New Class Structure for Regional Solo Events

(Note: This article was to appear in the February issue of the Northwest Sports Car News. However, that issue is now going to be combined with the March issue and published later. Therefore, the article is being published here to allow more time to answer questions before the first 2004 NWR Fordahl Motorsports Solo Championship Series event on March 7^th.)

New class structure? Why? What's wrong with the way it is? Good questions. If you subscribe to the Northwest Autocross List (nwautox@wwscc.org), you saw some discussion last fall about how to increase participation in the regular classes (as distinguished from classes such as PAX and Street Tire). Participation, and therefore competition, is concentrated in just a few classes.

Currently, only three classes account for nearly half of the participation and 19 classes average one competitor or less per event. Why is this a problem? Well, it means there are a lot of classes with no participation, or very little. Most people don’t think it’s fun to run unopposed. Sure, you can get a jacket or nice trophy at the end of the year for winning your class, but the “victory” is hollow when you haven’t had to earn it. And without competition your own abilities don't grow as quickly. So, in order to find competition, people gravitate to the classes that already have plenty of participation, like PAX, Street Tire, Street Mod, and Street Touring.

Maybe a bit of history can help put the current “dilemma” in perspective. Until the PAX class was adopted in 1988, the NWR strictly followed the SCCA Solo class structure, except for the addition of Novice classes. The NWR has always had a good nucleus of exceptional and above average drivers, including a fair number who traveled to Divisionals and Nationals. These "national caliber" drivers dominated their classes at regional events, so it was a bit daunting to break into autocrossing and be beat by Bill Buetow or Chuck Hanson or Mark Snell (to name just a few) by 5 or 7 seconds or more. To give mere mortals more of a chance to take home a trophy, the PAX class was created.

There were a couple of other perceived benefits to the PAX class. It gave those national-caliber drivers a way to compete directly against each other; by having to try harder to win, they improved their already considerable skills. It also created a sort of progression of skill: start in Novice, move to a regular class, and, when you start dominating your regular class, move to PAX. In fact, a few people had to be shamed into running PAX to open up their regular class for new people.

In 1995 (as far back as results go on the WWSCC web site), the largest class in the SCCA Solo Regional Series (open plus ladies) was CS, followed closely by ASP, and then PAX. These three classes accounted for 35% of entries (excluding Novice). Interestingly, every class had participation and 15 of the 26 open classes averaged 2 or more entries per event. The significance here is that well over half of the open classes had regular competition.

Comparing this to 2003, the largest class by far was PAX (stock plus non-stock), followed by SM with about half as many entries, and then STS. These three classes accounted for nearly half (48%) of the entries. Only 16 of the 35 open classes averaged 2 or more entries per event. If you're running PAX and finishing 15th, are you really getting the incentive of competition? Probably not.

Factor	1995	2003
Participation, top 3 classes (open + ladies) as % of total	35%	48%
% of open classes with regular competition (2 or more avg. entries)	58%	46%
Participation, PAX classes (open + ladies) as % of total	9%	26%

The last line of the table shows how much the PAX classes have grown. The reasons for that growth and the effect of it on participation in the regular classes was the subject of much debate.

Without going into too much detail, it was felt that quite a few people were competing in PAX instead of their regular class because they had no or very little competition in their regular class. Of course, the more people deserted the regular classes, the less competition there was. Besides the competition factor, it was felt that the relatively recent change that allowed PAX class competitors to ride as passengers before their runs was a significant incentive luring people to PAX.

The first change to induce more people to run regular classes was to change the passenger rule. For 2004, competitors in all classes are allowed to ride as a passenger before their competition runs (novice drivers can only have instructors as passengers). There is a feeling among some that the regional series should be a training ground for Divisional and National competition and that allowing competitors to ride with other competitors will be a good learning experience. The danger, of course, is that prerunning a course is not allowed in Divisional and National competition, so you could be at a disadvantage in those events if you become too accustomed to prerunning the course.

The second change, and the primary reason for this article (believe it or not) is a new class structure that is an attempt to reverse the trend toward running PAX and present some options for those who would like to compete against people of similar experience, in cars of similar performance.

Basically, the new classing structure combines several regular classes into new regional classes, based on similar types of cars. Within the regional classes, trophy positions will be determined by applying the PAX/RTP factor. Here is a breakdown of the new class groupings:

Several classes obviously don't have a problem with competition and they were left as standalone classes. These classes are Street Tire, STS, SM, SM2, PAX, and Non-stock PAX. For every open class there will be a parallel ladies class.

I suppose the next question is, What, now I have to get new class letters? The answer is, No, you'll use your regular class markings, the same as you do now (AS, ESL, CSP, SM, SSX, HST, etc.). The timing cards will have boxes to mark your regional class (S1, S2L, NS2, SM, PAX, T, etc.) and to mark your SCCA class (AS, ES, CSP, SM, SS, HS, etc.) that is used to apply the appropriate PAX/RTP factor.

To help you remember which regional class you run in, the classes will be printed on the back of the timing card. In addition, a handout will be available at Registration explaining the new system and this article will be published in the Northwest Sports Car News. And finally, a discussion item will be opened on the Northwest Autocross List so you can get your questions answered.

It will take a while to see if these changes have the desired effect of rekindling participation in the regular classes. After the season, the changes will be evaluated and either retained, revised, or abandoned. Remember that the reason for the changes is to enhance your autocross experience.