The CA Porsche clubs just seem to be more **** about this. I've been doing DE events since '87 and the clubs in FL never required more than Bob describes in his post above. Not that I, and many other regulars, didn't end up installing seats, harnesses and bars but that's a lot to ask of someone that's just getting their feet wet. When I moved to CA in 1996 I was looking forward to seeing what Laguna Seca and Sears Point were like at a PCA DE. Unfortunately I left my track prepped 911T in FL and brought a 968 that was box stock with me. After discovering the requirements, and not wanting to modify my street car, I ended up never doing any DE events while I lived in CA.

 

Andrew,

What you are reading is NOT the rules for DE but rather the rules for the Club Race. Club races permit a "Touring" class as part of the race. It is not a race in the traditional sense but a pre-requisite to getting a PCA Club Racing License. The important thing is that the rules for the DE in a Club Race are DIFFERENT from thos for a normal DE lapping event. For a regular DE you do NOT need a competition license of any sort. Heck about 20 percent of people at a DE have never driving on a track before and certainly do not have roll bars etc.

Hope this helps clarify the situation.

Regards,

 

Hi Robert,

I am a new member of PCA (#2004026447).

I would like to participate in the DE part of the CA Speedway event in March, but I am not sure if me and my car are allowed?

I am an experienced driver with 3 years DE under my belt. I have driven CA Speedway several times with BMW CCA and know the circuit quite well. My DE includes Derek Daly 4 day school & BMW’s own Performance Driving School, over 20 sessions with BMW CCA , 12 sessions with Driving Concepts and 1 event with POC. I have never bothered to get a competition license, as I don’t intend to race, I just like driving at the tracks, and learning how to be a better driver.

My car is a completely bone stock standard GT3, no extra roll bars, harness .

Please can you clarify if I can participate in the PCA DE.

Thanks so much, all the best.....Andrew

 

Macfly... You should NOT need a harness nor roll bar in your car to complete in a DE event. In Arizona even with PCA all you need is a good helmet, stock seat belts, and a car in good working order. Nothing more. Cabs are different.

If PCA or POC will MAKE you add this stuff don't run with them. There are other groups that do DE in Southern California. National Auto Sport Association (NASA) is one. They have DE events with 2 two 4 run groups from novice to advanced and also a racing program. For DE or HPDE as they call it a stock car is fine. Once you start adding things like a harness there are rules about these, but 100% stock is 100% fine. Costs are in fact less than with POC or PCA. Only drawback is that there many types of cars including little honda and other import guys. They do have strict rules on passing in the different groups, but you probably will find youself getting passed by a modified well driven econobox at some point. That said I still consider them a perfectly safe organization. 90% of you and your car's safety on the track governed by your own attitude and skill.

In fact NASA has an event at California Speedway March 6-7 on the big track (oval + infield). Looks like a bunch of my 944-spec buddies will be there racing in that one.

 

Here is a link to the NASA registration Page

https://www.nasaproracing.com/nasa_e.../?event_id=110


here is the NASA HPDE info Page
https://www.nasaproracing.com/hpde/index.html

 

macfly
there is also the intermountain pca event at las vegas motor speedway on april 30-may 2. also there are many track days in pahrump (spring mountain motorsport track) with other organizations. my gt3 should be in within a month. hope to see you at the track

 

There is a lot of exciting news brewing about Pahrump, and indeed I think I'll be there a lot in the coming months.

I'll check with the Intermountain PCA and see if theyare reasoned or crazy regarding the DE rules.

Thanks for the tip!

 

Hi Bob:

Actually, the rules Andrew was reading are the San Diego Region PCA (SDRPCA) DE rules. I'm very familiar with the people who run the region and put on the DE events. Let's just say they're very "conservative." And believe it or not, in order to run at the CA Festival of Speed DE at CA Speedway in March, all drivers must have a Zone 8 Competition permit, even though they're not competing in any way. However, a brief explanation helps. SDRPCA puts on a lot of autocross events at Qualcomm stadium in San Diego. Drivers can get their Competition permits by running in these events. Basically, SDRPCA wants drivers to start out in the autocross program for a couple of events before running on actual race tracks. I obviously don't agree with this philosophy since I welcome everyone to TracQuest events and have specially set them up to deal with people who have never done any performance driving before (on a track or in an autox environment), but that's the way SDRPCA wants to run their events and it is their prerogative.

I've instructed a friend of mine at the CA Festival of Speed in both years it's been run but I had to share his car because I don't have extra safety equipment in my 996 Cab. This March, for the first time, I can finally use my own car since my GT2 has everything needed. And btw, for those who will be there, if things go as planned I'll be driving my GT2 as the pace car for all of the races. Should be lots of fun!

 

What i don't get with the DE thing is the need for a bolt in fire extinguisher.
For what????

 

Macfly,

I guess the rules have changed since last June. I ran the CFoS DE last year. Had a great time!

Anyhow, at that point, a roll bar was not mandated, only 5pt. belts (at a minimum). Well, to properly use 5 or 6 pt belts, one must have seats with openings for the shoulder belts to pass through. This, in most cases, requires a hard-back seat. This was a topic of many multi-page thread on the racing forum here at Rennlist. The issue was people that are using hardback seats without a roll bar. Basically the seats would not collapse like OEM seats in the event of a roll over.

I ended up fitting a bolt-in roll bar in the car as I felt using hard-back seats without a roll-bar was not as safe as it could be.

 

Well... for one thing - how about if you spin off track or pull off for some reason and the heat from your catalytic converter causes the grass to ignite...?

 

Putting out grass fires should not be a requirement. Otherwise would not all permanently installed fire systems be insufficient?

 

Well, I've seen this happen twice in DEs around here - is it a risk you want to take? I'd rather be able to put it out quickly myself than wait for someone to see me from a flag station and radio whomever has a fire extinguisher to come over and put it out. To your other point - I know a lot of club racers with fire systems that also carry a separate extinguisher for this purpose.

 

Andrew (and Todd) - I guess DE's run differently in your region. A look at the PCA.org calendar shows very few DE's - lots of Autoctross as Todd points out. Strange. Up here inthe frozen north, we'll have 21 track days this season from May to September. With as many Porsches as there are in your parts I amvery surprised at the lack of DE activity. AS I suggested in my email talk to Todd (Tracquest) and see if Trackmasters is active in your area. Both run excellent events.

Re: Why Fire extinguishers? For putting out fires of course. As Bob has observed the most common is a grass fire caused by the cats. We've seen some very spectacular blazes caused by blown engines - 12 quarts of oil makes a nice bonfire unless you hit it with an extinguisher. These don't happen often but when they do it pays to be prepared.

A last use for the CO2 types is to blast your intercooler before a set of hot laps - good for about 40 HP on a TT (grin) also been used to cool beer after the gates close.

 

A last use for the CO2 types is to blast your intercooler before a set of hot laps - good for about 40 HP on a TT (grin) also been used to cool beer after the gates close.

Happily the desert dirt that is the runoff here is CA doesn't burn.

The irony of being shut out of any Porsche club track in the 'ultimate 911' is however a little harsh, and certainly burns!