[DanElam]

NASA has their own licensing system. There are lots of ways to get a license. The professional schools like Skip Barber, Panoz, Bondurant are the fastest and most expensive. SCCA requires you to do two schools but they usually schedule them within a region to be at the beginning and the end and have your race car already done. The instruction is very good, but the timing means that you have to take at least a year to get your license. (You can shorten it by doing schools in different regions.) The problem with SCCA is that they put people on the track and full speed and pass anywhere situations almost immediately. It's pretty tough and certainly more dangerous to the cars than other approaches.

NASA can take a long time because they tend to run more tracks and some may not be convenient to you. The nice thing is that you can drive a street car while you get your race car ready. Plan on taking a year or more. You'll come out with much better car control skills (safer), but maybe not the same 'race-craft' knowledge you get with SCCA.

My suggestion is to do several NASA schools and then look at doing an SCCA school and see if you can get your SCCA license with a waiver.