Can someone please explain all the SRO classes to me?

This past weekend, I was stuck at home with Covid. Long story short, it sucked, even though I’m triple-vaxed, so take from that what you will.

But through my viral haze, I managed to shuffle around the garage and actually watch some racing, some of which was some form of SRO challenge something something which used to be World Challenge but is now something else with the word Challenge in it. Pretty sure that’s all on the windshield banner.

Please, please, please someone explain to me the SRO divisions. There has to be some simple rubric I’m missing here to figure out which GT3 cars are running against which other GT3 cars, but sometimes it happens on the same weekend in sprint races with no stops and sometimes with stops and there’s a class that’s the “premier” class supposedly but there’s also an “Am” division.

Look, I never thought I’d be here, particularly because it’s my job to know this kind of stuff, and also because I like this kind of racing.

And I also get that multi-class sports car racing can be complicated to explain–SCCA autocross, anyone?–but this is a major national (possibly international, or even intergalactic perhaps, no one really knows) series.

Here’s what I know: There’s GT3 cars, GT4 cars and Touring Cars of various prep levels. Also, some drivers I know. Maybe I could call them and ask them to explain to me what the series divisions are, but they probably don’t know, either.

And I get this probably comes down to the fact that the series has been in some flux lately, and things are still shaking out, but for the love of God someone please make a flow chart, or a Venn diagram, or a simple line graph or something.

Hell, I’ll make the thing for free for you, just as soon as someone can explain it to me. Otherwise, it’ll end up like one of those conspiracy spiderweb boards you’d make on the wall of a roadside motel somehow linking GT3 racing to MK ULTRA to the 1964 Preakness Stakes and the last remaining Orange Julius West of the Mississippi River.

Comments

David S. Wallens Editorial Director
6/2/22 11:45 a.m.

Here's a related question:

Is this kind of racing aimed at the fan or the entrant?

What do I mean? How many classes raced during the Indy 500 or any F1 or NASCAR Cup race? Exactly. And it's super-easy to follow.

But when you have several different classes of touring cars plus BMWs and Porsches that look fairly similar in multiple classes, yeah, it's tough to explain to the masses. It might welcome more teams and/or make it easier to people to get trophies, however.

Discuss.

DirtyBird222 PowerDork
6/2/22 11:53 a.m.

My GF and I sat down to relax one Sunday afternoon. I turned SRO Sears Point on and she asked me what the different colors in the overall standings meant during one of the TC/x races. I had no idea, decided to look into, and how convoluted can a series make things? It's worse than IMSA continually adding prototype categories to the point SRFs are out there just to bolster numbers.

What happened to simple GT/TC or GS/ST classes? Or GT1/2/3/4

Bring back the old Conti/Koni series that ran with Grand-Am. Showroom cars with some mods and 70+ car fields going at it.

759NRNG UberDork
6/2/22 11:59 a.m.

Whatever the race at NOLA that was broadcast this past weekend was pretty brutal. The competition was actually very close, but showing the same three? corners doesn't make for an enjoyable viewing experience. Yes I know the track is in a sugar cane field, but perhaps one more camera from the opposite end.....just sayin'.

JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
6/2/22 12:02 p.m.

759NRNG said:
Whatever the race at NOLA that was broadcast this past weekend was pretty brutal. The competition was actually very close, but showing the same three? corners doesn't make for an enjoyable viewing experience. Yes I know the track is in a sugar cane field, but perhaps one more camera from the opposite end.....just sayin'.

NOLA was a last, last, last minute change after they pulled out of Ozark for safety concerns. So I'm not too surprised they didn't have time to get all the infrastructure in place.

j_tso HalfDork
6/2/22 12:19 p.m.

It does get tricky to explain the differences when the cars look the same.

David S. Wallens said:
Is this kind of racing aimed at the fan or the entrant?

I'd say it's for the entrant. Multiple classes is a sign they want more people to come out and play.

DirtyBird222 said:
Bring back the old Conti/Koni series that ran with Grand-Am. Showroom cars with some mods and 70+ car fields going at it.

It's still there, now called the Michelin Pilot Challenge. Whole races are on IMSA's youtube channel the week after.

759NRNG UberDork
6/2/22 12:19 p.m.

"all the infrastructure in place." uh.....er camera locations? Do enjoy me some MB putting a beat down on 'everything' else....wink.

David S. Wallens Editorial Director
6/2/22 12:42 p.m.

For a hot minute there (circa late 2000 through early 2010s), Grand-Am, the series that became today's IMSA, featured just two classes: Prototype and GT.

And. It. Was. Glorious. (At least for the fans/media.)

If it looked like a doorstop, it was in one class. And if it looked like a real car, it was in the other.

Colin Wood Associate Editor
6/2/22 4:05 p.m.

David S. Wallens said:
If it looked like a doorstop, it was in one class. And if it looked like a real car, it was in the other.

Thanks, now I can't un-see that mental image:

jb229 New Reader
6/2/22 4:16 p.m.

So, SRO is for the entrant, it's broadcast because the person paying to run the car in the series gets value out of it but their broadcasts are 1. online and free in part because 2. they often just use the existing track cameras, or install track cameras if there aren't any I think? It's treated by the entrants as a step above the Champcar or WRL stuff because it does have SRO classes, although SRO classes are determined nationally so watching an SRO race in Europe will be very different from the US or Australia.

In the US SRO the TC classes are based on the TCR global rules, sort of? TCX/TC/TCA in decending order of power and price cap, with TCA(merica) being built and run by family teams that might have otherwise done MX-5 cup or similar and TCX being cars that might be outdated TCRs or just modified TC/TCA cars up to the TCX level. TCs are off the shelf TCRs. (I think, I may have that reversed and their site is not helpful)

The GT classes are similar, except you can't just build your own. Acura runs a factory training team with NSX GT3s, and it's also possible to run older GT3/GT4 cars that are no longer allowed or competitive in other GT3 series.

As far as I know most people involved consider it a ladder series for both drivers and teams before attempting IMSA. Entrants vary wildly between races and over the course of a season, I think there was a Las Vegas race that had 8 cars total at one point. This is all from memory though, because their websites are extremely bad. I was at the VIR race where the Bentley caught fire in the pit lane a few years ago, but I had actually left at that point because it was a sparse crowd and the racing wasn't very interesting. This was right after it had switched from being PWC.

Johnny_at_NineLives GRM+ Memberand New Reader
6/2/22 4:16 p.m.

wait till you look at moto america racing. (motorcycle)
somehow every class is called "super ..." i went to watch a race because I like racing and it's my job but I was completely lost until the baggers came out.