SCCA racing gets unfairly labeled as being high brow and clean handed. I can attest as a low brow person who was normally up to his neck in fluids leaking from a VW Rabbit that it’s totally not. There’s actually some hot rodding going on there as well, you just need to keep your eyes open.
At one event I attended with the UMass Motorsports guys (and our trusty Rabbit) back in college I saw a pretty cool looking Malibu sitting in the pits. My eyes nearly bugged right out of my head when I later saw this neat Malibu lined up next to some Vipers and other swoopy road racing machinery. Things went to the redline when the screaming small block in the car was running those big bad Dodge boys down in the straights as evidenced in the second photo.
The furrin’ car dudes on the UMass Motorsports squad were chuckling at the prospect of the road racing Malibu, but gave it instant respect when it held its own with the well prepared Vipers for several laps. It was running in ITE which is essentially a class for any production car that does not fit in a normal SCCA class. The Malibu, being a weirdo body style does not qualify for American Sedan and was not a tube car like those that run GT1.
SCCA races are great places to hang out and learn stuff. There’s a minimum of fans or people to get in the way, you have full access of the pits, er, paddock, and your gearhead brain will be craving some seat time once you see that you don’t need to be a millionaire to participate.
Start in an IT class and sooner or later you’ll be thundering around in GT1 iron.
