2014 West coast Nationals

[BADVENM]

What happened to CMC? I see zero cars in attendance. We have a Rocky Mountain CMC car there but he is running ST3.

 

Is this gonna change in 2015 when its at Laguna Seca? If not, I guess I wont be attending since the minimum car count wont be reached to have a class.

[densmore]

Dave

 

Be part of the solution, let's both show up next year.

 

Brad

[cwreese]

I bought a CMC Mustang this year with plans to race. I've raced stock cars for over 10 years, driven several track days, gone through HPDE 1,2 and 3, and NASA still refuses to give me a provisional license. I'm going to race American Sedan with SCCA next year. They've proven to be much easier to deal with.

[AllZWay]

I bought a CMC Mustang this year with plans to race. I've raced stock cars for over 10 years, driven several track days, gone through HPDE 1,2 and 3, and NASA still refuses to give me a provisional license. I'm going to race American Sedan with SCCA next year. They've proven to be much easier to deal with.

 

What are the explanations?

[FBody383]

I'm going to race American Sedan with SCCA next year. They've proven to be much easier to deal with.

Maybe from a licensing standpoint.

 

I came from the autocross and minimal trackday world and had no issues in TX; is it paperwork, not having a race car for a check ride, demonstrated road racing skills?

 

Give us some more color - I'll take AI/CMC over AS on any day.

[Glenn]

I bought a CMC Mustang this year with plans to race. I've raced stock cars for over 10 years, driven several track days, gone through HPDE 1,2 and 3, and NASA still refuses to give me a provisional license. I'm going to race American Sedan with SCCA next year. They've proven to be much easier to deal with.

 

As Series Director, I would like an answer as to why they refuse to issue a license to you. Give me a reason to look into it.

[cwreese]

The reason given was lack of experience.

I contacted Ryan Flaherty with questions and was told to read the rule book. Here is his response,

"Did you read the NASA rules and or website? The process is well documented in black and white. A big part of our NASA racer qualification is knowing the rules equal to driving ability"

 

So I quit asking questions and moved on. I'm not that guy that asks redundant questions. Just wanted some clarification because the website was a bit vague.

I passed HPDE 1 in one day and moved to 2. Passed HPDE 2 on my second day. Two track days at Buttonwillow with Speed Ventures. Raced a "Lemons" race in July (that was a blast! ). Winter snuck up on my now. Taking the test at SCCA event in Feb to get my provisional license with them. Maybe once I get that NASA will let me drive...

[ls168camaro]

The reason given was lack of experience.

I contacted Ryan Flaherty with questions and was told to read the rule book. Here is his response,

"Did you read the NASA rules and or website? The process is well documented in black and white. A big part of our NASA racer qualification is knowing the rules equal to driving ability"

 

So I quit asking questions and moved on. I'm not that guy that asks redundant questions. Just wanted some clarification because the website was a bit vague.

I passed HPDE 1 in one day and moved to 2. Passed HPDE 2 on my second day. Two track days at Buttonwillow with Speed Ventures. Raced a "Lemons" race in July (that was a blast! ). Winter snuck up on my now. Taking the test at SCCA event in Feb to get my provisional license with them. Maybe once I get that NASA will let me drive...

Track days away from NASA and lemons races shouldn't count for experience getting a license in my opinion. Have you done a weekend in Hpde4 and done a comp school? When I got my license the process was about 6 events in hpde with NASA. What does your regions licensing director say?

[cwreese]

The original question was why the car counts are low, or empty. Most forms of racing have an entry-level class to compete. My point was that NASA doesn't. "Racers" don't want to drive around the track for five or six weekends trying to earn permission to race. For a competitor, HPDE is fun for about two laps, then it becomes boring. Maybe if there was a "racing" class for beginners you would draw more new drivers. People who want to enjoy "track days" are different from people who want to "compete". When I look around at others in at HPDE events, they are all street cars. Some extremely fast, but not race cars.

Not sure if I'm making my point very well, but I think car counts are going to continue to drop. Take a look at the people in the HPDE events, then take a look at the Competitors. They are different demographics. I love the HPDE guys, they DRIVE their cars like they were meant to be driven. More power to them. But racing a racecar is different. In one of my HPDE classes of over 20 drivers, the leader asked how many wanted to move up and race...I was the only one.

[t500hps]

The original question was why the car counts are low, or empty. Most forms of racing have an entry-level class to compete. My point was that NASA doesn't. "Racers" don't want to drive around the track for five or six weekends trying to earn permission to race. For a competitor, HPDE is fun for about two laps, then it becomes boring. Maybe if there was a "racing" class for beginners you would draw more new drivers. People who want to enjoy "track days" are different from people who want to "compete". When I look around at others in at HPDE events, they are all street cars. Some extremely fast, but not race cars.

Not sure if I'm making my point very well, but I think car counts are going to continue to drop. Take a look at the people in the HPDE events, then take a look at the Competitors. They are different demographics. I love the HPDE guys, they DRIVE their cars like they were meant to be driven. More power to them. But racing a racecar is different. In one of my HPDE classes of over 20 drivers, the leader asked how many wanted to move up and race...I was the only one.

 

I wish you were closer to the east coast. I got my comp license 18 months ago. HPDE 1 and 2 were fun but I understand why you think it's boring. A buddy who dirt tracked raced for years just started this year and said the same thing.....however, around here anyway, the HPDE 3 guys THINK they are racing! Even my dirt track buddy was pleasantly surprised how close to racing that group is since a number of them drive fairly aggressive.

 

The point of HPDE weekends is for you to learn how to drive while truely seeing everything else that is going on around you, and in your case, it's coming at you from more directions than your used to. Maybe you've picked it up better than most, but before my life rests on you braking into a corner properly, I'd rather know you've gone through the same rigorous process I did.

 

BTW: I know nothing of stock car races but even a lemons race is nothing like a sprint race. When you know you've only got 20 minutes to race, drivers often make much more aggressive moves. Even though we'll likely never compete, I hope you go back and run 2 more weekends........at least one of which in group 3 with no instructors. Something tells me you may change your mind about NASA.....

[Natebrod]

My brother has been getting discouraged because he bought a CMC to race here in the south west has not seen one other CMC car at the three race weekends he attended last year. I plan on building a CMC car to race with him but it wont be done this season. We hope more CMC cars will be racing in the Southwest soon.