An "Average Guy" Joins the Sports Car Club of America - Part 1

The name of my blog includes "racing". This doesn't mean I'm watching on TV and reporting back; it's meant to be my events. My blog title also includes "Average" and includes budgets as well. (You might as well include 'time', as in the average amount of time to spend on the hobby.)

I just finished running a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) event. It was a blast!! I'll get to my times in a bit, but first, let's talk about cost of this particular event.

Straight up to join SCCA there is the yearly fee for the national membership and there is the fee for your regional membership. Total cost here was $80.00. Now the events are not free. In my regional club which run events in the Tucson areas and Phoenix as well, they have two offerings: they have a round for points and time and they have the time only round. There are separate prices for each. Today when I showed up (you can pre register and save...I think...$10.00) filled out all the paper work and went to pay. The fellow taking the money asked if I wanted "time only" and I'm thinking...do I only want to be timed?...so I said "No," and he said "That will be $30.00." So I paid.

Now, I have co-worker who talked me into joining SCCA and he attends regular events at the local drag strip - the auto cross is held in the huge drag pit/parking area. He cleared up my misunderstanding and said if I wanted the "full" experience I need to go back and say "Yes", I wanted the 'time-only' round as well. That cost me another $10.00.

So putting this together we are at 120 big ones this month to race. Not too bad, I'd have to say.

In this event I just ran with my street tires 255/50 ZR 16 BFG GForce Sport and stock rims (only chrome). There was a lot of tire spinning and some smoking. The surface of the track was...well let's just say less than optimal...ok...fine...it was horrible. (You could toss in a few cuss words in front of horrible and you wouldn't be over dramatizing.) It was black top, cracked, uneven and there was grass and weeds growing on the far end. The tires looked rough when I finished the 10 runs. Too many more events (this was the second auto cross on these tires) and I think I'd have to replace them.

So that really means that to protect the street tires and the chrome rims, I really ought to have another set of tires and rims. Now you are talking money that many of us average guys aren't going to spring for. This is true for Corvette owners - tires are not cheap for the older Corvettes. Not so for my co-worker running his Civic - they are reasonable.

Take my C4: the tires and the wheels are uni-directional. Not unusual for tires, but my 1984 C4 rims only go one way and are labeled left front, right front and the same for the rear. I do have the original set of rims that I will eventually restore to the factory aluminum and clear coat, but right now they would for auto crossing. But the rubber can run upwards of $700.00 and if I put racing rubber on it, according to SCCA rules it will change my class. The last cost is the "I broke it cost." They could be just about anything on a car that's racing. Anything mechanical, brakes (oh..they will wear out a lot faster in auto cross...or at least the way I do it!!!!), undercarriage, right down to the dreaded "cone damage". (yeah...yeah....I know you aren't suppose to hit them...I know the object of the race..but man did I kill some of them 'good'..no doubt!!!) I did no damage to the 'vette but I did see a Evo that took out a portion of his front air dam.

In fact, the Corvette performed flawlessly. The only problem was the driver. I'll get to that next blog post. You'll laugh, I promise. I'll give you my times and points and we'll talk about PAX times and classes.

- Read more from Tim Sweet at Average Guy's Car Restoration, Mods and Racing

Photo Credits: Tim Sweet