes we get it wrong. See the Touring 1 race at the 2016 National Championship Runoffs where the winning Viper might not have been classed exactly as it should. It’s pretty easy to find the errors, as there are plenty of racers ready to point out where we went wrong – and when we find the errors or oversights, we fix them as quickly as possible. By the way, that Viper is now in GT.

Correct classing is most often a problem when it comes to new cars being included in classes. We try to bring them in based on computer modeling and data obtained from similar cars, but there are a lot of variables to consider.

Seven of the 11 Super Tour tracks have loops to provide trap speeds and segment times. SCCA is working to add loops to the remaining four tracks. That data is available to everyone via the Super Tour page on SCCA.com. The Advisory Committees will use this information along with data acquired from the cars for competition adjustments (for more on data, see the article in this issue about data acquisition).

There have been some tweaks to the P1 and P2 classes in the off-season, but the CRB will be very reluctant to make further changes to either class between now and the Runoffs at Indy. The same is true of most classes, although I’m sure if we missed the mark by very much on any recent changes, it will be brought to our attention – after all, we did deal with about 200 letters and requests at our February meeting.

Changes with SRF and SFI

The CRB and the Board of Directors have changed the SRF and SRF3 rule for 2018. You will be able to run your legal SRF in the SRF3 race group at all U.S. Majors Tours and Hoosier Super Tours starting in the next competition year. SCCA Enterprises is also looking into a potential contingency program for SRF separate from SRF3. In addition, SRF will be able to run in the SRF3 race at the 2018 Runoffs. SRF will also have a place as a standalone class in Regional and Divisional racing.

You will notice that SFI is changing its seatbelt certification labels to remove the date of manufacture and to add an expiration date; consequently, we’ve had to change the rule for 2018 to reflect the new labels. The current seatbelt rule still applies to any SFI belts with the “manufactured on” labels. The new label SFI belts will only be good for two years. We did write the rule so that the belts would be good through the end of the year on the expiration label, so you won’t have to replace your belts in the middle of the season. The FIA belts will still be good for the full five years, so buyer beware when you order new belts.

Pro gets Runoffs credit

Check the latest Fastrack for the rule that allows certain classes to run in SCCA Pro Racing events to count one pro weekend as credit toward qualifying for the National Championship Runoffs. The rule allows a driver in the following classes to replace participation in one Majors weekend with an SCCA Pro Racing weekend in the corresponding class. Drivers must request this replacement through the Club Racing department and pay the entry fee to a Majors event of their choice, to be collected and distributed by SCCA.

Photo identification

If you don’t have an SCCA photo ID, you should send a photo to SCCA and request a new license or membership card with the photo. The current rule in the GCR calls for an SCCA photo ID only. Many Regions and our registration workers have a way to issue a photo ID at the track, but this is not universal. It’s up to you to provide the photo (this is an identification head shot, not a Facebook joke shot). Send it by snail mail to SCCA member services or e-mail it to membership@scca.com.

Words by Jim Wheeler
Photo by Chris Clark