Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is an American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional racers.
Contents
1 History 2 Sanctioned racing
2.1 Professional racing 2.2 Club Racing
2.2.1 SCCA Majors formula group classes
2.3 Autocross 2.4 Rallying 2.5 Time Trials
3 Divisions and regions 4 Awards 5 Hall of fame 6 See also 7 References 8 External links
History[edit]
The SCCA traces its roots to the Automobile Racing Club of America
(not to be confused with the current stock car series of the same
name). ARCA was founded in 1933 by brothers Miles and Sam Collier, and
dissolved in 1941 at the outbreak of World War II.[2][3] The SCCA was
formed in 1944 as an enthusiast group.[4] The SCCA began sanctioning
road racing in 1948 with the inaugural Watkins Glen Grand Prix.
Cameron Argetsinger, an SCCA member and local enthusiast who would
later become Director of Pro Racing and Executive Director of the
SCCA, helped organize the event for the SCCA.
In 1951, the
SCCA National Sports Car Championship was formed from
existing marquee events around the nation, including Watkins Glen,
Pebble Beach, and Elkhart Lake.[5] Many early SCCA events were held on
disused air force bases, organized with the help of Air Force General
Curtis LeMay, a renowned enthusiast of sports car racing. LeMay loaned
out facilities of
Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command bases for the SCCA's use; the
SCCA relied heavily on these venues during the early and mid-1950s
during the transition from street racing to permanent circuits.[6]
By 1962, the SCCA was tasked with managing the U.S. World Sportscar
Championship rounds at Daytona, Sebring, Bridgehampton and Watkins
Glen. The club was also involved in the
Formula 1
Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix.
SCCA Executive Director John Bishop helped to create the United States
Road Racing Championship series for Group 7 sports cars to recover
races that had been taken by rival USAC Road Racing Championship.
Bishop was also instrumental in founding the SCCA
Trans-Am Series
Trans-Am Series and
the SCCA/CASC
Can-Am
Can-Am series. In 1969, tension and infighting over Pro
Racing's autonomy caused Bishop to resign and help form the
International Motor Sports Association.[7]
Sanctioned racing[edit]
Professional racing[edit]
See also: SCCA Pro Racing
Trans Am car of Ty Dillon
The SCCA dropped its amateur policy in 1962 and began sanctioning
professional racing.[8] In 1963, the
United States
United States Road Racing
Championship was formed. In 1966 the Canadian-American Challenge Cup
(Can-Am) was created for Group 7 open-top sportscars. The Trans-Am
Series for pony cars also began in 1966. Today, Trans-Am uses GT-1
class regulations, giving amateur drivers a chance to race
professionally. A professional series for open-wheel racing cars was
introduced in 1967 as the SCCA Grand Prix Championship.[9] This series
was then held under various names through to the 1976 SCCA/USAC
Formula 5000 Championship.
Current SCCA-sanctioned series include Trans Am, the Pirelli World
Challenge for GT and touring cars, the Global MX-5 Cup, F2000
Championship Series,
F1600 Championship Series
F1600 Championship Series and the Atlantic
Championship Series.
SCCA Pro Racing has also sanctioned professional
series for some amateur classes such as
Spec Racer Ford
Spec Racer Ford Pro and
Formula Enterprises
Formula Enterprises Pro.
SCCA Pro Racing also sanctioned the
Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup
Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup during its time.
Club Racing[edit]
B Spec National Championship Runoffs Winner Charlie James in his Mini
The Club Racing program is a road racing division where drivers race
on either dedicated race tracks or on temporary street circuits.[10]
Competitors require either a regional or a national racing license.
Both modified production cars (ranging from lightly modified cars with
only extra safety equipment to heavily modified cars that retain only
the basic shape of the original vehicle) and designed-from-scratch
"formula" and "sports racer" cars can be used in Club Racing. Most of
the participants in the Club Racing program are unpaid amateurs, but
some go on to professional racing careers. The club is also the source
for race workers in all specialties.
The annual national championship for Club Racing is called the SCCA
National Championship Runoffs and has been held at Riverside
International Raceway (1964, 1966, 1968), Daytona International
Speedway (1965, 1967, 1969, 2015),
Road Atlanta
Road Atlanta (1970–1993),
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (1994–2005, 2016), Heartland Park Topeka
(2006–2008),
Road America
Road America (2009-2013), Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
(2014), and
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2017). In 2018, the Runoffs
will go back west to Sonoma Raceway. The current SCCA record holder is
Jerry Hansen, (former owner of Brainerd International Raceway), with
twenty-seven national championships.[11]
SCCA Majors formula group classes[edit]
Formula Vee
Formula Vee car of Rick Shields
The eight classes of the formula group are
Formula Atlantic
Formula Atlantic (FA),
Formula 1000 (FB),
Formula SCCA
Formula SCCA (FE),
Formula Continental
Formula Continental (FC),
Formula Mazda (FM),
Formula F
Formula F (FF),
Formula 500
Formula 500 (F500) and Formula Vee
(FV)
Autocross[edit]
The autocross program is branded as "Solo".[12] Up to four cars at a
time run on a course laid out with traffic cones on a large paved
surface, such as a parking lot or airport runway, without interfering
with one another.
Competitions are held at the regional, divisional, and national
levels. Each division typically crowns a divisional champion in each
class, determined at a single event. Similarly, a national champion in
each class is determined at the national championship (usually
referred to as "Nationals") held in September. In 2009, Solo Nationals
moved to the Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, Nebraska.[13] Individual
national-level events called "Championship Tours" and "Match Tours"
are held throughout the racing season. The SCCA also holds
national-level events in an alternate format called "ProSolo". In
ProSolo, two cars compete at the same time on mirror-image courses
with drag racing-style starts, complete with reaction and 60-foot
times. Class winners and other qualifiers (based on time differential
against the class winner) then compete in a handicapped elimination
round called the "Challenge". Points are awarded in both class and
Challenge competition, and an annual champion is crowned each
September at the ProSolo Finale event in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Rallying[edit]
Rim of the World Rally Car of Tabor & Pointer in 2004
The SCCA sanctions "RallyCross" events, similar to autocross, but on a
non-paved course.[14]
SCCA ProRally
SCCA ProRally was a national performance rally
series similar to the World Rally Championship. At the end of the 2004
season SCCA dropped ProRally and ClubRally. A new organization, Rally
America, picked up both series starting in 2005.
Road rallies are run on open, public roads.[15] These are not races in
the sense of speed, but of precision and navigation. The object is to
drive on time, arriving at checkpoints with the proper amount of
elapsed time from the previous checkpoint. Competitors do not know
where the checkpoints are.
Time Trials[edit]
In recent years, the SCCA has expanded and re-organized some of the
higher-speed events under the Time Trials banner.[16] These include
Performance Driving Experience ("PDX"), Club Trials, Track Trials, and
Hill Climb events. PDX events are non-competition HPDE-type events and
consist of driver-education and car control classroom learning
combined with on-track instruction.
Divisions and regions[edit]
The SCCA is organized into nine divisions and 115 regions, each
organizing events in that area to make the events more accessible to
people throughout the country. The number of divisions has increased
since the SCCA's foundation. Northern Pacific and Southern Pacific
started as a single Pacific Coast Division until dividing in 1966.
Rocky Mountain Division is a relatively recent split. The Great Lakes
Division was split from the Central Division at the end of 2006.
SCCA Divisions
Division Territory
Central Division
Northern Illinois, Minnesota, Eastern Iowa, North Dakota, South
Dakota,
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin
Great Lakes Division Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and Southern West Virginia
Midwest Division Arkansas, Southern Illinois, Western Iowa, Kansas, Northern Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Western Tennessee
Northeast Division Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Northern Virginia
Northern Pacific Division Alaska, Northern California, Idaho, Western Montana, Northern Nevada, Oregon, and Washington
Rocky Mountain Division Colorado, Eastern Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming
Southeast Division
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Eastern
Tennessee,
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico and Southern Virginia
Southern Pacific Division Arizona, Southern California, Hawaii, and Nevada
Southwest Division Louisiana, Texas, and coastal Mississippi
Awards[edit]
See footnote[17]
Hall of fame[edit] Main article: SCCA Hall of Fame See also[edit]
Hillclimbing in the USA
References[edit]
^ Smith, Steven Cole (October 30, 2017). "New SCCA Leader is a
Consensus Builder". Autoweek: 47.
^ Jaslow, Russell. "The Ardent Alligator and The 1949 Watkins Glen
Grand Prix". Auto Racing History. Archived from the original on 11
March 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
^ "The History of VIR and Road Racing".
Virginia
Virginia International
Raceway. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
^ Welty, Richard. "Introduction to the SCCA". North American
Motorsports Pages. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
^ Krejčí, Martin. "
SCCA National Sports Car Championship 1951".
Racing Sports Cars. Archived from the original on 15 November 2011.
Retrieved 29 May 2010.
^ "SCCA Announces 2007 Hall of Fame Class". Sports Car Club of
America. 22 November 2006. Archived from the original on 5 December
2006.
^ Gousseau, Alexis (23 April 2006). "A tribute to John Bishop".
IMSAblog. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
^ 70 years of the SCCA - Racer Magazine, 30 January 2014
^ 1967
SCCA Grand Prix Championship Review, myf5000.com Retrieved 17
June 2014
^ "Club Racing". Sports Car Club of America. Retrieved 29 May
2010.
^ "Jerry Hansen Race Car Driver E3 Sparkplug News". Retrieved 16 May
2012.
^ "Solo". Sports Car Club of America. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
^ "SCCA Solo National Championships Move to Lincoln". 11 November
2008. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
^ "Rallycross". Sports Car Club of America. Retrieved 29 May
2010.
^ "Road Rally". Sports Car Club of America. Retrieved 29 May
2010.
^ "Club Racing: Time Trials". Sports Car Club of America. Retrieved 29
May 2010.
^ SCCA Awards Archived 2 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
webpage. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
External links[edit]
SCCA official website SCCA Pro Racing official website SCCA Awards 1950s SCCA Race Results How professional racing changed the SCCA – and the world - Jeff Zurschmeide, Racer Magazine, 10 F