Have A Hankering To Try Road Racing? The SCCA Track Night Program Has You Covered!


Have A Hankering To Try Road Racing? The SCCA Track Night Program Has You Covered!

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Interested in trying road racing but don’t have a club to sign up with and/or can’t justify the not-insignificant bill for a weekend track day?

Well, the Sports Car Club of America has you track star wannabes covered as they have partnered up with TireRack to present the TireRack SCCA Track Night in America program for 2015. Yup, you heard me right, it’s a track night, not a track day.

Sparing you from slogging though canned press release, here’s how it works:

Starting with “Track Night Atlanta” on April 7th at Atlanta Motorsports Park, TireRack and the SCCA will be hosting events on weeknights at more than a dozen tracks across the country, including Palm Beach International Raceway, New Jersey Motorsports Park, and NCM Motorsports Park.

Events typically run from 1 PM to 7 PM or 3 PM to 9 PM (Depending on location) with three 20 minute driving sessions per experience group. Novices will have the access to instructors and safety lessons prior to heading out, while Intermediate and Advanced drivers can take advantage of this same chalk talk or head right out onto the track.

“Ok, so that all sounds great, but what about my car? Don’t I need it to be track prepped?”

Here’s the great part: These events aren’t meant for hardcore track cars. In fact, fully gutted, caged, and prepped “race cars” aren’t actually allowed to race at the event. Straight from the horse’s mouth, here’s what is needed in order to run your vehicle:

All vehicles must have functioning road going equipment such as running and brake lights, and adequate tires and brakes…
All vehicles must provide factory original (or better) seats that are securely mounted, factory seat belts are acceptable. SFI or FIA rated belts are recommended. Vehicles must provide protection for driver and passenger in the event of a rollover within the following guidelines:

1. Hard top and targa-top vehicles are allowed.

2. Convertible vehicles operating with the factory rollover protection system are allowed. Factory rollover protection includes factory roll bars, pop up rollover protection, and reinforced a-pillars designed to provide rollover protection.
3. Other convertibles require either a factory hard top or a four-point roll bar. If a roll bar is used, it must meet the roll bar requirements found in the SCCA Time Trial Rules.

Alright, so here’s the question I’m sure you’ve all been asking yourselves while reading this blog item: “How much is this going to cost?

The answer is “Not a heck of a lot for what you’re getting“. A full night will set you back $150, and as mentioned above this includes three 20 minute sessions out on the track, plus access to instructors.

$150 still seem like too much to pony up for over an hour of high performance driving? Well, if you’re a current SCCA member with experience working Club Race or Solo (Autocross) events, in exchange for your time working the event they’ll let you out on the track for 20 minutes for the low low price of $35. Considering that you’ll pay that same amount for 6-8 laps at an autocross event, that’s one heck of a deal.

There’s a few SCCA track night events being hosted at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in CT, which is close enough to BangShift East HQ that both Brian and I are considering taking our respective great white heaps out for some wheel to wheel action this summer.

For more information on the Tire Rack SCCA Track Night program, including the full schedule, check out their webpage: SCCA Track Night In America


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2 thoughts on “Have A Hankering To Try Road Racing? The SCCA Track Night Program Has You Covered!

  1. Oracle

    This is like the dude in the rusty van offering some discount crystal meth . . . kiss your money (and tires and brakes) goodbye. 🙂

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