New England Region

Next month this article will appear in Pit Talk, but I just wanted to post it here also to get the word out to as many people as possible.

Greetings All,

5 years ago, the New England Division created SSM as a regional only class to give the membership an alternative to the “now” national SM class. The original intent of SSM was to run the same rules that SM started with back in 2000. It was meant to keep development costs down, and provide a level playing field, with a rule set that would be consistent year after year. Although there have been a few “tweaks” to the rules over the years, for the most part, I believe we have remained true to the class intent, and in general, the class has prospered throughout the division.

Because the New England Division is large, both geographically, and in the number of participants, and because a “regional” class caters to the “region” it runs in, there have naturally been some differences in how SSM is considered throughout the division. To make a long story short, while we have struggled at times, we “had” managed to keep the rules for SSM consistent throughout.

This is no longer true. The WDC region has chosen to go their own way. They will now run under their own rule set (soon to be posted on the WDC website) which makes a limited number of changes to the existing SSM rules (posted on the NER website). The actual rule differences are relatively minor – 94 octane fuel max, timing limited to 16 degrees BTDC, and eliminating the restriction on tie rod ends.

The big difference is in the enforcement, which they handle outside of the auspices of the SCCA officials, by utilizing a set of “administrative rules”, and their own elected officials with regional scrutineer licenses, who can look at any SSM car they choose, at any time, with equipment they purchased (i.e. the open hood policy). The SSM class votes on the leadership, and it works for them. They have huge fields at each MARRS race, and everyone who wants to run for points, abides by these rules. The membership supports it fully down there. They are very open about what and when they plan to check, and in the 2 years they have been doing this unofficially, they have never had to penalize anyone.

Their goal is to run an evenly matched, low cost class by banning such things as pro engines, limiting power (by sealing engines following dyno testing), and strict rules enforcement. Their theory is that you can build a championship winning car for $10K or less.

Given that background, the question is – where does NER go from here? I see two basic options:

1: We can continue on with the existing rules
2: We can follow the WDC rules (possibly including our own administrative rule set)

Some observations and points to consider:

1: Doing nothing is certainly the easiest choice. Rules enforcement is by the honor system, and/or the SCCA protest system, and no one has to do anything differently than they do today.

2: If we adopt the WDC rules, we will have to develop our own enforcement policies (i.e. it will be difficult for us to use dyno testing to seal engines due to our large geographical area), and we will need to locate an administrator (possibly paid) to implement the rules enforcement portion of the program. I have received a very generous offer from one of our competitors to help fund this effort if we decide on this course of action. I would expect a small up front cost (maybe $50-$100 per competitor) along with a compliance fee for each race (maybe $5-$10).

I’m certainly open to suggestions as to how to make all this work, but I would envision a pre-season, or first race tech for all SSM cars that run for points in any NARRC, NYSRRC, or NERRC races. Other random inspections would be carried out during the year throughout the field. Non-compliant cars could not run for points, and/or would lose qualifying times, etc. on the day of the race. My best guess is that this will level the playing field within the SSM class, at the expense of some pain for those that crossover from other classes.

I am writing this now because I would like to wrap up all the rule changes, etc, and present the SSM plan for next year at the November mini-con.

So, if you are willing to chip in a few bucks, and are willing to have an open hood policy, let me know. If you want to keep things “low-key”, as they are now, let me know that also. My e-mail address is marcjmartin@gmail.com. I’ll also be at most of the NHIS races this year, and I’ll be around garage number 1 over the lunch hour in case anyone wants to ask a few questions, or better yet, make a few suggestions.

Let me know your thoughts and any ideas you may have. Please also let me know how many SSM races you entered over the past 12 months or so, and if you also ran other classes such as SM or ITA. If we get a good response, I’ll summarize everything in a future article with a more detailed plan.

Thanks,
Marc Martin
SSM Ad Hoc committee member