To continue the discussion on the subject.

Previously discussed: Speed World Challenge has an interest in the Cup series being a part of several of their weekends for 2010. The idea was we could turn these weekends into a National Championship series.
The way it shakes out is that there are 3 weekends that they have that we could join in. The balance of their schedule is with the Indy cars and there isnt enough time for us to be a part in those events.

The 3 weekends offered are: May 22 --23 @ Mosport, June 26-27@ NJMP, and Sep. 11-12 @ VIR.

The SWC weekends would include 3 hrs of track time for us, our own run grp, a minute or 2 of TV time. 2 day event. SWC woudl also then be a sponsor that would go a long way to fund the 2010 season.

The format can vary for what we want with a max 3 sessions each day. Something like a practice and qualifying session and a qual race on saturday, with a warm up and championship race on Sunday.

Bad news is these dates would create some problems with our PCA and NASA schedules.

Update -- Re: Licensing:

Per SCCA Pro Racing: "Unless your series is planning to run more than one event with us next season the licensing fee will be $75.00 or $140.00 for the season plus an SCCA membership fee of $85.00. These prices are based on 2009 fees; a slight increase for 2010 is possible but has not been decided yet. If you had an SCCA Club license you would still have to pay for a Pro License. "

I believe this concession on the part of SCCA Pro is very generous to the 944 Cup. I think the price is reasonable for a Pro license. My plan is to move forward with the next step and that is to work with SCCA Pro on their safety requirements in areas that exceed the requirements of Cup cars as prepared to NASA/Pro safety rules.

Stayed tuned.

Sounds very fair Dave, excellent work on this!

This will be the first set of 944 pro race venue's since what year?

Big Joe

Guess its been 20 years. The 944 would be the comeback car of the century.

The list of 944 Cup noncompliances with SCCA Pro safety rules, which is quite extensive, is before SCCA Pro officials and we should be well on our way to a decision by the end of this week.

You mentioned noncompliances. Since it is its own series, as long as we run with there racing rules it should not be an issue, correct? Just curious as always. Thanks

The answer is wrong. Cup has no safety standards of its own, we adopt the standards put forth by the sanctioning body we race with. SCCA Pro is the organization running this event so we must meet their safety standards.

Dave,

I guess at this point it dosent matter until they have ruled on it. I do recall you saying we must have 6 point harnesses thus far, no big deal.

Keep it movin!, have a very sucessful discussion, let me know if you need backup, beyond your current body guards and prior big gun.

Big Joe

I have run cars for the last two years in SWC, the list could be quite large if they try to make the Cup cars do everything. I would guess that all of the NASA folks already have R side nets installed. I have a draft copy of the 2010 proposed rules if that helps. They have a few other different ideas in Pro Racing, like the side padding requirement for the drivers legs, etc. I would hope that with the steel doors and lower speeds they could give a variance for the Nascar side bars and overkill tubing sizes they require. I have spoken with Mr. Bove at length about this and would love to do one or two SWC races in a 44. Greg F

Thanks Greg. Will be in touch to get your input.

Greg/Dave - one other thing to keep in mind is that there are a fair number of cup cars (mine included) running 1.5" chromoly cages vs. the 1.75" steel. Most of the guys with Piper cages have this set up. Hopefully, this won't be a showstopper...