Sports Car - January/February 2021

56 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 scca.comINSIDE SCCA

SCCA Club Racing showcases a wide spectrum of different makes and modelsspanning a variety of classes. One suchexample can be found in the ever-popularProduction classes. Always in the top half ofparticipation charts, Production racing (oftenshortened to “Prod” by its racers) does afabulous job of mixing old and new platforms.

Little British cars, vehicles of all shapes fromDeutschland, and roadsters from Japanwere all on Production podiums this year.

We know a comical perception of the
category is “oil dry by day and beverage
consumption at night,” but don’t let that
fool you, Prod racing is evolving. With the
limited prep option, keeping the “magic
smoke” inside the motor is comparable to
many other classes. More importantly, the
racing on track is competitive and pure
with practically no aero in the formula, and
real race tires in several constructions and
compounds introduce tire strategy into the
racing equation. Big or small, old or new,
high-tech data uses CAN bus protocols
to link everything together. New cars are
classed with a nice frequency upon member
request by the Club Racing Board’s Prod
Advisory Committee, and that Production
racing group also evaluates new technologies
in order to keep the category relevant.

An example of this evolution is a new brakerule working its way through the rules process.

Let’s face it, the previous Prod brake ruleswere a little weird. You could pretty much dowhatever you wanted with pedals, hydraulics,lines, and balance bars, but you had to usebrake calipers that spread open faster thanPac Man’s mouth along with rotors the size ofRitz crackers. The new rule will allow driversto use any aluminum or steel caliper up tofour pistons, and any rotor that fits in theallowed wheels for the vehicle, thus allowinga variety of braking system options. And,while many had figured out how to make theold rule work, the effort it took was a littleon the silly side. We look forward to seeingthe creativity that comes from the new rule.

Many will enjoy reliable, longer lasting binders.Love your stock brakes? No problem! Twopercent less weight can keep you at the front.

Let’s shift gears to the horsepower sideof BOP (balance of performance). BOP forthis wide range of cars can be a challenge.Prod is not a spec class, nor does it want tobe, but cars that are similar in weight andpower tend to race better together. Foryears, the rules team utilized carburetorchokes to limit power, but it seemed likeweight was the only solution being used forfuel injected cars. Last year, a few of thepowerful “big block” injected cars receivedflat plate restrictors to trim a little off the topof the dyno plots. It is another tool used togenerate some of the best racing in SCCA.

What does the future hold for Prod?ABS, small displacement turbos, diesels,EVs? Only time will tell, but we are lookingto the future and working hard to makesure all platforms are capable of being onthe top step with a proper race program.Based on participation and what we’ve seenrecently at the National ChampionshipRunoffs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway,Sonoma Raceway, VIRginia InternationalRaceway, and Road America, it’s working.

A CLEVER MIX
ROAD RACING

MIXING IT UP

SCCA’s Productioncategory is made up ofthree classes: E Production(LEFT), F Production, andH Production (BELOW).While the classes differ,the unifying feature iscompetitive equality.