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| Sport | Autocross Rallycross HPDE Time Trial Road racing RoadRally Hillclimbing in the United States |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | United States |
| Abbreviation | SCCA |
| Founded | 1944; 81 years ago (1944) |
| Headquarters | Topeka, Kansas |
| President | Michael Cobb[1] |
| Official website | |
| www | |
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TheSports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit[2] Americanautomobile club andsanctioning body supportingAutocross,Rallycross,HPDE,Time Trial,Road Racing,RoadRally, andHill Climbs in theUnited States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional racers.
The SCCA traces its roots to the Automobile Racing Club of America (not to be confused with the currentstock car series of the same name). ARCA was founded in 1933 by brothersMiles andSam Collier, and dissolved in 1941 at the outbreak ofWorld War II.[3][4] The SCCA was formed in 1944 as an enthusiast group.[5] The SCCA began sanctioning road racing in 1948 with the inauguralWatkins 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, theSCCA National Sports Car Championship was formed from existing marquee events around the nation, including Watkins Glen,Pebble Beach, andElkhart Lake.[6] Many early SCCA events were held on disused air force bases, organized with the help of Air Force GeneralCurtis LeMay, a renowned enthusiast of sports car racing. LeMay loaned out facilities ofStrategic 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.[7][8]
By 1962, the SCCA was tasked with managing the U.S.World Sportscar Championship rounds atDaytona,Sebring,Bridgehampton andWatkins Glen. The club was also involved in theFormula 1U.S. Grand Prix. SCCA Executive Director John Bishop helped to create theUnited States Road Racing Championship series forGroup 7 sports cars to recover races that had been taken by rivalUSAC Road Racing Championship. Bishop was also instrumental in founding the SCCATrans-Am Series and the SCCA/CASCCan-Am series. In 1969, tension and infighting over Pro Racing's autonomy caused Bishop to resign and help form theInternational Motor Sports Association.[9]
Theautocross program is branded as "Solo".[10] 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. 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 theLincoln Airpark inLincoln, Nebraska.[11] 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 withdrag 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.
The SCCA sanctions "RallyCross" events, similar to autocross, but on a non-paved course.[12]SCCA ProRally was a national performancerally series similar to theWorld 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.[13] 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.
Track Night in America is a track experience program sanctioned by the SCCA. The program is designed to be low barrier to entry, and accepting to all skill levels. Events happen all over the country, on week evenings usually between Tuesday and Thursday. SCCA planned week night track events to keep costs down, as well as build a program that doesn't take over the entrants entire weekend.
TNiA goes to well known tracks like Road America, VIR, even Sebring and Lime Rock. There are also smaller club tracks like CMP, AMP and Pitt Race. TNiA puts on about 150 events a year, totaling nearly 10,000 entrants each year, and as of 2024 has been running for 10 years.
In recent years, the SCCA has expanded and re-organized some of the higher-speed events under the Time Trials banner.[14] These include Performance Driving Experience ("PDX"), Club Trials, Track Trials, andHill Climb events. PDX events are non-competitionHPDE-type events and consist of driver-education and car control classroom learning combined with on-track instruction.
The Club Racing program is aroad racing division where drivers race on either dedicated race tracks or on temporary street circuits.[15] 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 forrace workers in all specialties.
The annual national championship for Club Racing is called theSCCA National Championship Runoffs and has been held atRiverside International Raceway (1964, 1966, 1968),Daytona International Speedway (1965, 1967, 1969, 2015),Road Atlanta (1970–1993),Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (1994–2005, 2016),Heartland Park Topeka (2006–2008),Road America (2009-2013, 2020),Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (2014), andIndianapolis Motor Speedway (2017). In 2018, the Runoffs will go back west toSonoma Raceway. In 2019, the race will be held atVirginia International Raceway a track where the race has never been held. It was announced on 15 June 2018 that the Runoffs would go back to Road America in the year 2020. On 25 May 2019, the weekend of the2019 Indianapolis 500, SCCA announced they will be returning to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2021.[16] The current SCCA record holder isJerry Hansen, (former owner ofBrainerd International Raceway), with twenty-seven national championships.[17]
The five national classes of the formula group areFormula Atlantic (FA),Formula Continental (FC),Formula Enterprises 2 (FE2),Formula F (FF), andFormula Vee (FV).
The SCCA dropped its amateur only policy in 1962 and began sanctioning professional racing.[18] In 1963, theUnited States Road Racing Championship was formed. In 1966 theCanadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) was created for Group 7 open-top sportscars. TheTrans-Am Series forpony 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 theSCCA Grand Prix Championship.[19] This series was then held undervarious names through to the1976 SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 Championship.
Current SCCA-sanctioned series includeTrans Am, theGT World Challenge America forGT andtouring cars, theGlobal MX-5 Cup, and theF1600 Championship Series,F2000 Championship Series, andAtlantic Championship Series for open-wheel racing. SCCA Pro Racing has also sanctioned professional series for some amateur classes such asSpec Racer Ford Pro andFormula Enterprises Pro. SCCA Pro Racing also sanctioned theVolkswagen Jetta TDI Cup during its time.
The SCCA is organized into six conferences, 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.
| Conference | Division | Territory |
|---|---|---|
| Northeast | Northeast | Connecticut,Delaware,Maine,Maryland,Massachusetts,New Hampshire,New Jersey,New York,Pennsylvania,Rhode Island,Vermont, and NorthernVirginia |
| Southeast | Southeast | Alabama,Florida,Georgia,North Carolina,South Carolina, EasternTennessee,Puerto Rico and SouthernVirginia |
| Northern | Central | NorthernIllinois,Minnesota, EasternIowa,North Dakota,South Dakota,Upper Peninsula of Michigan andWisconsin |
| Great Lakes | Kentucky,Ohio,Indiana,Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and SouthernWest Virginia | |
| Mid-States | Midwest Division | Arkansas, SouthernIllinois, WesternIowa,Kansas, NorthernMississippi,Missouri,Nebraska,Oklahoma, and WesternTennessee |
| Rocky Mountain | Colorado, EasternMontana,New Mexico,Utah, andWyoming | |
| Southern | Southwest | Louisiana,Texas, and coastalMississippi |
| West | Northern Pacific | Alaska, NorthernCalifornia,Idaho, WesternMontana, NorthernNevada,Oregon, andWashington |
| Southern Pacific | Arizona, SouthernCalifornia,Hawaii, andNevada |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
