Road Racing
Wheel-to-wheel action on a paved, closed circuit race track.
Road Racing
SCCA Road Racing is wheel-to-wheel, side by side, first one to the finish line is the winner automobile racing – driven, officiated and staffed by SCCA club members.
No matter who you are – beginner or proficient veteran – there are opportunities across the country for drivers and computer-savvy, tech-savvy, intense, or relaxed people who want to be involved in motorsports to participate on track, off track and track side all while making friends along the way.
Most of all, SCCA Road Racing is a place for those who want to have a motorsports adventure surrounded by hundreds of like-minded people.
Road Race Classes
Cars and vehicles are classed in SCCA road racing according to type and modifications. You may find groups of Mazda Miatas racing against each other, or Porsches racing against Ferraris, or formula cars with wings grouped together. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to have a 3,500-lb nearly street legal car facing off against an 1,100 pound purpose built race car.
Road Race Levels/Series
For beginners and those budget conscious, SCCA road racing offers up Drivers School and Club Race Experience. Each of these levels can be done by people with no previous experience, and all you need is an SCCA legal racecar and required driver safety gear.
Club Race Experience is designed to give new competitors the opportunity to experience the SCCA. CRE is an introductory, low-risk wheel-to-wheel experience which includes coaching. It allows both licensed racers and total rookies to compete in lightly prepared racecars.
For those looking to compete at higher levels – including Regionals, Majors, and the Runoffs – SCCA Drivers Schools are a good place to start. Here SCCA instructors will guide you through the procedures and skills you will need to have to continue in SCCA road racing.
LEARN MORE ABOUT CRE AND THE CURRENT SEASON
For those drivers with older classic and historic racing cars, SCCA offers up Vintage Racing. These events are a little more gentlemanly than other Road Racing levels because many of the cars may be irreplaceable.
SCCA Regional Road Racing works on the same rules that the upper levels do, and points series are usually spread through only a few states and tracks. Classes will include all of the Majors and Super Tour classes, but regionals also have the option of allowing more classes to fit the needs of local trends.
Conference Major events is part of the U.S. Majors Tour hosted by SCCA Regions. These events includes U.S. Majors Tour classes and depending on the event may also include Regional classes. These events tend to be a little more intense, and often drivers are here to match up with the highest competition.
Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour consists of 10 race weekends at 10 premier tracks across the United States. It is part of the U.S. Majors Tour with a Nationwide Points Championship and serves as a path to the SCCA National Championship Runoffs.
The Hoosier Super Tour schedule runs from January to July and offers a heightened experience for both competitors and race fans. Hoosier Super Tour events include live on-track action at SCCA.com, a “Super Tour Radio presented by Hoosier Racing Tire” program, dedicated staffing and enhanced weekend social activities.
The SCCA’s crown jewel event is the annual “Runoffs” and serves as a gathering for the top SCCA racers in the country to go head-to-head and prove who is best.
SCCA has a long history of professional racing to go along with its amateur ranks. SCCA pro series started with the USRRC sports cars and along the way have included the ground-pounding Trans Am and 1,100-horsepower Can Am cars.
Road Race Classes
Touring classes typically refer to lightly modified production cars, or cars built for touring the public roads. In the SCCA Touring 1-4 still very much resemble street-going cars and sport full interiors. The only modifications which are allowed are the required safety features and some minor performance modifications to help with class equalization.
When the Majors and Super-tour level cars “age out” of their touring classes, they often find a second life as a regional-only “Improved touring” car. The Improved Touring or “IT” classes are allowed a few more modifications, but rule sets are tightly controlled for the budget and competition conscious.
“Super Touring” cars are a bit like they sound – production based “touring” cars but with a few more enhancements than the first set of touring classes allow. There are two Super Touring classes in SCCA Majors and Super Tour competition: Super Touring Lite (STL) and Super Touring Under (STU).
STL is made up of small-displacement economy sedans and sports cars, and STU is made up of more performance-oriented cars. you will often see each of these class cars sporting wings and other extreme enhancements.
Production class racecars started life as street cars so they tend to look much like cars you would see on the street. The classes are allowed a range of performance modifications while retaining their original design, structure and drive layout. E Production (EP), F Production (FP) and H Production (HP) are the current production-based classes at the Majors level.
Grand Touring classes are the top of the production-based classes. Though these cars are “based” on cars you might see on the road, they are usually purpose built from the ground up.
The fastest of these classes is GT-1, and cars in this class can top 200 mph on the largest tracks the SCCA races on. The other end of the spectrum – the GT-3 and “GT-Lite” classes – have smaller displacement engines but still put down formidable lap times because of the allowances to the chassis and tires.
These cars are purpose-built racecars with no resemblance to cars you see on dealer lots. Sometimes these cars may have a place for a passenger, but most of the time they are single-seat, resembling the cars one might see at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Because of liberal rules on aerodynamics and lightweight motorcycle engines which power these cars, they are among the fastest cars on any given weekend at an SCCA road race.
“Formula Car” typically refers to an open-cockpit, open-wheel (no fenders) car built to a specific set of rules specifying overall dimensions, weight, and engine size. Each class will be named “Formula” plus a designator depending on the particular class rules.
The faster of these classes including Formula Atlantic – the fastest class in SCCA Road Racing – allow wings and other aerodynamic features. On the lower end of the formula car speed spectrum, Formula F, Formula 500 and Formula Vee do not allow wings.
“Spec” classes are made up of the same types and models of cars using the same parts – this way development expenses are kept to a minimum and driving + setup knowledge should be the key factor in how to win, rather than figuring out a special engine build, special aerodynamics or the newest car. SCCA Spec classes include a sedan, an open-cockpit “sports racer” and formula car classes.
Because of the reduced costs and equalized competition – spec classes are some of the most popular in the SCCA. “Spec Miata” and “Spec Racer Ford” often see 40 or more cars on the grid at events.
“Type” Classes refer to sets of classes for particular types of sedans. For the SCCA this means “American Sedan” and “B-Spec.” Each of these classes have different types and models of cars, but with rule sets for each to equalize competition as much as possible.
American Sedan is for American-origin coupes and sedans including Mustangs and Camaros.
B-Spec is made up of FWD cars with moderate power to weight ratios. The cars are allowed limited modifications to the powertrain and many cars run a restrictor to equalize performance to around 100 wheel hp. Simple suspension modifications are allowed to enable racing appropriate dampers, better spring rates and adjustable ride heights. This is NOT a class for people who love to fabricate or spend endless hours retuning shocks. This is a driver’s class with a rules package tuned to promote reasonable costs, close dicing, and comradery. These cars are not intimidating for beginners to build or drive and they are generally known as the most affordable SCCA class. As the saying goes: “anyone can drive a fast car, only some people can drive a slow car fast”. The class is made up of naturally aspirated, small displacement economy cars. Current cars include but are not limited to the Mazda 2, Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Sonic, Kia Rio, Fiat 500 and Mini Cooper.
Outside of the Hoosier Super Tour and SCCA Majors events – regional series are run to crown local champions. For regions running these events, they are allowed to run many classes that are not eligible for the higher series. These include the “Improved Touring” classes, Spec classes and classes for older cars frequently referred to with a “club” name like, “Club Formula Continental.”
