171mph

seems the closest is cal speedway in l.a. then pir and vegas. is it that hard to get on Laguna and Infineon or just no interest? there's always thunderhill too. fyi i don't race but would be nice to have the option at some point.

Cory M

FYI -the Porsche Owners Club (POC) and Porsche Racing Club (PRC) both race those tracks

JC3D

POC is running Laguna Seca this year August 22-24 so the option is there.

BluemaxxRacing

I've been wondering the same question now for years.

Tom W

I asked the same question and the answer I was given by the then competition director was basically:
To put on a PCA race there is a lot of logistical work required and the mandentory payment to fly out people from the national organization. It's a lot of time and money that the local PCA regions in northern California are not willing to undertake. The track schedule from GGR is DE and Time Trials. Just not enough interest is the bottom line. There is also "competition" from other clubs that race: PRC and POC.

You can see Porsche racing at a wide variety of venues and in conjunction with DE events on the same weekend. I race with PRC. We run with NASA and the weekends usually have NASA DE sessions. ARC does low key races with mixed cars (usually a number of Porsches) in conjunction with NCRC DE weekends. POC runs races and time trials, but most of their events are in southern CA.

PRC's first race weekend is 3/8 at Thunderhill and the next event is at Infineon (Sears Point) on the weekend of 4/12. The April event is as close as you can get to SF to see a race. ARC has a race weekend 3/29 at Thunderhill.

PRC site: http://www.porscheracingclub.com/
NASA schedule here: http://www.nasaproracing.com/norcal/index.html
NCRC/ARC: http://www.ncracing.org/
POC: http://www.porscheclub.com/
and GGR/PCA: http://www.pca-ggr.org/

A race weekend with PRC/NASA or POC has a very different "atmosphere" or feeling in the paddock than a DE weekend. Come out and join us some time.

171mph

Thanks. I sometimes take the cayman s to NASA TT events and have seen you guys tearing it up in PRC. Also read the Excellence (think it was excellence) magazine piece on the series - sounds very good. prob won't be racing soon since trailers and apts in san francisco aren't so compatible but will be at the NASA TT in march so will stop by and cheer you folks on.

The thinking behind my question was that a well-prepared Cayman S has been doing well in stock D class on east coast and I believe a couple more are joining him this year so was wondering if that would be an option on this side at some point. Prob not sounds like. From what i gather about the PRC it seems like the spec 911 GTS series has the momentum (ie largest number of competitors) so maybe that might be the 'best' option for norcal porsche racing people. I also understand the spec boxster series is alive and well but think that is more affiliated with POC and like u say is further south. All good options.

Steward B.

PCA would really, really like to hold a club race or two in northern California. It is obviously a location that is a geographic hole in our "coast to coast, north and south" coverage. A couple of comments on it, from the national committee's perspective.

First, the way PCA club racing is set up is that a region or zone must first make the decision to host a race. The host region or zone take the financial risk but also reap the financial reward hosting the race. The national program provides support, in terms of national staff at races as well as the national structure to licensing, registration, rules, etc.

The "competition director" who commented that there was a lot of expense attendant to flying the national staff out for a race was not correct. The national program provides all staff to work the race (steward, scrutineers and timing techs, plus appropriate equipment for the scrutineers and timing techs) at the national program's expense. The only charge to the local race is the cost of housing and food for the national staff at the race. At most races the housing and food costs are reasonably low for the host region.

Yes, there is a charge from PCA for insurance, but the charge is based on car counts, at the previous year's race. We routinely work with first time races to make sure that they aren't buried by the cost of the insurance premiums.

With the new email blast program, there is no cost to the host regions for an announcement to all license holders.

The host region does have the cost of renting the track, ambulances, fire trucks, etc. The costs are higher than for an average DE, as the safety requirements are higher than at the average DE.

But, first a local region must make the decision that they wish to hold a PCA club race. A tough call oftentimes for a region's board but frankly, for the regions that are hosting club races this year, I would bet that the club race is the highlight of the year for their region.

If anyone on this list is interested in discussing this subject in more detail, please contact me directly. PCA club racing has a national procedures manual which acts as a cook book, leading a host region through their first (or 17th) club race.

My email address is: clubracingchair@pca.org

Bruce Boeder
PCA club racing national chair

mooty

POC does infineon and LS each 1x a year. that's not a lot of racing. they concentrate mainly down south. a MARVELOUSLY GREAT organization, but it's a bit far for us when 90% of the races are down south and many at willow springs.

PRC is mainly spec 911 and GTL. other classes you will be racing against yourself. 171mph drives a cayman so he wont have much fun with PRC. GTC3 and GTC4 have very small grid.

171mph, if you got some patience, work toward racing with CFRA. it's fun and no as high pressured. also NCRC /ARC is good as well. tom and i are usually there. early apex in his early 911 usually shows as well.

mooty

PRC may take up spec boxster if we get enough ppl into it.
many ppl up here are now talking about it. no.. not me, not yet.

JerryW

And then there is the forgotten front engine guys.
944Spec runs with NASA and we are looking at 8-10 cars this year in NorCal (and growing). NASA normally runs only Infineon and Thunderhill. We also entered (and finished !) the 25 hours of Thunderhill last year.

Tom W

A comment a bit different from John's perspective: PRC usually has a race with a dual start (two groups spaced about 30 seconds apart) with one group being the GT Class cars (and realistically any other cars that are not the GTS cars) and the other group is the spec class "GTS" cars. I think the fewest I've seen in the last 2 years is about 25 cars taking the checker and up to 45 in the biggest race. I race in GTL and spent most of the last 2 years finding a GT2 or GT3 class car to race with as there were only a few of us in the class. You are pretty likely to find someone to race with, they might simply be from another class. That never bothered me, it was/is always great fun. New folk can see how they would do pretty easily by looking at race results on mylaps.com. This year GTL should field 5-10 cars at each race.

Bruce: Thanks for your reply and correcting the issues. While I think it would be great to have a PCA club race, I wonder about the participation. PRC's biggest class is the GTS spec class that doesn't really fit well with PCA classing. Our fastest growing class is the newer spec class (GTL) - I think we would be GT3 (PI=580 minimum up to 610 depending on weight). Very few folk race a stock or improved car out here.

Still it would be fun to attend one some time - which was the point of the original post.

race911

I think everyone has covered all the basics thoroughly.

Being on the 2000 committee in conjunction with the Sacramento Parade, I can say I honestly do NOT recall the expenses now being covered by National were covered then. (There was very little support, and only about 60 cars entered.) Nor, to my understanding, were they for the '02 Laguna and Sears "back to back" events, nor the '03 and '04 Lagunas. I was led to understand nearly $5K of the budget went to cover these expenses. Divided by 60 entries, do the math.

I've taken an interest in the program since basically day one. I queried Monte Smith nearly 15 years ago about what the "big picture" of the program was. Sadly, my businesses have stood in the way of me doing much wheel-to-wheel at all. (Now health.......grrr......) It's grown everywhere but here. I guess the ease of sliding in with NASA or HSR, just paying and showing up trumps all with our hectic lives.

Johninrsf

FWIW, POC just had its first two races of the season -the inside track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It's a hike getting to Vegas, no doubt, but there's nothing like it, anywhere!
In September, we do Buttonwillow, which isn't all that far for you NorCal PRC racers. You should join us. And please bring the band!! They were really great last October at Infineon!!

M758

Putting on a PCA club race takes alot of time effort and money from the local PCA region hosting it. On the east coast and mid west there were no other Porsche centric options. So the Local PCA did it to benefit their local guys who wanted to race.

In California the Porsche owners club has been holding a season worth of Porsche specific racing for many years. This means that in general the local PCA regions don't need to create a race for the betterment of their members. PCA members that want to race typically will also joing POC and do their racing there.

The NASA / PRC relationship also creates less interest in PCA regions going through the effort to do something other do already. Still PCA club racing is different from other racing orgs and provides an enviroment many people like. I think it would be good for PCA to have enough west coast races to constitute a really core series even if it is not official. I know in the east coast there are 5-6 events that a large common core of races attend each year. In fact on reason Arizona is hosting our Club Race again is to create some form of western centric PCA race series. Again not so much for points, but to create a core of events through out the year for west coast PCA club racers to attend.

I will say however that while I stated in PCA club racing (in large part due to my home region hosting a race) I have moved to NASA exclusively. Mostly for the reason that I can have enough races to constitute a season with in a short tow. I have let my PCA license expire as I just don't see enough races close to me to make it worth while. Plus given my limited time and budget it makes more sense for me to focus on one regional series rather than spread thing around too thin.

Steward B.

Ken, I've been involved in the PCA club racing program since the second year of its existence, first as chair for my local region's first two races, then as sponsor coordinator and since 2000 as a steward and now national chair. It's always been my experience that PCA club racing has covered the travel expenses for the national staff since day one. Yes, timing tech travel costs were borne by the regions until this past September, but now they are also covered by the national program.

Hotel rooms and food at the event are covered by the host region, as would be expected on the part of any good host. At most events those costs are in the neighborhood of $1k.

Perhaps you are thinking about the cost of the insurance for the event, that has always been borne by the host region but for the events you have mentioned the insurance cost would not have been $5k.

A region can frankly keep its costs quite low, if they want to, while hosting a PCA club race. Sure, many of the events include dinners, and shirts, and other give aways but frankly I don't think most racers care about that, they are there simply to race. Once again, if you are on the west coast and are interested in working with your home region to host a club race, contact me off line.

Regards,
Bruce Boeder