The Sports Car Club of America is beginning to release information about the 51st National Championship Runoffs, the first held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the first one on the West Coast in 46 years.
That includes the race schedule, which puts GTL, Spec Miata, F Production, P1 and STU and Touring 3 on Friday, Oct. 10, STL, P2, E Production and GT3 on Saturday, and B-Spec/Touring 4, Formula Mazda and Formula Atlantic on Sunday. The qualifying schedule and groupings will be determined in September after sufficient entries have been received to determine class sizes. Qualifying will be on Tuesday-Thursday, Oct. 7-9.
SCCA has acknowledged there will be some challenges with holding the event at Mazda Raceway due the size of the paddock, tight sound restrictions and the expense of staying in the Monterey area.
Mazda Raceway has some of the tightest sound restrictions in the country, so that will partially determine the qualifying schedule. “While we can have cars on track from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, the first and last half hours of the day are limited to 90 decibels,” says Terry Ozment, SCCA’s vice president of Club Racing. Only SRF will be able to meet that limit, so they will run first each day. Sound for the other classes will be limited to 103db.
Each entry will include a 30-foot long by 25-foot wide paddock space. Larger spaces will be available for an additional cost. Participants will be assigned to a paddock area based on space needs and registration date. “Without question, the most interesting challenge leading into the event is planning how to fit all of the participants into the paddock at Mazda Raceway,” Ozment said. “This process will require cooperation from the racing community, recognizing that space is incredibly limited.
“We ask our racers to consider coordinating their paddock compounds with others in order to conserve space, which is at a premium. During the registration process, we will ask for the footprint of your paddock compound, as well as with whom you may be sharing transporter or paddock space so we may plan accordingly.”
Entrants wishing to paddock next to specific people are encouraged to stage together prior to entering the facility. South Boundary Road will be open for staging Thursday, Oct. 2 and Friday, Oct. 3 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Paddock parking will begin Saturday morning and run daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
There will be a single test day for the 2014 Runoffs, on Monday, Oct. 6. Registration for the Runoffs will open on July 23.
For more information, see SCCA’s Runoffs page here.