[james schaechter]

That is a pretty light car. It is possible to do those things, but you will need good stuff, some good advice, time and money. If you put that many runs a year on, you will need to have some spare stuff around to make maintenance easier. I mean like a spare clutch for starters. One thing about any car is that if you can change out parts with fresh stuff, you can keep racing while you inspect and freshen parts. Not too many of us put even half that many runs on in an entire season, but we do tend to push our stuff a bit harder than the average bracket car.

I think the best thing you could do is to find a stickshift racing mentor that can evaluate your current equipment, your goals and your wallet. If all that works out, then see if they will coach you at the track as a crew chief and driving coach.
There is also a site called UMTR that has stickshift racers on there as well.

If you can do this, you can have a lot of fun!

Just to give you a feel for it, there was a jerico clutch etc for sale in the classracer parts ads. You would have to evaluate the deal, but that is an example of the kind of investment needed just to swap over.