NASA-SE Kit Car Challenge

Any NASA members out there who can help me out on the Kit Car Challenge class that is listed in the Southead Region of NASA? Is this a Southeast only class of racing? Is it still going; the rules that I downloaded say 2005.

Is see no mention of this at all at the national NASA website.

Thanks,
Lynn

Lynn, it might be a regional only class and up to regions to host it based on interest. You might want to email the regional director. I'm not up on NASA so I'm not sure if it still exists or not. One of the ussues, IMHO, with NASA was too many classes - 944 Cup, Honda Challenge, etc. to the point that types of cars are broken out so much that one ends up with 3-4 competitors in a class. KC1-5 might have fallen by the wayside with so many run groups.

Ron

Ron,

Thanks Ron, for the reply and moving the thread; I wasn't sure if I should put it Racetrack or not.

I did email the SE regional guy who is here in NC by the way. But, I figured that with so many guy here on the forum who are into so many different things, I might get an answer quicker here.

You're right about NASA having a butt load of classes. I was surprised at how many make specific classes there were.

Lynn

Lynn

I came across that class as well, thinking it might be a good place to race a RCR-P........But it appears neither the race class or the RCR-P are anything more than a theory on a website!
OK Fran...take your best shot

If you were man enough to actually make it to the RCR shop then you could see for yourself Oliver.....whoops...I mean Andy...so when are you coming .....will you actually make it in 07....????
You kept saying you were coming in 06...!!!!
Get off that wallet and buy something you cheap ass......

But you are right the RCR-P will make a great track car.....along with being very streetable...






and before anyone goes off the rails ..Andy and I are pals...

Acutally the KCC class is alive and well in the Southeast Region of NASA and one might be able to run in other regions as well.

From Jim Pantas Southeast Regional Director, NASA:

by Jim Pantas

Lynn,
It was our intention to build the class into a national class with lots of cars. Currently the only region that has cars in KCC is NASA-SE but I would imagine that if the class gets participation nationwide the other regions will welcome them with open arms. We are sticking to the old ruleset until it proves to be incomplete or non-functional. Is there anything you wish to change about the rules?

I have cc'd Heikki Rinta-Koski who is our KCC director, I am sure he would welcome any help to build KCC. Let us know if you have any more questions,

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
jim pantas | NASA :: South East Region | ofc 704.436.8211 | cell 704.791.9375

2007 NASA-SE Schedule
Feb 10-11, Carolina Motorsports Park
Mar 16-17-18, Road Atlanta
Apr 14-15, Rockingham
May 19-20, Roebling
Jun 16-17, Rockingham
Jul 14-15, Carolina Motorsports Park
Aug 10-11-12, Road Atlanta
Sep 29-30, Roebling
Oct 13-14, Barber

Click to expand...

Here is a Word doc with all of the NASA contact information, national and regional. Go get 'em boys!

If you didn't run in a Kit class, what would you run in? I went to the NASA sight and it looks like we would have to run in something like "super Unlimited" that sounds a little intimidating!

NASA now has ST-1 and ST-2 classes based on weight to power ratio. The rules are very reasonable - just fair competion and safety. NASA is slowly eliminating the spec classes and merging them into ST when possible.

http://www.nasaproracing.com/rules/Super-Touring.pdf

A number of people are leaving the FFR spec series for ST-2.

Thanks Charlie

I am in no way up on the SCCA or NASA rules (vintage racing right now), but It often seems like the GT40's, T70, RCR-p etc would end up in GT1 or A sports racer. IMHO our cars in those classes would be an expensive exercise in humiliation.
Classed by power to weight as Charlie suggests brings the racing back to chassis tuning and driver.

Charlie

Is that your car in your avatar? is it a replica? are you racing in NASA?

We're putting the Lola in SCCA SPO, Special Production Over. I think it'll do okay there. SPO is populated by all sorts of odd ducks, from ex-NASCAR stockers to mad max looking creations. However, building for a SPO type class will allow it to run in a lot of events and series lending a lot of flexibility to the car as a race car. One of my goals is to run the car in the 13 hour enduro and to do that it'll need to be in SPO and the enduro limits what classes can enter, basically down to T cars, Showroom stock, IT cars, Spec Miata, SRF, and SPO.

Ron

Andy, that's Chatlie's dream car. I'm kind of fond of the Lola T70 also!
Charlie's car doesn't look like a T70 as much as I tryed to make it look like one, but should be almost as fast!

Andy,

I think you're view on GT40s and the like competing in SCCA is spot on and that has held many a classic replica builder back from considering building a car as a purpose built race car (certainly those without access to near limitless funds, which includes most of us.) I am by no means an expert on racing classes in the various series out there (I am trying to learn though), but I have heard similar sentiments expressed for quite some time. I think NASA has tried to fill this vacuum and be an organization of inclusion, rather than exclusion. This can be a bit of double edged sword though.

For those considering NASA as an alternative, after talking with others more in the know, I would suggest a couple of things. In terms of safety and crash survivability, build your car as if your wife or girlfriend was going to be riding with you at all times. In terms of driving skills, take a driving course and obtain a license that is recognized by a wide spectrum of the sanctioning bodies out there; whether you intend to race in their events or not.

Lynn

The SCCA is not so "kit friendly" as NASA, although replica cars can fit into the SCCA in a couple of places. We've choosen SPO and I think it'll be fine there. NASA does a better job there.

I don't see that NASA has the legs that the SCCA does in the SE, but, I think that NASA does some things better than the SCCA. They seem to be more accomidating to self builds and cars outside the norm, and they also attract younger people better as well. Young people are the future of any organization and the SCCA is quite difficult to get into road racing with IMHO. I could be made easier and simplier without giving up anything in safety or with the high level of competition that exists there.

I'm not sure I like the NASA points adder system used to class cars (I suppose it is okay if you trust the system 100%) but I do like their concept of rwhp/weight. On the other hand, I prefer the SCCA system of classed cars being in a class at a certain weight. Make whatever hp you can, if you win the class great, you set the bar and everyone else must step up to meet you - you don't shift to a higher class or change weight based on hp you are making.

There are options out there and I look forward to seeing some of us actually wheel to wheel race some of these cars in modern competitions. It should be an interesting few years! SCCA double schools start in a couple of weeks and one of those along with a professional driving school should net you a license and enough skills to get on track, no time like the present. I'm looking foward to the season starting, it is only about 4 weeks away, got to get busy!

Ron

Ron, can you outline what is needed to obtain a comp liscence? I have been to the three day Panoz racing school and I have a lot of open track time in the last four years. I have seen the application and I can get the medical stuff taken care of but dont know what counts as experience and school. I am mostly interested in the NASA series.

Hey Dean,

I think you are probably good to go with NASA, but check their website. They will accept commerical driving schools for their license requirements but you have to do their HPDE day I think. Might be a limit on the school and applying for their license. Requirements are not extensive with NASA and likely you could attend one of their HPDE/Race weekends, get signed off in group four, and race. I have heard of folks basically schooling on Saturday and racing as a rookie (provisional) on Sunday, don't know if it is true or not, but it seems a little quick.

http://www.nasaproracing.com/images/rules-forms/form_provisional_license.pdf

The SCCA requires you to attend two (or one double) of their weekend schools, and that has good and bad points. It'll take longer, but you do learn a lot as the requirement is 7 hours of track time for a rookie license, on track, in a race car, with other folks. If you go to a SCCA school and get your SCCA license NASA will recognize the SCCA license, but the reverse is not true.

I like the competition level with SCCA and the tech stuff, but I like how NASA is trying to do things differently from the "old school white suit guard" SCCA folks. I'm going to campaign SCCA this year and go to a couple of NASA events to check them out though.

Anyhow to directly answer your question for SCCA you'd need to do the following:

1. Get a SCCA race car. Yep, sounds counter productive to have to have car before the license, but you've got to have a teched, legal, and RELIABLE car for school - you do not want to sorting your car in school, you want to be driving. You could write a book about how to do Step 1 but I'll give you a big hint - Miata. Get your medical forms filled out and handled.

2. Make sure all your gear meets SCCA tech specs, you'll need fire suit, gloves, shoes, helmet and if your suit isn't a three layer you'll need Nomex underwear too. Get a three layer, you'll enjoy it. Expect to spend $1000 to $XXXX on this. I got some decent OMP stuff and spent about $1500 total for everything. If you want to look like your favorite driver expect to multiply that by a large factor.

3. Go to the SCCA website and drill down to the regional level and find out when the school are running. Do a double school, takes about three days, but gets everything done at once in one fell swoop. You'll have about 6-8 hours of class time, 7 hours at a minimum on track, plus time to study, take test, and spend good time with your instructor. YMMV - if you get a bad instructor you'll have a bad time, if you get a good one you'll have a wonderful time and learn a lot. People in the know get good instructors, so having a local racer key you in on things is very helpful.

Sports Car Club of America

One of our fellow IT racers, Dave Gran, wrote a book called Go Ahead Take the Wheel. I've read parts of it and read a lot about his discussion of the book on the Improved Touring forums, IT.com Forums (Powered by Invision Power Board). His book can be found here and it not only SCCA stuff, it covers road racing and how to get into it.

Go Ahead and Take the Wheel - Guide to Road Racing

I wish I could help you more with NASA but I have not gone through their schools etc. There are a lot of NASA forums though and they are quite active on the West Coast, as fairly active in the SE. Not sure about the midwest.

R

Dean

You probably are good to go with NASA. I took a Mid-Ohio one day NASA licensing school in order to get into Vintage competition with SVRA and VSCDA. The class stressed flags, starts and rules of engagement, like passer and passee's right to real estate on the track. I had nothing but Alfa Romeo owners club track days going in.

Andy

Fell free to e-mail me if you have specific questions about my experience.

DEan,
I am going through the same process right now. I think there is a good chance that with the one school and some verifyable track results you can get an SCCA regional license right off the bat. You have to find the divisional licensing person and ask for a waiver.