Racers: how did you choose your car, class, and club?

I started HPDE with the BMW CCA over 20 years ago. Went from novice -> intermediate -> advanced -> solo like most folks. Then instructor and, eventually, chief instructor. Racing seemed like the natural progression and the BMW CCA Club Racing series was an easy transition. That's how I ended up racing in the series.

Wondering how people have made the choice among various organizations: SCCA, NASA, GridLife, BMW CCA, PCA, various vintage groups. So many choices!

How did you choose your car and class?

Had the car first, and I chose classes/events with a lot of technical freedom so I can do interesting things. 

Although it was brief, I chose mine basically based on field counts/level of competition, but I rented rides (SM).

We wanted to start racing Lemons since reading about the first race on Jalopnik in 2006. By 2013 we'd amassed a group of guys and enough money to start. We started with a volvo 965 that my friend bought as a parts car for his V8lvo. It milkshaked the oil one day after we'd stripped it, but before we'd caged it(thank the gods). Most of the team didn't really care what kind of car we drove so I told the owner of the 965 to go buy a car he's always wanted. He started searching for a W126 300SD so he went out and bought a W116 300SD. Close enough. After many races with that car we decided to buy a W123 300D as our second car because we know how to work on that drivetrain and suspension.

It was what I had, classes wtf are those-I run what I can fit into, and drag-n-drives along with true street runs in the NMRA are my goto's.

Ice racing was the flavour, club was the only one around, my old rwd 200sx sucked against the fwd stuff.  A gently crashed Neon was cheap and available at insurance salvage.

Led me a long way down the Neon road...

Autocrossed Beetles, Ghias, and then a homebuilt A-mod in the 70's.  Won about 40 FTDs.   Ran out of money to go farther. Took up running, marathons and such.   (thought if i lost weight the car would be faster)  Worked for IMSA pro-teams in the 80s and 90s, keeping in touch.  Did Skip Barber in a FF in 1990, not too bad.  But still poor in terms of $.

Then when daughter was out of college, me at age 48, bought a Formula Continental, and the rest is history.  Truly loved road racing.  Qualified for the Runoffs one time.  Won a SE solo1 championship,  Won the ARRC three times, and a SE Division championship.   In FC, really SCCA was the only route to go WTW.  Love WTW racing.

Spent 7 years as the tech director for the FRP pro series (F2000 and F1600).   

It never gets out of your blood.  Have met a lot of great folks.

My path was a bit convoluted:

At 16 I'd decided I wanted to be 125 World Champion. At 25 I final got to go road racing on a 125 and quickly discovered 25 years old was ancient in motorcycle racing terms. My journey was over before it even started but I still loved riding the bike.

Flash forward 3 years and the city council was having hearings on the local track. At the meeting we met some SCCA folk who invited me to autocross.

My buddy suggested we convert his Datsun 1200 into a race car. It took a couple of years but in 1991 I made it to SCCA drivers school with the very same Datsun 1200 I am racing today.

Flash forward to 2010 and our LVR SCCA no longer had a road race program so I started vintage racing because there were races local to me.

I've raced a Formula Vee, D-sports Racer, ITC Corolla, Showroom Stock C Miata and a Formula 500 but I have so much fun in the Datsun that I Come home with a smile every time I race it.

I made a totally emotional choice for the car. Loved the 190E Cosworth and decided to build one and race it. I picked the car because it was cool. There was absolutely zero support. Had to do every thing myself ... or pay pros do do it for me. Finally got to the point where I had reliable and (reasonably) fast car that was competitive against well-prepared E30 M3s in a race setting. Now all the J-Stock and M3 Touring M3s are gone. The K-Prepared E30 325s are long gone. No one to race with :(

I can find classes that are a good fit in NASA, SCCA, and vintage racing. But I like BMW CCA Club Racing and that's where all my car-guy-buddies run. I'll need to make a switch.

It would have been a LOT smarter to choose my class first, then pick a car that's competitive in that class. That's what I'll do next time around. Without a big field, racing is just running hot laps while trying to stay out of everyone's way. 

If you like W2W look into Lucky Dog. It's very much run-what-you-brung and follow their safety rules. I got to race my friend's TR8 at CMP and loved it. A Cossie would likely be  competitive depending on who/what shows up that weekend.

I spent ~20 years playing with a turbo Miata, doing track day and autocross.  Didn't really investigate wheel-to-wheel racing much in that time partly due to lack of a good class for it (but probably more due to budgetary reasons).

About 5 years ago I got tired of breaking it at the track all the time, and had some money available.  I had a bunch of friends who raced BMWCCA and their cars always seemed to be running, so I went to the race shop run by someone from that group and asked him to build me a car.  Requirements were (in this order), safety, reliability, would be nice if it was fast, and would also be nice if it fit into an established class so I had a place go to race if I decided I wanted to.  End result was an E46 M3 built for NASA ST4.

Last year I decided it was time, so I got the NASA license and poof, here we are.

BMWCCA's club racing program died on the west coast during Covid and hasn't come back.  I've raced with SCCA as well (in ITE, our regional "run what ya brung" class).

GLTC only just showed up here and their rules say I need to add 500 pounds to my car, so no thanks.

I did one Lemons race in a friend's car, didn't like the atmosphere.  Lucky Dog seems better (I have a bunch of friends who run it), but I don't like the way that the rules encourage you to build a really fast car and then sandbag it down to the super dog time.  Seems like that would take a lot of the fun out of it.

Recently.  Easy.  My friend was having an insane amount of fun rallycrossing his Ford Mustang.  I wanted to rallycross too.  A Subaru RS was the stock AWD easy button.  The only things changed were lighter wheels and stickier tires, new struts and new strut mounts... viola.  The wheels were OEM Saabaru.  I'm looking for an appropriate car to do something similar.  Honestly, I never should've sold that car. 

Like Codrus I spent a few years doing track days with a turbo Miata, and got tired of always breaking it as I got better. Bought a car that was halfway to being an SM-SE car (regional class for early 1.6L Miatae) and finished preparing it. It got me through SCCA race school and most of a racing season, where I got destroyed every race and could never figure out how much of the problem was slow car vs. slow driver. Decided that I wanted to take the car variables away and really learn how to drive. Set out to find a race car in a rigid spec class, reasonable running costs, well supported, big fields, and a good platform for data and coaching. SRF was the obvious choice. Finishing my 2nd race season and loving it. 

I met a guy at a BMW CCA Ice Race (really an autocross on a frozen lake) who showed up one week in a Showroom Stock-prepped MR2 on baked race tires. I let him co-drive my Golf GT on snow tires and he was one of the fastest guys out there. We became friends and I started crewing for him, which brought me into the world of SCCA and other clubs. Did my first track day in my Golf GT the last year of the old Bryar Motorsports Park. 

Always liked BMW 2002s, so I got one, did some track days in it and eventually turned it into an Improved Touring car. Wrecked that, ended up with an early CRX Si that I bought cheap, and raced that in IT for a bunch of years before "upgrading" to an early BMW Z3. Should have kept the CRX as it became one of the "cars to have" in ITB, or moved into Prod...

Pre-racing I usually had weird cars that were never competitive in any class they'd be in. When I decided to race I went with a spec class because I'm a driver, not a builder. NASA had the best opportunities and I did the HPDE-to-comp-license progression. Worked out well.