MiDiv.org - The Official site of the Midwest Division SCCA

ABOUT MIDIV

The Midwest Division (MiDiv) is one of nine geographic divisions within the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), covering an area from the Mississippi River to the High Plains, from the Black Hills to the Red River. SCCA is divided into Divisions for competition purposes, and further into Regions which are the local clubs within SCCA. There are 14 Regions within the Midwest Division. The MidWest Division Operations Manual can be found here. To learn more about the Regions in your locale, or to find local contacts, go to the Links page and click on the Region names. To learn more about SCCA, or if you are from another part of the country, go to the Links page and click on the "SCCA HOME PAGE" link.

The SCCA is one of the largest participant motorsport organizations in the country, with more than 63,000 members nationwide. Local Regions within the Midwest Division range from as few as 50 members to around 700.

Competition on the Regional level includes both Solo (autocross) and road rally. These are competitions open to just about anyone in virtually any car, including cars which are completely unmodified. Regions also conduct road races at the five MiDiv tracks, and some also have Performance Driving Experience events on the race tracks, open to almost anyone. To participate in a Regional Solo or rally, SCCA membership is not required. Drivers must be licensed in their home state, except for those in the Junior Kart program. Rally navigators also do not have to be licensed. Membership is required to do a PDX. To go road racing, a current membership and competition license must be in force. Many SCCA members also participate in road racing as race workers, the officials who man the corner stations, patrol the pits, work in timing & scoring, or serve as race stewards. Race workers must be SCCA members, but novice workers are eagerly welcomed in all specialties.

SOLO

In a Solo competition, drivers compete over a relatively low-speed course marked by pylons (traffic cones), but you are still trying to go as fast as you can, and hitting a pylon adds 2 seconds to your time. In an average Solo competition, a driver gets 3-5 runs, but usually no practice. A walk through the course (or several) is the only look a driver gets. No special safety gear is required beyond a helmet, and loaner helmets are usually available. Solo has 38 classes for cars in Stock, Street Touring, Street Prepared, Prepared or Modified trim (including 125cc shifter karts), plus a parallel 38 Ladies classes. Many Regions also have added classes for novice drivers or cars running on street tires. In addition, SCCA has recently added Solo competition for underage drivers in 5 hp karts. Often two or more drivers share a single car. Beyond the Regional level, MiDiv conducts the Solo Performance Specialities/R&S Racing Midwest Division Solo Championship series, a 4-event competition which brings together the top drivers from through out the division. Drivers must be members to compete in the Solo Performance Specialities/R&S Racing series. Participation in the series also qualifies all competitors for the SCCA Solo National Championship, conducted every September in Topeka, Kan.

RALLY

A road rally is a course-finding contest. A driver-navigator team attempts to cover a predetermined but unknown course laid out over public roads. Classes are based on equipment, which can range from computer-equipped rally cars to those with no special gear at all beyond a stopwatch. Many regions also add a novice class for rallies. Speeds are always legal highway speeds. Most common is the TSD rally - time, speed, distance - where the rallymaster establishes precise average speeds that must be driven during the course of the rally. The object is to arrive at checkpoints exactly on time, neither early nor late. A local TSD may last an hour or two, while higher-level competitions may go for several hours. "Gimmick" rallies may use other means to take the rallyists through the course, including puzzle solving, hare-and-hounds, poker runs, map following, or whatever a rallymaster might imagine. Often designed to lead the rallyists off course, the contest is to determine the exact mileage of the true course. In some years there also has been a Divisional-level Midwest Division Road Rally Championship, a series of TSD rallies leading to driver and navigator championships in the Equipped, Limited and Stock classes. Membership is not required to participate in the events, but it is required to score points in the championship. Rally teams also may aspire to the U.S. Road Rally Championship, a series of three events in as many days conducted by a host Region to be determined by SCCA.

PERFORMANCE DRIVING EXPERIENCE (PDX)

As part of some road racing weekends a Region may offer a non-competitive Performance Driving Experience, in which just about any legal adult with a driver's license can lap the race track at speed (almost) in their street cars. Membership is required, but that can be satisfied with a temporary membership that can be purchased at the track. The only required safety equipment, beyond stock seatbelts, is a Solo-legal helmet. Operated as a driving school, the purpose of the clinic is to teach car control in a high-performance environment ("high performance" has more to do with the level of driving skill than with the cars). Participants may get as much as two hours of track time during one PDX. Rigid safety rules are imposed including strictly enforced passing zones only on straightaways, and passing protocols (the leading driver must wave you by). The longest straights may have chicanes added to hold down top speed, but corners are the same for the PDX as for the race drivers. An PDX is a way anyone can get a taste of performance driving without actually laying out the budget to go racing. Beyond the PDX, members can step up to the similar but competitive Time Trials events, including Track Trials, and in other parts of the country, Hillclimbs.

ROAD RACING

Regions also put on road races at the six tracks within MiDiv - Gateway, (St. Louis), Hallett (Tulsa), Heartland Park (Topeka), Memphis, Mid-America Motorplex (Glenwood, IA - south of Omaha), and Motorsports Park Hastings (Mid-Nebraska). Races are conducted either by individual Regions or jointly with neighboring Regions, but championship competition is done on a Divisional level. Current point standings for the three MiDiv road racing series - National Racing, the Mid-Am Championship, and the I.T. Tour - can be found elsewhere on this website. National Racing is only for drivers carrying a National Competition License. Drivers compete for the MiDiv Championships in 30 classes ranging from Showroom Stock to Formula Atlantic, and also strive to qualify for The Runoffs, the SCCA National Championships, held each and hosted at Heartland Park Topeka since 2006. Any SCCA competition license, including a Novice Permit, qualifies a driver to compete for the Mid-Am Championship in all of the National classes plus 10 more, including the popular Improved Touring, the almost-anything-goes Super Production, and Legends Cars. These races are sanctioned as Regional races. Most National races in MiDiv include a special extra race for Improved Touring, and these races have become the Midwest Division I.T. Tour, with its own championships in the six Improved Touring classes.

GETTING STARTED

Getting started in SCCA does not require any special car preparation or, in many cases, even membership. Just find your local region, check its schedule of Solo or rally events, and show up driving whatever is in your driveway. "Every car is a sports car . sometime," says one of our MiDiv Regions. Membership, of course, has its benefits. A most obvious one is SportsCar Magazine, sent to every member. Some benefits are less obvious but more valuable such as the qualification to compete for Divisional and National championships and the SCCA insurance program, which provides an increased level of participant accident coverage. But mostly, in SCCA you will forge friendships and discover a camaraderie that for most of us is the No. 1 reason for being a member.

Join us!