Tour Run Group Sizes. PCA National requires breaking the touring cars into run groups. Their recommendation is no more than 20 cars per group, 15 if in an urban setting. Keeping 20 cars together would be impossible in our SVR geography and 15 is a challenge but can be done with the right route and experienced touring leads and drivers. Recently we have been running smaller groups. Keeping around 10 together is pretty doable and is what I strive for. Last month we ran a couple of groups with only 7 or 8 cars. I received positive feedback and requests to do that again. BUT . . . .
Yes we can run smaller groups, but that means more Leads and Sweeps. Most of the time the size of the group will be determined by the number of volunteers to lead. Few or no volunteers, you’re going to find bigger groups. Why Lead? Well, you get to set the pace that YOU want to drive. The only caveat is that if it appears the group, or some of the group, isn’t keeping up, you will need to slow down every so often to let everyone catch back up. Especially before making a turn. The one I hear all the time is “But I’m afraid I’ll get lost”. It’s darn near impossible to get lost if you are using the voice turn by turn Ride-With-GPS app. OR if you have a passenger, they can read you the turn-by-turn directions from the printed sheet. AND as a volunteer lead, I am going to take you on the route for a pre-drive before the actual tour and buy your lunch when we get to the destination. So, you will already have driven and seen the roads. You won’t be assigned to lead a large group until you’ve done it a few times and feel comfortable. So, it’s easy to get your feed wet. In closing, click yes in the “willing to lead” box when you register and you may be contacted to see if it works for you on the upcoming tour.