AJ, this is SCCA club racing not real estate we're involved in here. Since you brought it up, just how much equity do you think racers in other classes have after just a couple of years?

LeeHill wrote:... a stronger class for having moved from 1990 technology to something that belongs in the current century.

Current millenium!

As a newbie to SRF, but not the SCCA or spec racing, what seems to be this classes big problem is that it is not really attracting a younger crowd in there current state. The motors sound silly and the body work could be referred to as " vintage" in style. We can talk about the close racing but unless the class is growing, it will be shrinking. Talking about runoff numbers only tells a small side of the story, you can't claim a class is popular everywhere based on a single event, heck, Formula Vee has 37 current entries and we are lucky to see 2 on a weekend here.

I have two thoughts as far as car value, etc.

1) With the fairly long lead time until the new motor, the real cost will be less since you'd be at the point where you would need a new Ford engine in any case.

2) Unlike many classes, even with the cost of the engine change, at least the entire car isn't being rendered uncompetitive. Look at many other classes -- from Touring to Formula Continental -- and you will see where someone's smart idea has effectively rendered entire classes of cars non-competitive. Take mid-90's FC cars, for example. They may be fun to drive but if you do apples to apples, they don't compare with the newer cars by 3-4 seconds a lap.

And finally (I suppose this could be point #3) you do have to keep in mind that this is racing and all kinds of bad things can happen. I was minding my own business, actually not even pushing in a non-points bonus race, and came around Turn 6 at Laguna and WHAM! -- caught up in someone else's incident, had as much damage as the engine upgrade will cost.

Steve

ctkellett wrote:As a newbie to SRF, but not the SCCA or spec racing, what seems to be this classes big problem is that it is not really attracting a younger crowd in there current state. The motors sound silly and the body work could be referred to as " vintage" in style. We can talk about the close racing but unless the class is growing, it will be shrinking. Talking about runoff numbers only tells a small side of the story, you can't claim a class is popular everywhere based on a single event, heck, Formula Vee has 37 current entries and we are lucky to see 2 on a weekend here.

SRF National car counts:
2012: 1208 (+12%)
2011: 1078 (+2.9%)
2010: 1047 (-15%)
2009: 1238 (-7.3%)
2008: 1335 (+2.9%)
2007: 1298

SM National car counts:
2012: 1240 (-3.4%)
2011: 1283 (+7.8%)
2010: 1190 (+8.7%)
2009: 1095 ( -18% )
2008: 1335 ( -7.4%)
2007: 1441

Car counts clearly came down, in both classes, as a result of the economic weakness seen in 2008-2009. SM/SRF are, by a wide margin, the top classes across nearly every division. The only exception is the Rocky Mountain division, where SRF participation as been anemic.
You'd be hard pressed to quantify your statement that SRF isn't a popular class or that its participation rates have varied much more than the general SCCA rates.

This year we had approximately 40 cars for a race at Laguna Seca and another 35 a few weeks later at Sears Point. How are other regions doing?

SRF49 wrote:This year we had approximately 40 cars for a race at Laguna Seca and another 35 a few weeks later at Sears Point. How are other regions doing?

Think I saw 42 on the grid for Road America. That's a great field.

Feff

ctk,

It's not that those aren't good points, especially the John Deere exhaust note, and you are right about grow-or-die, but I think it's important to see this class in a more macro context.

The amateur racing universe itself is shrinking (I believe permanently) and the best we can hope for is a last man standing among purpose built race cars. I suppose that may sound defeatist, but these days I get to look at a lot of statistics and its interesting that all classes of purpose build race cars are down, except Spec Racer is holding its own.

We do see new younger SRF drivers out here in San Francisco, and I guess it's in our self-interest to see that they don't go down the IT/SM road, but lets face it, old is more likely to mean, "can afford to race", though I need to also add that young in our class probably means, "serious about racing".

And our strength for those racers is the Enterprise-CSR business and support model, and that is absolutely why the class is still here going on four decades. In 2024, we'll all get to have our say on how big a battery we need to power the cars and whether we should synthesize an exhaust note.

tony

By 2020 we are going to need an automatic transmission. Nobody under 20 these days even knows what they are!

Anthony Tabacco wrote:In 2024, we'll all get to have our say on how big a battery we need to power the cars and whether we should synthesize an exhaust note.

tony

Tony,

I think you make a great point about reduced participation and the need to defend the class as the main attractor for new entrants. Let's face it, our kids don't have the disposable income that we do. Racing is definitely an activity that requires some excess income and it just doesn't happen unless the money is there and the spousal partner is OK with spending the money. We're in for a long (decade?) drop in participation in total because that's what the demographics and economic projections dictate.

However, for those that can afford to enter the sport, I think we should continue to provide the most sensible and cost-effective entry point. I think this is what we have done and what we should continue to do. A decade from now I believe this will pay off. And perhaps our kids will be racing for the line at Laguna in 2022?

Rich

Anthony Tabacco wrote:ctk,

It's not that those aren't good points, especially the John Deere exhaust note, and you are right about grow-or-die, but I think it's important to see this class in a more macro context.

The amateur racing universe itself is shrinking (I believe permanently) and the best we can hope for is a last man standing among purpose built race cars. I suppose that may sound defeatist, but these days I get to look at a lot of statistics and its interesting that all classes of purpose build race cars are down, except Spec Racer is holding its own.

We do see new younger SRF drivers out here in San Francisco, and I guess it's in our self-interest to see that they don't go down the IT/SM road, but lets face it, old is more likely to mean, "can afford to race", though I need to also add that young in our class probably means, "serious about racing".

And our strength for those racers is the Enterprise-CSR business and support model, and that is absolutely why the class is still here going on four decades. In 2024, we'll all get to have our say on how big a battery we need to power the cars and whether we should synthesize an exhaust note.

tony