If you prefer your racing include elementary vehicle dynamics such as steering, braking, acceleration and gear changing, there are few entry-level options. Kart racing offers a method for drivers to get started or further develop driving skills. However, karting at a competitive level is getting quite expensive. The SCCA offers gymkhanas and Solo I/II programs set up in parking lots but that’s not the kind of experience most curious road racers are seeking.

Lapping sessions sponsored by the manufacturers of various luxury and high performance automobiles at regional road courses are available to some. But they tend to be by invitation only. A car club for your particular brand may offer a rung up on the ladder. But car clubs, for a variety of reasons, may not be your cup of Mobil 1.

Realistically, there has been no place the curious road racer could test their skill sets using an unmodified street car and a helmet until just recently. Now budding road racers have a new option: SATCAR®. SATCAR® represents the new “first step” to success on the road racing ladder.

SATCAR® is the acronym for "Sports and Touring Car Racing" and is the creation of Chicagoan Kern Fischer: auto industry engineer, distributor of enthusiast's accessories and high performance driving school instructor. SATCAR® is being planned as a road racing program that will be available at tracks across the country.

Event partners, located near each of the tracks, will be appointed to organize and present events at their local tracks. At the heart of the SATCAR® concept lays a patented format and timing system that effectively time handicaps each car competing in a given race. Time handicapping just two cars running one-quarter of a mile each is a piece of cake. Now try doing it for 20 cars at a time each running 52.5 miles and you quickly discover the complexities of moving the bracket racing concept from drag racing to road racing!

A Lotus Elise waiting patiently to pass a Subaru. SATCAR® rules prohibit passing in turns.

The SATCAR® Performance Parity Time© (PPT), calculated during practice and qualifying sessions, does just that. The PPT© produces a grid that starts each car at a predetermined interval to the rest of the field. The slowest car starts first, the fastest last. In a 100% perfect SATCAR® race every car would cross the finish line at the same moment. It is this timing system, plus a simple rules package focused 100% on safety, that combine to create a completely new form of grass roots motorsports competition.

SATCAR® offers road racers what drag racers have enjoyed for many years. The SATCAR® PPT© system equalizes road course competition between cars of differing performance capabilities and drivers of varying skills. It gives the driver of a VW Golf an even chance of winning a road race against a driver in a race prepared Porsche GT3.

One of the key elements of the SATCAR® concept is a tenacious commitment to safety. There are rules and they MUST be observed at all times for fear of disqualification or even expulsion from SATCAR®. Sorry, there will be no charges down the inside to get the guy under heavy braking to the apex. That’s right out! There is NEVER any passing in turns and overtaking is limited to designated passing zones located only on straightaways.

Above: Braking on the main straight, setting up for turn #1. Note the separation between the green Porsche and the cars ahead. This is a direct result of the SATCAR® PPT©.

Less a rule, but more a SATCAR® state of mind; unsportsperson like  conduct is not tolerated. Act like a jerk and you’re gone, and you will not be back. Otherwise (subject to the Rules Of Competition) have a good race and have fun!

All forms of motor sport have risks and SATCAR® is no exception. The SATCAR® management team have worked diligently to either remove risk or mitigate it to the greatest extent possible.

The remaining risks are up to the driver to intelligently manage. Relative to the out of pocket expenses a driver will incur for consumables and maintenance (and possibly repairs) for their vehicle, you will want to determine in advance just how hard you really want to drive the same vehicle you must also depend on as your daily driver in SATCAR® competition.

It’s a good idea to set such self-imposed limitations before you dive into that blind, downhill, off camber, 90 degree right! One of the benefits of the PPT© is it serves to negate the need to drive at ten-tenths at all times. Smooth, consistent laps are the key to winning in SATCAR®, not raw speed.

Lest you think you can simply waltz in off the street, plop down your AMEX Centurion™ and enjoy a full weekend racing your Ferrari Unobtainium, you will need to first demonstrate to SATCAR® you possess appropriate skills. Skills you have either obtained through prior training, which you can of course document, or skills you will acquire by attending a SATCAR® or other approved driving school. There is no such thing as a free lunch here and besides, won’t you feel that much more comfortable knowing the woman who just blew off your AMG E55 with her Audi RS6 has demonstrated all the skills and qualifications necessary to be out there cleaning your clock? With your SATCAR® Competition License in one hand, and your SNELL approved helmet in the other, you can now go racing!

For a typical race the cars are lined up on pit lane based on the driver’s PPT© and are released to the track one-by-one at a predetermined time. Again, in a perfect SATCAR® race, all the cars would cross the finish line after the specified number of laps of racing at the exact same time. Of course, the racing world is not a perfect world. A bad line, an attempt to pass in the wrong spot, wheels put off, all conspire to add penalty time to a drivers lap times as brain fade will be rewarded with stop-and-go penalties.

In addition, cars are fallible too. Parts can overheat, clutches start slipping or brakes overheat, causing pit stops for mechanical inspections, or putting out brake fires, as the case may be. A really big off might mean a DNF. Run too fast and you may break out, just like in drag racing, and find yourself with a time penalty that takes you completely out of contention. No sandbagging allowed. In SATCAR® a VW Scirocco has an equal chance of beating a Kenny Brown Mustang or a Porsche Carrera to the checked flag, and to the top spot on the podium. Later, when the racing day is done, you can drive your “race car” home, and to work on Monday, assuming you got that pesky brake fire under control in time.

In October, 2006 the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois invited SATCAR® to run an event as part of their season ending “Octoberfast” weekend. Unlike the event I drove in earlier that summer (see sidebar), where a few timing & scoring glitches were discovered (and since corrected) in the PPT© software, the “Octoberfast” event went off like clockwork. Twenty-five club members took the start for the SATCAR® race which saw a highly diverse field of cars entered. From a race prepared Austin-Healy “Bugeye” Sprite to IMSA prepared Porsche GT3s and a broad range of street stock sports cars and performance sedans, the PPT© concept would be tested to the maximum.

Through practice, qualification and finally the fifteen-lap race on Autobahn’s 3.5 mile combined North and South loops the racing was spirited and always interesting for those watching from atop Autobahn’s beautiful new south timing tower. The drivers thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the sense of real competition that traditional club lapping sessions (most motorsports clubs like Autobahn offer only lapping sessions, there is no organized “racing” permitted). At Autobahn’s “Octoberfast” dinner, Gary Traverso, driving an ex-Bondurant school Mustang was announced as the race winner. SATCAR® is looking forward to working with Autobahn to organize a multi-event drivers championship for the 2007 season.

Whether a purpose built racecar or a box stock street car, you can race it in SATCAR® and discover first hand if you possess the skills to take the next step up the ladder, or keep racing at a fraction of the cost in the SATCAR® series itself. More information, an application for a Competition License and the full Rules Of Competition can be found at http://www.satcarracing.com/Home.htm Additional information on the spectacular Autobahn Country Club may be found at www.drivefastbesafe.com