So basically - I have the car, i have the $ and most importantly i have the unbridled passion to race my hatch in the Honda Challenge. Small problem, i live in CA. Are there any plans to bring this kind of racing series to our side of things? I am smack dab in the middle of Thunderhill, Sears and Buttonwillow, and basically am willing to drive to any of the 6 or 7 tracks that are here on the west coast. What is being done, if anything, to get this series to the West?

Sorry if this is a NewB question, im a long time SCCA solo racer (never dealt with NASA before), and really want to get into road racing, open track days with friends just arent the same!!

-Todd

 

Amen to this thread!!! I was wondering when this would get brought up. But seriously, what will it take to get a honda challange on the west coast? There are plenty of adequate racers that would take part in this, but what are the steps to get the ball rolling? Perhaps some of the east coast honda challange guys can shed some light.

 

http://www.nasaproracing.com

http://www.touringcarclub.com

 

It takes a champion within NASA, and somebody to push like crazy for it. For us, that was Chris Cobetto and Scott Giles/Karl Schultz respectively. You need to get in touch with your local NASA chapter to pitch the idea. Use the enthusiasm being generated on the east coast as your sales pitch. Then you have to go out and find enough Honda *RACERS* out there to show that you have the capability to fill a grid. Name yourself a race board, and then just follow the rules established for the east coast series. Give our series a year to get going, and you will find it MUCH easier to get a sister series started over there.

Matt

 

Exactly, but its never to early to get the ball rolling.. But really, first is to guage the interest, do you have enough?? Enough to fill a 20 car field? I am sure Giles or Karl can help you guys figure out the steps.. good luck guys

Corey - who can't wait for the honda-challenge national championship..

 

im 100% down, we have been talking about this for a while about how we would LOVE for something like this on the west coast. I hesitate to purchase a small honda as a purposefull race vehicle, but if there was a series like this i would do it for sure.

supporter +1

 

I am willing to help in any way I can. Me and a friend is building a 93 Civic right now to try to fit it in USTCC before they make the car ineligible. It would be fun to be able to race it in Honda Challenge. NASA in CA has been willing to listen to a lot of advise/idea. With the new SE-R challenge will be underway soon. The problem is to find around 20 people to fill the starting grid every month!

 

I'll type more later on this, but here goes...

The biggest obstacle you have is getting enough people committed to running the series that you can go to NASA have enough headcount to get your own rungroup. The 13/13 rule is one of the most important parts of the series - so you need your own run group to police it.

And that's the glitch. It sounds like you guys' NASA regions have even busier schedules than we do. Our weekends are typically HPDE groups, plus the race groups (which include legends cars, pro sedan cars, spec miata, etc). Now you guys apparently have stuff like Spec SE-R and some kind of Volkswagen thing, along with USTCC...yikes.

That's my first response. I'm off to go take more cold medicine now, and will type more later.

 

I'm in if it can get going. I will already be there for the enduro's anyway. Who else? BTW, the license program is going to get tougher. Rumor has it that it will be a "school" you will have to attend after making it up to Group 4 level.