What It’s All About
Founded in 1944 by amateur
motorsports enthusiasts, the SCCA today has over 54,000 members. The organization
is thriving as never before, and now sanctions more than 2,000 amateur
and professional motorsports events each year.
Spread across the country,
SCCA’s 110 regional chapters provide true grassroots participation, and
local amateur events at nearby circuits remain the backbone of club activities.
The individual SCCA regions
are brought together into a powerful national club by a full-time professional
staff headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. This National Office coordinates
and administers rules, licensing, insurance, member benefits, and the various
SCCA racing series.
Providing direction to the
National Office is an eleven-person SCCA Board of Directors (BoD), elected
by the membership for three-year terms and representing each one of the
club’s 11 different geographic areas. It is the BoD which sets club policy,
makes plans for the future, resolves conflicts and ensures that the needs
of individual members are fairly met.
The SCCA has its own national
monthly magazine, SportsCar, which offers lively coverage of the many different
SCCA activities and is designed to quickly communicate all official club
information. Most regions also have their own local publications.
First
Gear
–
Ages 16 to 25
The Texas Region also has
a national program for persons ages 16 through 25. This is known as the First
Gear program in which members may either participate as workers
in any SCCA area of competition, or compete in any SCCA competition. This is one program which gives you license to some serious
thrills!
SCCA
Member Benefits
As an SCCA member, there
are a host of benefits and special discount programs available to you.
For example, United Airlines offers dramatic savings to members flying
to an SCCA event – 40 percent off standard coach fare with all restrictions
waived. Or five percent off any United fare applicable, including their
Ultra Savers. You can receive 10 percent savings on Hertz rental car day
rates, and five percent off their weekend rates. It pays to be a member
of the Sports Car Club of America!
The SCCA insurance program
to protect its members is the best and most comprehensive in motorsports
today. No matter how you participate you are protected – no small achievement
in today’s difficult insurance climate. SCCA is able to provide this kind
of coverage for its members because it has one of the best safety records
in motorsports. This is a direct product of SCCA’s thorough training programs
and rigorous rules enforcement. In the SCCA, safety comes first. |
What
We Do... We Compete!
  ith
more than 1000 members, the Texas Region is considered a "full-service"
region in that we offer events in all three major SCCA areas of competition
– race, rally and solo (autocross). Being in the southern part of the nation,
we are able to be active most of the year. We race in the Southwest Division
(SOWDIV) from mid-February through November or even December in some years
depending on how hungry some regions are. There are three race sites for
SCCA Club Racing (as opposed to Pro Racing) in SOWDIV. The first is Texas
World Speedway (TWS) located in the Lone Star Region just south of
College Station, the home of Texas A & M University. TWS is a high
speed oval with interconnecting road course elements which can make road
courses from 1.8 miles up to three miles in length. The second is in Abilene
at the western end of the Texas Region where we race on inactive portions
of the Abilene Regional Airport. This event is regularly televised both
regionally and, on occasion, nationally. The Texas Region was the first
and is still the only SCCA region to televise one of its club races. The
third is located in Corpus Christi on the gulf coast. Held at NAAF Cabaniss,
a navy training field, this track is located in the South Texas Border
Region. Rallies can go on year round although
in SOWDIV most of them seem to happen on three-day holidays. There are
starting to be some types of rallies which combine elements of both autocross
and rally. Solo season
starts in mid-March with a full, one-day solo school followed by the first
event of the season the next day and continues through November. There
are plenty of activities in each of these three areas to keep most people
very busy. Join the fun!
We also conduct several events
where the proceeds are donated to a charitable organization. One is a solo
(autocross) event held in Copperas Cove (near Fort Hood) where we conduct
the event in conjunction with the local, annual weeklong RabbitFest. The
proceeds go to provide scholarships for the local high school auto shop
class which supports the event each year. Several other events are mini-grands
prix which use go-karts with either formula car or NASCAR style fiberglass
bodies to raise funds for charities such as the Arthritis Foundation or
the American Diabetes Association.
What
We Do... We Participate!
 Competition
is not the only area of activity in Texas Region SCCA. There are many areas
of participation where people are needed. The Region takes a lot of people
to make it work effectively and a lot of people to put on the many competition
events we hold each year. The Region needs administrators to run it. It
needs committee chairpersons and members to keep a variety of regional
activities alive.
Groups such as the Texas
Turn Marshals and Racer Chasers (TTM&RC), race specialists which
comprise the bulk of the personnel and conduct region competition events.
Persons can participate as turn marshals (the best seat in the house –
at trackside), as Scrutineers conducting technical inspections of competitors’
cars, or in Timing and Scoring to keep track of the competitors’ positions
in the event. You might want to be a Starter in the Starter’s Stand, a
Registrar assisting in Registration, or in the Pits, Paddock or on the
Grid keeping cars and their crews organized. Or maybe you might help as
a Course Marshal setting up the track, maintaining it during the event,
and taking it down after the event. Several remaining activities include
being a race official such as Race Steward, administering the event, or
a Race Chairperson or assistant Race Chairperson to organize the event.
Many of these activities don’t require any training but for the activities
which do, Texas Region will provide it. The one area that is often overlooked
but that can be the most demanding is that of being a crew person. Be
a participant . . . not just a fan!
Texas
Region – Your Local SCCA group
The Texas Region of the
SCCA was the original and only region in Texas when the Region was formed.
Now it is just one of seven regions located in Texas. Centered in the Dallas/Fort
Worth metroplex, the Texas Region covers a geographic area north to the
Oklahoma/ Texas border, east to the Texas/Louisiana border, south to the
Waco area and west to the Abilene area. If you are not located in this
area, look at the SCCA
Region Locator to see which division and region you are located within.
If you are located in the
D/FW metroplex, see our Events Schedule page
for where and when we meet. You are invited to attend our next meeting
to see what we're all about.
The Texas Region is organized
similar to the SCCA’s National Office with a Regional
Executive (the equivalent to a president) as the Region’s chief operating
officer with a staff of officers
and committees to support them.
Providing oversight and direction to the Regional Executive and staff is
a seven member Texas Region Board
of Directors, elected by the membership at large for overlapping two
year terms. Here, as at the National Office, it is this Board which sets
Region policy, approves annual budgets and plans for the future of the
Region.
The Texas Region has its
own monthly newsletter, the Roundup, which is used to disseminate Region
information to our members. Several of the articles contained in each month’s
issue can be found on this web site.
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