Any person wishing to race in the SCCA must obtain a Competition License. All SCCA Competition licenses require full SCCA membership. Holders of trial or temporary memberships must upgrade to full membership before applications for Competition Licenses will be accepted.
Some Professional Racing Schools qualify for full or partial completion of Licensing requirements. Skip Barber Racing School, Bob Bondurant Racing School, Russell Racing School, and Bertil Roos School all offer courses which lead directly to SCCA Regional Competition Licenses. A number of other schools such as Driving Dynamics offer Racing schools which qualify for partial completion of the school requirements described below.
Prior to 1995, Competition License holders had to be 18 years old or older (with slightly different policies in certain states.) The SCCA has made a major change in their licensing policies, and under proper circumstances 16 and 17 year olds may now obtain Novice Permits and Competition licenses. For more information, contact Central Licensing at the National Office.
A passport-type photograph and a completed SCCA Medical form must be provided to the National Office, or to the Competition Chair for the driver's Region of Record. A Novice Permit may then be issued.
With a current Novice Permit, the permit holder can then attend SCCA Racing school. Normally, satisfactory performance at two schools is required before the permit holder can drive in their first race, although in some cases, the requirement for a second school can be waived if the permit holder performs particularly well at their first school. If the permit holder performs poorly, though, there is no guarantee that two schools will be sufficient.
Once the school requirement has been completed, the permit holder must complete two races satsifactorily. After completion of two races, a Regional Competition license may then be requested; the completed Novice permit must be sent to Central Licensing with the upgrade fee, and a new credential will be issued listing the Regional Competition License. While waiting for this process to be completed, the driver may use a photo copy of the completed Novice permit as a temporary license; the details for this procedure appear in the General Competition Rules.
A Regional Competition license holder who completes 4 or more races in a single year may upgrade to a National License upon application to the National Office .