| 944sracer |
09-11-2011 09:35 PM |
Bamf is correct. He and I are Utah guys (2 of about 5). I run mainly Miller but do travel to California to run Willow and Cal Speedway (now Auto Club Speedway). RM Spec for NASA is quite large but they mainly stay on their side of the mountain for some reason. I would say though, Chuck Taylor who is the RM director last I checked for Spec is a huge help to any newbie and will organize build parties for his fellow racers. He is very personable and friendly so next time you are at a NASA event look for him. RM has one of the biggest Spec-944 fields though so you choose a great class for your area. Chuck will also organize a rental for you no problem so get hooked up with him.
I raced in the NASA National Championship race at Miller last year and it was awesome, 30+ cars for Spec-944 alone! We had our own run group and the competition was great. Nationals is now at Mid-Ohio for 2 years and then its back to Miller (I think). I personally don't agree with NASA's rules regarding contact but I do race with them. The contact is not bad but the possibility is still there. I have found that for my class it is a trade off, I can choose to play with POC or PCA and i get a smaller field (but the ferocity and level of driver skill is equal if not higher!) but no contact they have 13/13 rules prohibiting contact and consequences for contact OR I can choose to run NASA and have a huge field great competition but I need to be ok with getting some contact as "part of Racing" as they put it. The PCA and POC races have contact if someone makes a bad decision but the rules are specifically designed to limit it to accidents such as driver error or a mechanical failure, etc. NASA allows for contact as "part of racing" and they will allow for NASCAR style racing - i.e. bump drafting and some fender rubbing. Some classes are worse than others and the 944 class is really really mellow. that being said I did have someone rub me while I made a pass but it was minor and no issue. Please: don't anyone see this as bashing on NASA but simply stating the facts as I have observed and personally experienced. I called Chuck to ask him about the contact thing when I was making my decision of whether or not to run in the Championship race last year at Miller. Which was where my aforeto mentioned contact happened.
For me, bodywork sucks and isn't cheap; but I do know Mechanical stuff fairly well. So I run PCA and POC and Miller's local race club (which counts for NASA Points, which you need to race in the National event at Year end) for the majority of my racing. Then I run the Championship race at the end of the year. I would run more with NASA if they came near me more often though. I am biased to PCA and POC though, because that's what I grew up on. :D
I use the Spec944 site for information and rules updates but a lack luster response is quite normal on the forum. You may try the NASA forum for Spec-944 but I have no experience with that one. For non-Spec-944 specific information, I would stick to this site as your bread and butter. There is no better site than this one for knowledge and sheer number of threads and people who you can go to for information. For specific class questions I would post on the Spec website or you can shoot me a PM. If you PM me your Email and first name I will pass it on to Chuck Taylor ask him to get in touch with you.
If you happen to be in the area at the end of September the Intermountain Region PCA has our big race the last weekend in september out at Miller. Short notice but I thought I would throw that out there.
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