The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) has been around long enough so that its very name seems archaic. Sports cars? Come on, what's a sports car in the 21st century?
As quaint as the name may be, the SCCA remains the largest (more than 66,000 members) and most active organizer of road course and rallying events (more than 2,000) in the United States; it's the backbone of American amateur and professional road racing. It's also one more racing organization that's determined to attract you, the readers of Sport Compact Car, to its form of racing as both a participant and fan.
At 43, SCCA President Steve Johnson is 15 years younger than the organization he heads. Recruited from the NHRA where he was Vice President of Sales, he's been atop the SCCA hierarchy since June 2000 and recently signed a five-year extension of his employment contract ensuring that he'll stay inside the SCCA's brand-new Topeka, Kansas headquarters through at least June 2008. Under his leadership, the notoriously fractious SCCA has been relatively stable, seen significant growth in everything from "Solo" gymkhana competition and rallying to Pro Racing series like the Trans Am, and expanded its presence on the Internet (www.scca.org).
Where is Johnson taking the SCCA as it nears its 60th birthday in 2004?
Sport Compact Car: What is the fastest growing part of SCCA?
Steve Johnson: There are two areas that are showing extreme growth, and that would be our Solo programs and the other is rally. We're seeing a young nucleus in both those areas.
They're both growing about equally. Obviously, it's easier to participate on the Solo side since it's affordable and easier to participate. Rallying is coming on extremely strong and it's attracting very young fans and competitors. That's got to be because all the kids grew up playing with virtual rallying games on SEGAs, Nintendos and X-Boxes. It's a much younger demographic then in the club racing part of the SCCA mostly people in their twenties.
SCC: Is this surprising?
SJ: It's not a surprise at all. When you go to a rally, it's very fan friendly. You're right there and almost an extreme style sport. You can almost say the same thing about Solo.
SCC: Is the SCCA hoping these new rally and Solo fans will transition over to more traditional Club (amateur) and Pro Racing?
SJ: We need to do a better job educating our Solo guys about club racing. There are many, many club racers who started in solo and some who have even progressed on to Pro Racing, World Challenge and even NASCAR.
SCC: Is Pro Racing attracting younger fans?
SJ: We always need more fans. And that's one of our biggest pushes with young people. It's a demographic that's been skipped in a major way. This is the best form of racing there is and we're telling kids to come out and see that it's wheel-to-wheel, exciting racing.
The great thing about it, is that if you walk through an SCCA Pro paddock, it's a much younger demographic than other types of road racing. Our goal is to get them out there, because once they're out there, we have a lifelong fan.
SCC: A few years ago you started a program called "Speedfreakz" specifically to attract younger fans. Did that work?
SJ: It achieved the overall goals when it was created a couple of years ago. It's not something we've put a lot of effort into, but we're planning a relaunch and we'll work with manufacturers to get these kids into our club.
SCC: Will you change the Club or Pro classes to attract more sport compact-style cars?
SJ: We're always looking at where we can put cars into classes. It's much easier to do that on the Solo side, but we're always looking at how to incorporate cars into Club racing.
We call it club racing, but it's very high caliber racing. There are classes that have some of those cars in it. But it's a major challenge with the new technology coming in and the number of new cars coming in and you have to have parity so that everyone has a chance.
SCC: How big can the SCCA grow?
SJ: Well, we're almost at 70,000 members. And we've grown 18-percent over the last few years and doubled our sponsorship and our participation levels are up. The Club is healthier now than it has ever been. We have been and will once again be the leader of all motorsports in North America. And we're bringing in karting.
We've entered a partnership with the World Karting Association and I think next year we'll have 16 races with a championship. And these are kids coming in at eight years old. You can start in SCCA and stay there your whole career or graduate to IRL, or CART or even Winston Cup.
SCC: Do you see any big problems on the horizon?
SJ: I don't see us facing big problems. Our challenge is managing growth. Our regions are all volunteers and growth means more time and effort that all our volunteers have to make.
Customer service is one of our biggest challenges were facing now. You only have a couple chances to make people want to be members and keeping them there.