SoCal Autocross Guide 2019

SoCal Autocross Guide – The Definitive Guide of Where to Autocross in SoCal

Last updated 4/29/2019

Those of us who live in Southern California are blessed for many reasons.  Not the least of which is the year round autocross and plethora of events and locations to do it at.  In fact, if you wanted to you could practically autocross every single weekend.  And whether that’s your goal or you just want to try it for the first time this guide should help.  The idea is to provide a basic overview of the cost, location, event structure and event frequency.  The SoCal Autocross Guide covers Los Angeles County, Orange County and San Diego County.  Additionally, I’ve split the guide into three sections.  First, those clubs or organizations that are open to any car.  Second those that have some sort of restriction on the type of car. Third, specialty events that happen only once a year.

I will keep this a live guide and update if new venues become available or current ones change.  Please leave a comment if I’ve missed one or you have any questions.

Quick interruption: Check out the new AutoXandTrack YouTube series!

If you like autocross or want to learn more then check out our new YouTube series!  We’ve got 8 episodes and are adding new ones every month!  Now when you aren’t at the track you can get your fix watching our event coverage and more.  Here is a sample episode.

Now back to the autocross guide!

Unrestricted Clubs / Events That Are Open To All Cars

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Cal Club SCCA  

• Typical event price – $35 for Championship Sundays (sign up 1 week in advance for this price).  $85 for Practice Saturdays
• Location – Auto Club Speedway in Fontana with some summer events held at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine
• Number of events – Monthly
• Club Website – www.solo2.com
• Where to sign up – solo2.motorsportreg.com/

Cal Club is the Los Angeles and Orange County regional arm of the SCCA. The SCCA’s offical name for autocross is “Solo.”  Championship Sunday events are held a minimum of monthly and nearly always include a practice day on Saturday.  These events are a great way to get seat time as the courses are large (usually around 60 seconds) and you can often get 20 runs attending Saturday & Sunday.  All in this costs $120 but provides 20+ minutes of seat time.  This makes Cal Club some of the cheapest seat time that I’ve found in the Los Angeles area of SoCal.  Another neat feature of Cal Club and any of the SCCA clubs is that class trophies are awarded for each event and there are seasonal championships for each active class.  Though to be eligible for season championships your must attend 50%+ of all scheduled Championship events.  

SCCA events are all volunteer and requires a work assignment (usually working the course).  Registration opens about 4 weeks in advance of the event.  Sign up by Friday to avoid a $10 in person surcharge

For those interested Cal Club offers an annual autocross novice school.

Video of a typical Cal Club autocross course at Auto Club Speedway:

SDR SCCA

• Typical event price – $30 for Championship Sundays and $45 for Practice Saturdays
  
• Location – Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego (uses two lots, 1 huge and 1 large)
• Number of events – Monthly
• Club Website – www.sdrscca.com

SDR is the San Diego Region arm of the SCCA. Championship Sunday autocross events are held a minimum of monthly and nearly always include a practice day on Saturday.  As this is an SCCA event it is all volunteer and requires a work assignment (usually working the course).   Also, SDR awards class trophies for each event and has seasonal championships for each active class.  Though to be eligible for season championships your must attend a minimum of 2/3rds of all scheduled Championship events.  But, all season championship eligible competitors will get a year end trophy recognizing their final placement in the standings.  San Diego Practice days are $45 for 10-12 runs and may be the best deal for seat time in SoCal.  But sign up early (as in day it becomes available) to ensure you get in.

Registration and sign up for Championship Sunday is done in person the day of the event.

For those interested SDR offers an annual autocross novice school.

Video of a Typical San Diego autocross course in the West Lot:

Nitto Cup NMCA West Autocross

• Typical event price – $100 single day or $150 for Saturday & Sunday  
• Location – Auto Club Speedway in Fontana
• Number of events – Six as of 2019 
• Event Website – https://www.nmcawest.com/
• Be sure to check out our YouTube episode covering a day at NMCA below

The NMCA autocross series consists of 6 two day weekend events.  This series is hosted by the Racing Byrds husband and wife team and has quickly grown in popularity over the past few years.  As such, the ~85 entry spots always sell out.  In fact, in 2019 the events sell out within 1-2 days 2-3 hours of tickets going on sale.  The classes in this series are Compact, Sports Car, Modern Muscle, Classic Muscle, Truck and Unlimited.  Typically you get 9+ runs each day.

This series tends to be very popular among american muscle cars new and old and is one of the more social and spectator friendly autocross formats around.  No work assignment is required and course designs are simplistic which makes this an attractive option for casual autocrossers.  Don’t get me wrong though as some of the best muscle car drivers in SoCal show up.  Even some from out of state.

A much coveted “Nitto Cup” is awarded at each of the four events based on the lowest average score of all two day driver entries across the weekend.  Since 2016 there are also Season Championship Nitto Cups for each class and an overall Season Grand Champion Cup.  These seasonal cups are based on your combined cup scores from all four events.

If you skipped the video above but are interested in this event give it a watch:

Speedventures

• Typical event price – $75 for a single day  
• Location – Auto Club Speedway in Fontana
• Number of events – 6-8 times a year
• Website – www.speedventures.com/

Speedventures is normally known for their road course track day events but they also do Autocross when at Auto Club Speedway.  The lot they use is smaller than the SCCA events so course times are usually 25-30 seconds long.  You can typically get up to 20 runs at an event.  However, they also offer an unlimited package that usually costs just under double and allows you unlmited runs with no run group restrictions.  Accordingly, Speedventures provides the maximum autocross seatime and runs in a single day.

PureTrack

• Typical event price – $60 for 4 laps, 120 for 8 laps  
• Location – Angels Stadium in Anaheim
• Number of events – ~Monthly
• Website – https://www.puretrack.net/

PureTrack started in 2018 and offers a few somewhat unique angles on autocross.  First, a convenient location for those located in Orange County.  Second, simplistic course designs that can be less intimidating to the novice driver looking to just casually have fund with their car. And finally, the ability to get in and out of the event quickly.  While not unique to PureTrack, you don’t have to work course either.

Have a good video from driving with PureTrack?  Let us know in the comments and we may feature it here!

Restricted Autocross Clubs / Events

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BMW CCA – San Diego Chapter

• Typical event price – $65  (requires BMW membership of $45/yr)
• Location – Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego
• Number of events – 3-4 times a year (need to confirm)
• Club Website – www.sdbmwcca.com/

The BMW San Diego Chapter allows up to 10 non BMW cars to join on a first come first serve basis.  They use a class system for BMWs and all non BMW cars are lumped into an X class.  Typical event is 8 practice laps in the morning followed by 3 timed laps in the afternoon.

Porsche Club of America – Orange County

• Typical event price – TBD  
• Location – Orange County Great Park in Irvine
• Number of events – approximately every other month
• Club Website – www.pcaocr.com/

I’ve heard great things about running with the PCA guys.  PCA’s autocross events are targeted towards Porsche car owners.  However, they do allow a limited number of non Porsche entries so try to sign up early if you don’t have a Porsche.

Specialty Autocross Events (Primarily targeted to Muscle Cars)

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SCCA CAM Challenge

• Event price – Varies
  
• Location – Varies: Crows Landing and San Diego CA for 2019
• Number of events – Two, April 26-28, 2018 (Crows Landing) and June 14-16 , 2019 (San Diego)
• Event Website – https://www.scca.com/pages/cam-challenge

The CAM challenge first rolled out in 2016.  New for 2019 is an expansion of the number of CAM events around the country from 3 to 6 as well as a CAM Challenge series with a season points championship.  The points championship will be decided at the SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, NE.

The April event at Crows landing is held joint with the Champ Tour.  The June event in San Diego is held joint with the Match Tour.  These are SCCA national level events and so offer the ability to win money, free tires, and other contingency prizes.

Optima Ultimate Street Car Association

• Typical event price – $250 one day or $500 for two days
  
• Location – Auto Club Speedway in Fontana
• Number of events – Once a year in September or October (other out of area locations available)
• Event Website – driveusca.com/

The USCA events offer a two day and one day option.  The one day option allows you to just participate on Saturday in the autocross & speed stop events.  Two day participants also do a time trials style road course competition on the second day.  Only two day participants are eligible for seasonal points.  Announced at SEMA this year is a new affiliated series called OPTIMA World Championship Autocross series.  It remains to be seen if they will have any events in SoCal.  Though, the rumor is a prize purse of 6 figures.

Good Guys

• Event price – $45-70  
• Location – Del Mar Fairgrounds
• Number of events – Once a year in March (other out of area locations available)
• Event Website – www.good-guys.com/goodguys-autocross/120-events/goodguys-autocross

GoodGuys has two main restrictions.  First, Friday and Saturdays are open to American made or American powered cars manufactured before 1973.  However, Sunday’s are open to all American made or American powered cars regardless of year.  The courses are dead simple and similar at each event and are typically very tight and a bit slower than most autocross courses.  Because they repeat sections of the course, the runs can be long (50+ seconds).  New for 2019 Goodguys autocross is the Pro-X class in addition to the existing classes: Pro, Street Machine, Truck and Hot Rod.  

Due to popularity you may only get 3-5 runs per day but need to be there 8-9 hours to get them.  The good news is that when you aren’t running, you can walk around the car show and see thousands of cars.  Finally, your car and your autocross skills will be on display in front of the largest autocross spectator crowds found anywhere.  There are grandstands and you will often see people 3-5 deep around the fence on the weekend.  Just keep in mind that to make GoodGuys autocross spectator friendly K rails are setup close to the course so there can be huge consequences to a serious mistake or mechanical failure.

You can read about all the action about the 2017 Del Mar Goodguys autocross event here.

Muscle Cars at the Strip

• Event price – $75 (one day) to $110 (3 days)  
• Location – Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS)
• Number of events – Once, April 27-28 2019
• Event Website – http://www.matslv.com/events/autocross/

Okay so this event is a little farther away for SoCal drivers.  However, the autocross is run by the Racing Byrds who know how to host a good time.  This is another all in one style of event where a car show is combined with autocross and drag racing.  Though the die hard autocrossers come for one thing only.

LS Fest West

• Event price – $75 (one day) to $130 (3 days)  
• Location – Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS)
• Number of events – Once, May 3-5 2019
• Event Website – https://www.holley.com/events/lsfest_west/

LSFest West returns for 2019!  The original LS Fest event is now legendary among LS enthusiasts and is billed as a “Celebration of everything LS!”. Originally started in 2009, 2017 marked the first time Holley hosted an LS Fest accessible to the West Coast.  This event has a long list of ways to challenge yourself and your car with: autocross, road course, drag racing, drifting, off road racing, dyno challenge and a car show.  Learn more about LSFest West by checking out our coverage of LSFest West 2017 here.

Want to try driving on an actual Racetrack?

Check out the multi-part guide that starts here: How to drive your own car on a racetrack

Defunct or inactive Autocross Orginizations

No 2019 Events Scheduled Speed Limit Racing

• Typical event price – $75 single day or $150 for Saturday & Sunday  
• Location – Camarillo airport
• Number of events – Close to monthly
• Website – www.camarilloautocross.com/

Despite the announcements to the contrary Speed Limit Racing is still hosting autocross events at Camarillo in 2018!

Speed Limit Racing is another grassroots effort that has grown a lot in popularity in recent years.  The surface is fresh and they have great course designs despite the narrow runway constraints.  If you live in North LA and haven’t checked out this event you are missing out.  I believe sold out events are now getting around 15 runs a day of between 30-40 seconds.  Entry fee also includes a free catered lunch (often grilled fresh by the Wilwood guys!).

Older video of a Camarillo autocross course: