BIR Presentation - LOL/SCCA Membership Meeting

**bad-speller** · 11-13-2006, 10:02 PM

Hey Tom,
Any talk of SCCA accepting NASA race licenses next year?

Brian

**Tom Fuehrer** · 11-13-2006, 10:22 PM

Hi Brian, SCCA recognizes PCA, IMSA and Midwestern council licenses on a walk-up basis. NASA licenses are not yet accepted to that degree.

A person can usually talk to the Central Division Licensing guy about applying previous racing experience directly toward an SCCA competiton license. It's a pretty easy hoop to jump through but takes a little bit of preparation pre-season. I can grease the skids though. Let me talk to the current licensing administrator and get back to you.

Tom

**bad-speller** · 11-13-2006, 10:33 PM

Originally posted by Tom Fuehrer View Post

Hi Brian, SCCA recognizes PCA, IMSA and Midwestern council licenses on a walk-up basis. NASA licenses are not yet accepted to that degree.

A person can usually talk to the Central Division Licensing guy about applying previous racing experience directly toward an SCCA competiton license. It's a pretty easy hoop to jump through but takes a little bit of preparation pre-season. I can grease the skids though. Let me talk to the current licensing administrator and get back to you.

Tom

Thanks Tom,

Looks like NASA is shifting thier concentration away from the upper midwest, would be nice to have somthing else to go to.

Brian

**Steve** · 11-13-2006, 10:39 PM

PDX= or > PDE?

**Tom Fuehrer** · 11-13-2006, 11:30 PM

SCCA PDX is similar to NASA HPDE:
http://www.scca.org/Club/Index.asp?IdS=0D4A39-5C07B20&x=030|015&~=

SCCA TT is similar to NASA TT
http://www.scca.org/Club/Index.asp?IdS=0D4A39-5C07B20&x=030|016&~=

I'm not completely confortable making direct comparisons between the two organizations but you can see the similarities.

Tom

**zrxguy** · 11-15-2006, 09:55 AM

Should be an interesting meeting. It does sound like a lot of improvements are underway at BIR. I heard that the run-off in turn 2 has been completely changed: the old tire wall is gone, the trees cut back an additional 200ft or something like that. All the run-off areas are being smoothed. A new drag race return road along the front straight can be used as the front straight in case of rain. There is also going to be a new "short course" that clubs can use as an option - evidently there will be new track linking turn 7 back to turn 1 or 2. I heard new owners at BIR really want to get an SCCA Regional back up there.

**Steve** · 11-15-2006, 10:04 AM

This is getting me excited. I like BIR, but I really dig small club tracks.

Anyone else going? I'll drag my wife along.

**351COBRA** · 11-15-2006, 04:58 PM

Originally posted by 92MNstanger View Post

This is getting me excited. I like BIR, but I really dig small club tracks.

Anyone else going? I'll drag my wife along.

Hey Steve,

I talked to Dave (Carriage House Customs) and it looks like we are going to go.

Brooks

**PHRANQUY** · 11-15-2006, 05:06 PM

Grrrr...I want to go to this, but I have pool leagues on Thursday. Someone take good notes!

**Steve** · 11-17-2006, 08:54 AM

Good meeting. Jed Copham seems to have good vision. We'll see how he executes his plan in the next few years. It's really funny to hear him describe going from"public enemy #1" for the Pine Run and Northstar Proposals to "getting a key to the city" for the renovation of BIR.

I may miss a few things but the overall plans currently are;

1) Get the track to meet minimum requirements for SCCA club racing ASAP. This includes laying 10,000 of Jersey Barrier (Between 9 and 10 and other places), Removing/Grating the strategically placed race car jumps in run-off areas, adding 200 feet of run-off area in turn 2 and providing a by-pass for that dreaded VHT on rainy days.

2) For 2008 we may see a 2 mile "club track" that would bring us from turn 8, through the infield back to turn 1. Jed has layouts from the Miller Motorpsorts Park deisgner along with an archive of old ideas.

3) More paved area. Enough for autoX and driver's training events.

The biggest thing is Jed seems like a real guy. He drives on track and belongs to the Autobahn country club. He did mention that in the future he would kick around the idea of getting the track to FIA standards and would like to get the track in the sameleague as RA, we'll see on that one.

**Cobra_Kai** · 11-17-2006, 10:42 AM

Originally posted by 92MNstanger View Post

1) Get the track to meet minimum requirements for SCCA club racing ASAP. This includes laying 10,000 of Jersey Barrier (Between 9 and 10 and other places), Removing/Grating the strategically placed race car jumps in run-off areas, adding 200 feet of run-off area in turn 2 and providing a by-pass for that dreaded VHT on rainy days.

So, this sounds to me like a 2-3 year project - so what do you do in the meantime? Heck, in 3 years NASA should be flourishing in the midwest, and that's 5 tracks compared to everyone waiting around for 1 to get finished. I'm sure it will be fine when it's done (whenever that is), but that's only one track and you'd still have to come up with 5-6 other tracks to have a decent HPDE year anyway. I guess I'm just not ready to abandon NASA at this point - that would be a bad idea to shift support away from them.

**Steve** · 11-17-2006, 10:57 AM

How is this abondoning Nasa? Nasa could benefit from an updated track too, if they choose to.

We are reporting on the renovation of BIR. Stop challenging everything I say.

The first changes will be completed by next spring. Then incremental changes will be made each year.

I thought you'd be happy someone has taken the time to make sure our "local" track is going to live on.......

**Cobra_Kai** · 11-17-2006, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by 92MNstanger View Post

We are reporting on the renovation of BIR. Stop challenging everything I say.
I thought you'd be happy someone has taken the time to make sure our "local" track is going to live on.......

I thought you liked a challenge - you seem to challenge every post on this forum. Dont take it so damn personally, it's not like your building the damn track yourself. Are you off your meds again? And this track was never going to die, so dont be so dramatic, holy crap. It's still got rumble strips from the 50's, so isnt it about time someone upgraded the track for something other than NHRA?

**Tom Fuehrer** · 11-17-2006, 11:16 AM

The minimum SCCA requirements don't include the main straight bypass. The remaining items are pretty easy to execute - especially since he has already purchased the barriers needed.

It's likely that we will hold SCCA-sanctioned road races later in the summer in 2007 (including Lapping, Time Trials and Vintage) with a Snow States sanctioned event earlier in the season (Time Trials, Lapping and Vintage).

We (LOL/SSAC) would like to establish a Time Trials series covering both of these events and possibly including SCCA Time Trial events other Mid-West area tracks. SSAC has been talking about holding TT events at other club's events at BIR also. They have not started a dialog with other clubs yet though.

What do you guys think of either a multi-event TT series based at BIR versus a series run at BIR, RA and BHF?

One SCCA member made a good comment to me lately. A sanctioning body only enables people to have a good time by providing an event to participate in. The success of the event depends on the people participating.

If you guys had a good time at events in 2006 there is no reason that a similar event held by a different organizer would be just as fun.

Tom

BIR Presentation - LOL/SCCA Membership Meeting

BIR Presentation - LOL/SCCA Membership Meeting

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