www.AtlantaSCCA.org

Remembering back to when I started racing again in 2004...after an absence of more than 30 years, I was fortunate enough to have chosen the SM class.  At that time, the only cars running were '90 to '97 Miata's, and most of those were almost stock.  SM was a region only class and it drew 40 to 60 cars at each race.

Soon the prepared engines started showing up, which made the class more expensive, and when the class went National, the numbers started to dwindle.  For the older '90-'97 cars, the last straw was allowing the '99 to '03 cars into the mix.  People who could afford it, parked or sold their old SM's and started competing with the newer Miata's, so more and more of the older cars quit racing because they couldn't compete.

Over the past few years, there has been an attempt to introduce the NASA SSM class, which (if done according to the rules) would cost and SM driver about $2,000 to convert.  Therefore, except at the ARRC when all the boys from the DC Region come down with their cars, the class rarely draws more than 3 cars.  But, now thanks to my suggestion, all of us with '90 to '97 cars can return to the track with some chance of winning our own class.  The new SM2 class only requires that you have a '90 to '97 Spec Miata that conforms to the GCR rules for the SM class.  No expensive changes have to be made, and we still run the same race with all the other SM's.  We simply have a class within a class.

Our first sanctioned race is the Double SARRC at Road Atlanta on July 17th and 18th, 2010.  This will be followed by the Double SARRC at Barber on Labor Day Weekend, and the ARRC in November.  So, get those old SM's out of the garage, dust them off, and let's show the Atlanta Region how much fun we can have with older Miata's in our own class!