Tell us about your vintage racing club.

As promised in another thread I said I'd start up a thread where we could post information on the clubs we vintage race with.

I run with VARA Vintage Auto Racing Association, they are a Southern California group that runs 6-7 races a year at Willow Springs, Buttonwillow, Cal Speedway (with SVRA West) and my home track Spring Mtn Motorsports Ranch

Entry fees are generally $425-$550 for a 2-3 day weekend. Membership is around $125.

A friend who is also a VARA member quipped that it stood for virtually any race car accepted; this is the part of the club I like. My Datsun runs GTL, rules are pretty much identical to SCCA GT classes.  The vintage GT classes are separated by displacement GTL is under 2.0 Liter.  If your car doesn't quite fit a class they'll find a place for it. They also have a club racer class for anyone with a modern club racing car, many members have both modern and vintage cars and like to run both. For 2018 they are also going to start having a run group for HPDE, which I think is very smart.

VARA also runs traditional groups; the small bore group generally has 25-35 cars. Formula Ford the Series gets its own group. TABS West (Trans Am B-Sedan) is another featured group and they even do their own trophies. Formula Vees are usually pretty solid as few as 6 cars to as many as 12. There's the wings and things groups single sweaters and sports racers on slicks.

Drivers ages range from 15 to 80. Cars are as mundane as old SCCA I.T. cars up things like McLaren Can Am cars, Lister Jags & Scuderia Filipenetti Ferarri 512s. Regardless of what you drive you'll get the same welcome. 

The other aspect I like is they let us race while discouraging wild block moves and the like. I'm a very aggressive driver but would never want to nudge someone else's car (no skill in that). I'm not OK with rubbing is racing, when it comes to any amateur road racing,  because people work hard to put a car a on track and I don't want to cause somebody more work. 

Like most clubs they also have a nice social aspect.

Tom,

I take  advantage of VARA University, this will be my fourth annual trip to Buttonwillow with the group this coming January.  I tell anyone that might be interested that it's a vintage car show and track school.  Getting to put a pass on a car that my dad might have worked on and crewed for in the day always puts a smile on my face.

I will admit that I have lots to learn, but I have found this to be a very encouraging group that is out to make this a safe and enjoyable experience.  Now I just need to up the horsepower of  this years ride!

David 

My home club is SOVREN based in the PNW, but I unsually travel once or twice a season and race with SVRA, HMSA, and VSDA. Each offers a fun environment with an emphasis on clean and safe racing. A few of these clubs put a higher standard on originality and car presentation which I respect. Some are for profit and their entry fee reflects that, I find the "club" sanctioned events more rewarding. They  attract a more diverse group of racers that reflect what IMO is the essence of vintage racing.

I race with SOVREN, too.  For the longest time, their cutoff for latest year of manufacture was '69.  So I built a '69 Alfa Spider.  Then a few years ago, after much debate, they extended it to '72.  Now, they're following in SVRA's footsteps and opening up the entries.  They're even allowing kit cars, tribute cars, and completely stripped production cars with fiberglass flares and spoilers that didn't come that way from the factory.

They put on a good show, but I wouldn't mind giving up the fancy club magazine and catered events in exchange for lower entry fees.  I'd also like easier access to my laptimes.  It would be easy to publish lap times to AMB's website, since we use their transponders.  Currently, if you want to know your lap times, you have to physically go pick up a paper printout from a tent after the race.

I’ve been running with the Vintage Automobile Racing Association of Canada (VARAC). They have classes for everything from pre-war cars, formula cars, sports racers, to production-based cars from the ‘60s through early-‘90s. They run about a dozen events each summer, mostly in eastern Canada: Mosport, Shannonville, and Tremblant.

They’re very welcoming and inclusive. Not overly anal-retentive about originality and period-correctness. So, if you’ve got an oddball car with some mods, they’ll find a place for you. 

Unlike some other clubs I’ve run with, it’s all about the driving, rather than putting on a show for spectators. The schedule has tons of track time and they run a pretty tight ship. 

Because they’re a Canadian club, they also take a pretty Canadian approach to legal aspects of hosting events. They’re pretty laid back about tech, for example. They treat you like an adult, which is refreshing for someone who has lived in the USA for a while.