I have been trying to get my friends to see how fun autoX is and the only way i can show them(besides letting them drive my car) is take the for a ride along.

I know Ridealongs are ok during practice sessions, but are they ok during the 3 competition runs? i know another person would add weight but at this point i am only doing SCCA autocross for experience and fun.

thanks in advance for the info.

 

Each region/club is different, but here is the rule for Cal Club.

http://www.solo2.com/MiscDocuments/2007_supp_regs.pdf

3.5.1 PASSENGERS: Passengers are prohibited during official competition runs at
Championship events. The only exception is Approved Novice Instructors.

 

Pretty much the same where we are too. Best thing is to bring your friend along with you for some fun-runs at the end of the day! But if they're there throughout the day with you, it's likely they'll get a little jazzed about trying it. They can check out the cars, talk to other drivers, etc.

 

Having passenger during your 3 runs is an automatic "DNF" unless it's an
instructor run. You can however ride with your friend as his/her instructor
if you have already done with your runs (I believe).

The best way is to join a practice and invite your friends...
(I know practice is a bit difficult to get in sometimes)

SCCA CSCC #8 SK1A

 

Just for referance....

Our local club allows anyone to ride with anyone at any time. But everyone in the car must be a licensed driver and have signed the waiver.

Mitch

 

Hmm... even for competitors that have not yet run on a championship day?
This means that I can hop in as a passenger to feel the course before I
do my runs... wouldn't I then have unfair advantage over others in my class?

 

Yep! We're figure since we're a local club, and there's plenty of regional and national level events in our area, that letting people preview the course didn't matter much to us.

But there is kind of an unspoken rule between the top drivers that we don't preview the course. But the Novice drivers do what ever they want.

Yeah, it's techinally not fair, but at this level, most of the drivers are learning. So by riding with each other they can more quickly learn from each others good/bad techiques.

Heck, the people that setup the course on Friday afternoon normally take multiple runs to make sure it flows well. Yeah, it's a big advantage for them, but at least we're assured a good flowing course on Sat/Sun.

 

Rules vary from region to region however-

SCCA rules indicate that we should be very careful to not have more risk than is necessary nor more advantage than is necessary.

My region-
Does not allow any driving of the course before the autocross.
Only 4 valid runs on the course
Funruns only at the end of the day with a passenger wearing certified and rated helmet and closed shoes and at/over the age of 12 with parents written permission.
Only one person in the front passenger seat with driver per car.

Why all the fuss? Because there is risk giving anyone the chance to be in the cars with any event and SCCA doesn't want to assume more risk for insurance purposes than is needed.

It would be very unfair for any of us to do practice runs before our actual competition, even as instructor not driver.

Your friends can ride along-
For funruns at the end of the day at autocross- they cannot drive unless they were registered and did drive in the official event
For test and tune days that are essentially fun runs.
For funrun day if one is held after year end championships.
For autocross school with one of the instructors during a designated ride along time usually during lunch or during practice runs.

 

Socal's course designer rarely take their car to run the course... Usually
course is setup Sat morning for a full day practice. Then Sat afternoon the
course is then modified slightly to go the reverse direction for Sunday
championship. Any modification on the course to ensure the flow will be done
by end of Sat.

 

Wow. We never allow any driving on the course before the event.

We do our best to plan a course and walk the course during setup and make adjustments.

We did think of practice driving but it would be too much of an advantage for any of the top drivers so we don't allow any driving.

We set up the course in the morning at 7 to 8am and drive on it from 930am to 4pm then clean up.

Even for funruns and test and tune we do not allow practice driving of the course- I guess we are so trained not to allow it that we don't do it. But I don't see why we could not for a fun run day.

Amazingly we are quite good at course design and if we mess up everyone has to cope with the shortcomings of the design for that event so it's fair.

 

Just to make it clear, in SoCal we can practice on the course, but the following day it is run in the reverse direction and some elements are changed up from the practice.

Joe: passengers are ok at the CSCC practices. Work on getting yourself into one of those (hint: getting a points card helps).

 

There are no practice day in Hawaii?
Fun runs dont happen often in socal as we easily get 200-250 drivers
all year long.

 

Depends. Once a year we might get a test and tune day but last season we did not.

On the afternoon after our championship we will do fun runs for a few hours.

After each autocross day for the last 40 minutes of the day we might have fun runs. Probably could get in about 3 to 5 runs.

We never set up the day before because we don't have a site for more than one day but we are looking at doing that for an autocross school weekend.

One full day autocross school on saturday and normal competitive autocross the next day.

Running any course in reverse makes it pretty much a "new" course so I could see why you might do it or allow it.

 

As said in a previous response, at Cal Club CSCC events you can have passengers for your first three runs but they will count as a DNF unless the passenger is an apporved instructor. You can however, purchase X runs that you can take after your competition runs and any passenger is OK as long as they are over 12 years old (minors must have a completed minor waiver signed by both parents). Passenger are OK at practice events also.

 

Our local club is not an SCCA club and we do allow passengers for anyone and everyone, all day long. We especially encourage it for newcomers.

Maybe there is a non-SCCA club in your area that allows more ride alongs?