I am new to bmwcca and unsure what the rules are for me to take passengers for hot laps during autocross events. I am used to scca where you have to be an scca member to ride along, is this the case with bmwcca? If so can you purchase weekend memberships as with scca????
I am not sure on BMWCCA insurance regs, but ya oughta join the Club anyway. Chances are your local club will discount your entry fee by being a member. * Your local BMWCCA may have an "approved" instructor list that might be able to take you for a ride in their car or your car (or ride shot gun in your car). They may even offer an autocross school for their new members and rookies. I cannot tell what part of the country you are from, but update us with that info and someone can get you in touch with a local region. If you are in New York or Massachusetts I would be happy to assist you. Boston-BMWCCA and NER-SCCA let me instruct and I "think" Metro-NY would let me. With SCCA the temporary membership has a lot to do with insurance, too. *You get Roundel Magazine with that membership, discounts on new car purchases and CPO cars. Satch's column is also good for wrapping fish, starting a fire, bird cage lining, etc.
I am myself a new member but would like to take friends for rides on autocross practice days. I am from san diego, california
I think that most regions would prefer to have their instructors take passengers. All IMO. If I was the event chair, that's what I would prefer. SD is a long way fromthe Northeast.
'CCA chapters tend to be a lot more conservative about this than many autox sanctioning bodies. A lot of them don't much care who the hell you take for a ride. Among other things, most of them do not have anything in the way of an 'instructor', so there is no way they can restrict the riders to instructors' cars or having instructors driving. FWIW, both you and Matt are a long way from the Midwest ...
C.R. You're a lot closer to Road America where the 2009 SCCA Runoffs will be held and closer to the SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, NE. Milwaukee Region of SCCA has a strong Solo program, too: http://www.scca-milwaukee.org
I know. I used to run with SCCA. Also WAI (Wisconsin Autocross, Inc.) and even PCA (by special invitation to the chapter). Just haven't had much time in the past decade. Kids, you know. I think I was in on the last Badger Bimmers' autocross school. We had Russ Wiles and Bob Clark on board, so there were some very capable BMW-driving instructors. Bob's still around, but I haven't seen Russ in about 10 years.
I think Russ has been MIA from SCCA National events for a long time. Never met him but heard he was a very good driver.
There is another thread in this section on this topic. It has some good information. Maybe we will have some clarification from the national office soon. http://bmwcca.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3680
He tried door-to-door racing briefly, but it just never worked out because he didn't have a team that 'jelled'. In autocross, though, Russ was amazing. Don't know if you've ever seen Bob Clark drive, but he was very precise, methodical, and fast. Always partial to the E30 325is. Russ tended to hang the tail out a lot, but was quick and (obviously) good enough that he, too, was very fast. Won a couple championships in various E30s, particularly the M3. You could tell by their driving who he'd taught (I knew several guys from 'out there'). Russ & Bob traded cars when Russ was over in Milwaukee. Their times were virtually identical, regardless of whose car they were driving, but styles were very different. ISTR Russ had some serious health issues a few years ago, but haven't heard much since.
i had the pleasure of meeting russ when he came down to a local houston scca event back in '03. some friends and i were circling and drooling over this white e36 m3 lightweight in the parking lot b4 the event and trying to figure out if it was real or not- as we were debating its authenticity, russ came up behind us and told us it was real and all about the telltale signs and oh btw he was the owner. lol. i had no idea i had just met THE russ wiles but i was in awe watching him on course. he just happened to be stopping by on the way to the austin ofest where he continued to lay the smackdown on every1 in the autox. i drove up and did the autox at ofest that year. it was amazing getting to meet and talk w/ him - not to mention watch him drive. my brush w/ autox royalty. sorry to hear of his health problems, i hope he is doing well. i'll be attending ofest this year and it would be incredible to see him again. i'll be sure to get an autograph this time.
