Back in the '60s, it was still both fairly easy and not very expensive to get into racing-a time when big business hadn't really noticed what folks were doing with their street cars on the weekend. As racing (in all forms) moved more toward a spectator sport, it left thousands of people behind who wanted to get out and test their skills without having to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a professional racing series.
NASA, the National Auto Sport Association, was formed back in 1991 and allows the Average Joe to take what he drives on the street, whether it be a Dodge Neon or a 911 SC Porsche, out to the track and toss it around in the corners. NASA (www.nasaproracing.com) now organizes a handful of featured races across the country at various tracks, as well as providing their organizational skills with 17 other racing series.
A few years ago, NASA and Factory Five Racing (FFR) formed a partnership to create a unique class, the FFR Challenge Series, based on Factory Five's 427 Roadster spec racer platform. FFR builds this purpose-built spec racer, which is still street legal, and makes it available to folks who want to get out and stretch their right leg on a real honest-to-goodness track.
For the Series, the country is spilt into two racing regions (East and West), and drivers can follow a circuit of tracks and events to gain regional points. A national event, this year in September at Virginia International Raceway, is then held to determine who really knows how to handle their FFR roadster at speed! What separates this series from many other forms of racing is that it can be done for not much money-the FFR Spec Racer kits are fairly inexpensive, and the series is a great way to get introduced to real wheel-to-wheel racing.
The photos in this story are from one of the recent races at the Willow Springs facility in Southern California, one of five tracks in the West region used in the series (five different tracks are used in the East Division, too). Other classes are on the track at the same time, which makes for a great experience, as you'll always find slower and faster drivers out there with you.
For much more info on the FFR Series Challenge, check out www.ffrchallenge.com. It's a great site with tons of information on the racing program, how to get started, and the cars and people who make up the series. You can also spend lots of time on the massive and informative www.ffcobra.com site, devoted to the Factory Five owners and their cars.