WHAT IS VINTAGE RACING?

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WHAT IS VINTAGE RACING?











WHAT IS VINTAGE RACING?

John A. Rollins, Vintage Coordinator
As more new people become involved in SCCA racing, I get asked about the Vintage group and what it is all about. This article attempts to describe the foundation and purpose of Vintage Racing within the context of the SCCA Florida regions (both Florida and Central Florida Regions). One of the basic premises of Vintage Racing is to provide an environment where all the competitors can have fun; another is to be able to drive older (pre-1973) race cars in a competitive event without having to modify them beyond recognition of what they were. Toward this end a group of racers (Graig Hinton, Gerald Blum, Larry Narcus, myself and others) were able to convince SCCA that there were enough people holding this same philosophy to create, maintain and support a new race group called Vintage. The intent was to recreate the racing environment of the early days where camaraderie took precedence over competition while still maintaining a high degree of safety. It was agreed that these early cars would be allowed to run as long as they had roll bars, seat belts and fire extinguishers and the drivers safety gear met the standards of the current GCR. It was a success - so much so that a separate GCR was produced, and is still in use, for Vintage Racing. Subsequently, the safety requirements were upgraded to require fuel cells, electrical cut-off switches, arm restraints (open cars) or window nets (coupes) and, in the Florida regions, attachment of the seat back to the main hoop. All were in the interest of safety and were accepted by the competitors in that light. Though full cages (not attached to suspension pick-up points) and fire systems are still strongly recommended (and in use by many of the Vintage entrants), they are not required by the Vintage GCR. While the GCR described the safety equipment required, the Regions attended to the issue of car preparation in terms of allowable modifications. It seemed only right, since this group was based on the recreation of an era in racing history, that the vehicles be prepared authentically to the period in which they raced (or would have). The general guideline in car preparation then became anything that would have/could have been done to race the car in the year of production can be done to the car now. While this allowed cars that were previously street cars to be upgraded to period-authentic race preparation, it prevented modern technology from creeping into the competitive equation to a large degree. Cars which actually raced during the early years were allowed to retain the latest configuration or the configuration used prior to 1973 in the case of those raced after 1972. While this presented a challenge in some cases, the spirit of Vintage racing has prevailed in Florida SCCA events and those that were out of compliance were orderly corrected or entered in other race groups.
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