NASA NorCal published the schedule for the April race weekend, and I have to say, it’s pretty lousy.  Each day, there’s a 10-minute practice, a 20-minute qualifying session, and a 20-minute race.  And those times are TOTAL, including pace car laps, cool-down laps, etc.

The SCCA weekends have 30-minute practices, 20-minute qualifying, and 30-minute races — and those are the actual durations of those events.  SCCA includes a buffer between each race group to get one group off the track and another one on.  NASA includes no such buffer so the published times have to include those group setup times.

The preliminary entry list for the upcoming SCCA race was published this week, and I’m very pleased to see 3 ITR competitors for the season opener!  In addition to the two regulars from 2007, a big welcome goes to Michael Courtney in an E36 BMW 325.  Bring ‘em on, I’d love to see more!

One of the things that I had to give up when I switched from National racing to Regional racing was that I was no longer eligible for most of the SCCA contingency programs I was involved in.

For those who don’t know, a contingency program basically boils down to cash awards for doing well in races, but it’s not prize money from the event itself, but rather, it’s money from the companies that supply equipment.  For example, car companies like Mazda, Honda, BMW, VW, Subaru, GM and others will give you money if you win the right races in their cars.  And the tire companies participate too: Hoosier (my brand of choice), Kumho, and Hankook participate, in general.

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