Chaos

I am hearing about people doing more NASA and less PCA ?
Could anyone give a good compare and contrast of the two ?
Thanks,
Gregg

ZBlue996Kam

Cost:
NASA DE instructors don't pay entry fees?
Two sprint races for a tipical weekend and costs $240.

People:
Both PCA and NASA are nice.

Cars:
NASA has all kinds of cars running in their events.

mrbill_fl

4.6 Passenger Privileges
A passenger is defined as any participant possessing the proper wristband or credential, riding in a moving vehicle while on track, yet is not in physical control of that vehicle. NASA Instructors are not considered passengers for the purposes of this section.

-Passengers may be allowed in all HPDE groups, unless otherwise specified.

http://www.drivenasafl.com/content/view/21/44/

passengers / riders. (think the insurance/fee is less than $50/day)

no riders at pca....

THIS IS SOMETHING I'D LIKE TO SEE FIXED!

if I can get a prospective DE'er out to the track, then give them a ride..... that ususally 'sets the hook'. (the lunch tours, are a weak substitue)

Matt Marks

NASA, in addition to be cheaper than PC and having 2 races per weekend, has a season-long championship for each class in each region, as well as a national championship at Mid-Ohio.

Also, you'll have 6 or 7 weekends in your local area when you race with NASA vs. having to traverse the country to get that many PCA races in.

You could run either GTS challenge or 944 Supercup with your S2.

RXDOC

I have done both NASA and PCA (back-to-back weekends last August). The NASA people are more relaxed, more flexible (good?bad?). NASA mixes in wheel-to-wheel racing which is exciting to watch. NASA has TT (TimeTrials) which I really enjoyed (in-car lap timer). The variety of cars is a nice change from PCA. There were 4 run groups and therefore a little more track time. The cost is the same. NASA allows passing ANYWHERE on the track (makes for some added fun). Our PCA (PeachState), a very dedicated bunch of guys. Very structured and regimented. I highly recommend NASA and PCA DE's.

Juan Lopez

and I do recommend going for a tour with Mr Bill. What a hoot (plus saved me some time on my race laps) !

Thanks man !

Tom W

Out here it's even more simple for racing. There are 2 PCA races a year and they are likely to both be a pretty long tow from San Francisco. NASA has both PRC (Porsche Racing Club) for exclusively Porsche races (8 race weekends) or GTS-Challenge which is looking like about the same or greater number of race weekends. PRC has some spec classes that have rules biased to try and keep cost down and provide plenty of competition.

For DE, our PCA events are a mixed DE and then a half-day of time trials. I think you get less track time for the money, but they are fun events. We have many other DE opportunities (where you see most of the same people). I find NASA DEs a bit more crowded than NCRC/TracQuest or other groups but all are pretty well run.

M758

In Arizona the choice is clear.
NASA with PCA for fillers.

PCA Club racing has one event less than a 5hr tow. The local club has 3-5 DE days per year. Nice, but NASA has more races and does DE on better tracks.

That said I still do as many PCA DE's as I can, but will do a NASA double race weekend if there is a conflict.

I also let my PCA club race license expire. In the past 4 years I have done 8 races, but some 40 NASA races.

Chaos

GTS or 944 Supercup ?
Thanks,
Gregg

Eric in Chicago

Greg,
We only have GTS here in the midwest.

Alan C.

I think I may do more with NASA this year than PCA. The only thing I see as a plus for PCA are the enduro events.

renvagn

We ran Summit with NASA in the Fall of 05. Great bunch of people. They inter-mixed sprint races with the HPDE which were fun to watch. The class room instruction was very thorough with a definite slant on getting you racing. HPDE 3 or 4 allow full course passing with a signal from the lead driver in group 3.

Very fun to run against a field of varying horsepower cars of grossly different weights. Some of the tweaked civics putting out upwards of 220 hp. with race suspensions seemed to rarely lift off the gas.
the field had everything from spec miata's, vettes, race prepaed stangs, AC cobra's and WRX's. It was a fun week end. It will teach you to be prepared for anything. You should try it.

However it is very hectic. The pits were standing room only. Lots of wrecked cars and offs. There was something going on every minute. You had three class per day and if you failed to attend you couldn't get back out on the track. Two classes for the weekend are enough for the HPDE 3 and above group. You did only get 3 sessions per day and that IMHO is not enough track time.

The biggest problem I saw was a lack of NASA scrutiny placing drivers in the proper HPDE level. Being new to DE this year, I made a big point of asking my instructor where I would fit in and contacted NASA with my back ground and how it would fit with there levels. I was told HPDE 3 which is solo driving and full course passing with a signal from the lead car. It worked fine. However there were 20% of the class who truly didn't belong in the group. One guy didn't understand the concept of rotating the car. He told me he was having trouble rotating his WRX STI in turn 9. (Are you kucking Fiding me). He latter lost it in 10 (in front of me) and attempted to bring it back on the track from the kitty litter. A 200 SX tried to get rotation into 5 with me on his bumper and put 4 wheels off and yanked it back on the track in front of me. And the best was the out of shape, overweight, 60 something non-athlete in the race integra with an instructor in the car who lost it deep in the kitty litter out of turn 3. There were no caution flags displayed yet, and as I am exiting turn 3 at somewhere around 100 mph, I see this bafoon driving back on track against flow over the track out curbing. Yes you have it correct. He is heading directly for me and I am bringing the mail and don't want to lift now. All I recall is seeing the instructors hands flailing wildly. (I would have punched him in the head several times to get his attention) I made it by without a spin and only mildly elevated BP. But it was a great lesson in adjusting to the unexpected.

Gary R.

From that last post I would have to say i'm staying as far away from NASA as I can! A "new to DE this year" driver, talking about rotating his car and how he was one one of the safer drivers out there!!

YIKES!

Eric in Chicago

The PCA racers are pretty cool too. There is a measure of more respect with PCA racers than with NASA racers, that is a bit of a generalization and I am only speaking of the mixed class races that I ran at Putnam and Autobahn. Dont kid your self, there is a bit of banging going on with NASA. Keep in mind, the 13 rule only applies to GTS vs GTS cars. A Honda runs into you and your SOL. The one way we can avoid knuckle head racers is to get a full field of German cars to run in our own race group!

944Cup

Problem solved for NASA MidAtlantic. A modifed 13/13 rule is enforced for all cars in the Autobahn Run Group, which for 2006 will include the 944 Cup and SpecE30. We are expecting the same for the NE Chapter of the 944 Cup.