Looking For A Place To Race My Gen 2
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 9:49 am
Good morning. I realize that there are other avenues that can provide the answers to my questions that follow. However, I am hoping that since you guys are heavily involved maybe you know the answers off the top of your (collective) heads.
To begin with, I raced in the Washington DC region of the NE Division from 1973 until the end of 2004, when I suspended my racing to concentrate on sailing my sailboat around the world. Fast forward 15 years and I am now living in Houston, TX and am ready to begin racing again. However, things seem to have changed dramatically. When I left in 2004 the SRF was eligible to race in Regionals, Nationals, and maybe the Pro series-I can’t remember when Pro racing stopped-I do know that I competed in one SRF pro race at VIR although I’m not sure if that was 2002 or 2004.
But I digress…
Now in 2019 the event types seem to be Regionals, Majors, and Super Tours. I haven’t been able to figure out the difference between Major and Super Tour. However, that really has nothing to do with my confusion and frankly at this point I don’t really care about the difference. What I DO care about are the following:
1. From reading the threads here it seems that back in 2017 the Gen 2 cars were eligible to race in Regionals (and MAYBE eligible to race alongside Gen 3 cars while remaining compliant to Gen 2 specs). Was that only during the three year transition period or is this still the case?
2. As I mentioned above when I last raced it was in the Washington DC region. During the last quite a few years of that 30 year period the DC region provided the following EVERY year (although I seem to recall that they began including races at Beaver Run race track somewhere out near Pittsburg).
Anyway, here are the events offered as I recall them:
a. March: Drivers school at Summit Point
b. April: A MARRS (Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series) regional race at Summit Point
c. May (specifically Mother’s Day weekend): A combination MARRS/SARRC race at VIR
d. June: A National race at Summit Point
e. July: A Regional (and sometimes an enduro IIRC) at Summit Point
f. August: A National race at Summit Point
g. September (I think) and October: Regional Races at Summit Point
h. November: A driver’s school at Summit Point
That’s a pretty full calendar---some kind of club racing event each month between March and November.
So as I said I moved to and now live in SW Houston. When I got here I googled Houston race tracks and found that MSR Houston is one that’s a half hour from my house! I was thrilled as I’m sure you can imagine. But when I looked at the Houston region’s club racing calendar I found that there seems to be:
1. An August 31 Labor Day Triple Majors at MSR Houston;
2. A September 5th HOUSCCA Rookie Skool (I have no idea what this is-SCCA driver’s school maybe?) at the Houston Police Academy in North Houston
3. A November 8-10 Super School TT/RR races at Eagles Canyon Raceway somewhere NW of Dallas. Is this maybe a combination time trial (whatever that might be) and regional races???
That appears to be it for racing in the Houston region. Now to be fair the Houston Region’s calendar did not allow me to go backward beyond today so maybe their calendar is front-loaded, I don’t know. I do know that the MSR Houston Raceway’s calendar is blank with regard to SCCA racing so maybe being that close is not the bonus that I thought it was going to be.
So after all that rambling my real question is: Am I missing something here or did I just happen to (in 1973) by pure luck fall into a region (the DC one) that is heavily invested in racing while the Houston region is much less so? If this is true then where do Houston racers race? For that matter does the Houston region even have a regional racing series?
I hope it’s obvious to you that I am looking for a venue that's hopefully reasonably close by in which to RACE my Gen 2 car--I'm not interested in Autocrossing it. From what I have read only about half the SRFs have been converted to Gen 3 specs. If that is correct then there is a boatload of Gen 2s around somewhere. Are they all just sitting up on jack stands or what?
Thanks for your patience if you got this far.
Ray Russell
SRF Chassis # 461
To begin with, I raced in the Washington DC region of the NE Division from 1973 until the end of 2004, when I suspended my racing to concentrate on sailing my sailboat around the world. Fast forward 15 years and I am now living in Houston, TX and am ready to begin racing again. However, things seem to have changed dramatically. When I left in 2004 the SRF was eligible to race in Regionals, Nationals, and maybe the Pro series-I can’t remember when Pro racing stopped-I do know that I competed in one SRF pro race at VIR although I’m not sure if that was 2002 or 2004.
But I digress…
Now in 2019 the event types seem to be Regionals, Majors, and Super Tours. I haven’t been able to figure out the difference between Major and Super Tour. However, that really has nothing to do with my confusion and frankly at this point I don’t really care about the difference. What I DO care about are the following:
1. From reading the threads here it seems that back in 2017 the Gen 2 cars were eligible to race in Regionals (and MAYBE eligible to race alongside Gen 3 cars while remaining compliant to Gen 2 specs). Was that only during the three year transition period or is this still the case?
2. As I mentioned above when I last raced it was in the Washington DC region. During the last quite a few years of that 30 year period the DC region provided the following EVERY year (although I seem to recall that they began including races at Beaver Run race track somewhere out near Pittsburg).
Anyway, here are the events offered as I recall them:
a. March: Drivers school at Summit Point
b. April: A MARRS (Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series) regional race at Summit Point
c. May (specifically Mother’s Day weekend): A combination MARRS/SARRC race at VIR
d. June: A National race at Summit Point
e. July: A Regional (and sometimes an enduro IIRC) at Summit Point
f. August: A National race at Summit Point
g. September (I think) and October: Regional Races at Summit Point
h. November: A driver’s school at Summit Point
That’s a pretty full calendar---some kind of club racing event each month between March and November.
So as I said I moved to and now live in SW Houston. When I got here I googled Houston race tracks and found that MSR Houston is one that’s a half hour from my house! I was thrilled as I’m sure you can imagine. But when I looked at the Houston region’s club racing calendar I found that there seems to be:
1. An August 31 Labor Day Triple Majors at MSR Houston;
2. A September 5th HOUSCCA Rookie Skool (I have no idea what this is-SCCA driver’s school maybe?) at the Houston Police Academy in North Houston
3. A November 8-10 Super School TT/RR races at Eagles Canyon Raceway somewhere NW of Dallas. Is this maybe a combination time trial (whatever that might be) and regional races???
That appears to be it for racing in the Houston region. Now to be fair the Houston Region’s calendar did not allow me to go backward beyond today so maybe their calendar is front-loaded, I don’t know. I do know that the MSR Houston Raceway’s calendar is blank with regard to SCCA racing so maybe being that close is not the bonus that I thought it was going to be.
So after all that rambling my real question is: Am I missing something here or did I just happen to (in 1973) by pure luck fall into a region (the DC one) that is heavily invested in racing while the Houston region is much less so? If this is true then where do Houston racers race? For that matter does the Houston region even have a regional racing series?
I hope it’s obvious to you that I am looking for a venue that's hopefully reasonably close by in which to RACE my Gen 2 car--I'm not interested in Autocrossing it. From what I have read only about half the SRFs have been converted to Gen 3 specs. If that is correct then there is a boatload of Gen 2s around somewhere. Are they all just sitting up on jack stands or what?
Thanks for your patience if you got this far.
Ray Russell
SRF Chassis # 461