NASA or SCCA?

I am going to join one of the two mentioned above come thursday. I also plan on joining the Mazdaspeed team support program as soon as I can get my info uploaded to MSM. the question is: Which sanctioning body is better in the experienced personnel's opinion? I know the differences between the two of them, but I thought I would get some feedback on the matter.

Depends on your interests and area.

Flagged for SCCA, hung around at an NASA day or two. So might not be worth much.

What I gather is that NASA is less tolerant of cars bumping into each other. I CAN tell you that SCCA flagging and communications personnel call spec miata "spec piñata" jokingly to each other. I worked an scca school weekend where several SM cars ended the weekend in distressed condition.

Yeah, it really come down to the local club. You do get a subscription to the magazine w/ your NASA membership though!

Where are you looking at competing?

well, I will be starting autox soon and I have the plans of getting in SM in the future as well. Hmmmm....Spec pinata, eh? Kinda steeres me away from SCCA a bit. Several cars ending a weekend in distressed condition.....I like the sound of NASA being less tolerent of bumping. Lets face it, bumpers and fenders dont fix themselves.

Oh, for some reason I assumed we were talking about autoX. I've never been to a NASA road course event, but I think they are more prevalent on the coasts?

I shall await for more experienced words to be typed!

Yes, I plan on competing. The experience would be great to have in the future if I do get into SM. I already have a 2 year sub to GRM

AutoX, road course, etc. In general basically.

ShadowSix wrote: Yeah, it really come down to the local club. You do get a subscription to the magazine w/ your NASA membership though!

I believe that needs to read "used to".

In reply to BoxheadTim:

No kidding? When did that happen? That sucks

Th short answer is that if this is a lifestyle you're thinking of adopting, you'll be a member of both at some point. So the real questions is which one first?

The answer basically depends on your geographical situation and immediate interests. Start with the most local club that meets your needs and build from there.

jg

In reply to ShadowSix:

I'm not a NASA member, but here's a thread on this:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/nasa-members-wheres-my-issue/48406/page1/

At the end of it.. Who has events in your vicinity?

I'm a 20 year member of SCCA, and I'm now on my 2nd membership in NASA. In Spec Miata here in the Central Florida Region, we get between 30 to 50 cars on most weekends. I went to a NASA race at Sebring last month, and there were 8 cars. You are going to have contact in a large class full of cars that are very even. You are also going to get very good at racing, and 'race-craft' in a situation like that.

I have not been impressed at all with the NASA experience here in Florida as far as racing goes. It's great for track days, but the racing is an afterthought. Again, that goes for Florida.

I shall look into that. I know Sebring has a SCCA office as I was there for the 60th running of the 12 hours of Sebring race, but I know that both run in Central and South Florida. I think I will go with SCCA seeing as I found more info about local events in Central Florida alot easier and I found the info I wanted in detail. NASA didnt turn up much. I'm sure I will be a member of both in time though. I'm really not keen on the NASA/GRM thing either. I already have a sub. It's my bi-monthly bible

Bigger fields are what interest me more. I really dont wanna be in a field that is comparable to one in Gran Turismo in the future. Contact comes with racing and experience helps resolve some of it, but there will always be contact in racing to some degree. That's just the nature of the beast. SCCA it is then! Now just gotta wait till Thursday to get my paycheck and bonus! After the signup, I shall send my info and all that jazz to MSM and that will help make my life that much easier with the build of the SM. Input is thanked by all, but more input and info is appreciated.

For what it's worth, I'm in the Mazdaspeed MS program without being a member in either club. All I do is email them my a autocross results a couple times a year.

I'm in the build process still and Ive talked to them about the details on the program and i can do 2 autocrosses a year, eeaasily. How are the deals in the MSM program? are they really that good like Ive heard?

I'd really really suggest going and spending a weekend with each before you make your decision, the local pdersonalities are going to make a huge difference. For me, when I asked about my bizarro car and running it, the scca laughed at me, while nasa said "sounds awesome, come on!" so you can tell which one I favor.

I forget the exact terms, but you get good racer net pricing on all kinds of parts. I've bought maintenance parts through them.

I need to replace the timing belt and water pump as PM in mine. got the belt already. The gaskets will be really cheap with MSM's program. Along with other parts on the agenda of things to replace. Any recall of the time between getting in MSM and the announcement of your first event?

I found the MSM programs prices to not be that much better then Rockauto, but it comes in real handy for Mazda dealer only type bits.

You should go check them both out in your area and decide on your own. Around here (Texas) both run pretty good sized programs, but it really feels like NASA is the larger and 'younger' of the two. The SCCA feels like it has a bunch of folks that have been around for a long time, but not much in the way of newcomers. It's clear from this thread that this is not true in other regions.

robert

NASA Mid-Atlantic is a top notch organization with large fields and some great guys running it. For any racing from NJMP to Road Atlanta they would be my first pick if that is at all feasible for you to travel to from where you are. I do think they pop down to Sebring every now and again too but for my own participation VIR is the furthest South I've ventured.