Cost of owning a ___________ race team.

HPDE day for me is around $300-400/day plus tires and pads for maybe 90 minutes of track time in my own DD.
In contrast a two day Lemons race or 24hr gets me 4-5 hours of racing, not just track time for $600-$700/weekend for my share. Off season preventative and repairs $1000-$1500 divided 6 ways.

Low dollar racing is the best bang for the buck track time and lots of fun with friends time. You just don't do it in a real classy car, but racing in junk is way more fun than lapping in a car that I care about.

My two cents, Drops mic and walks off stage.

akylekoz wrote: HPDE day for me is around $300-400/day plus tires and pads for maybe 90 minutes of track time in my own DD. In contrast a two day Lemons race or 24hr gets me 4-5 hours of racing, not just track time for $600-$700/weekend for my share. Off season preventative and repairs $1000-$1500 divided 6 ways. Low dollar racing is the best bang for the buck track time and lots of fun with friends time. You just don't do it in a real classy car, but racing in junk is way more fun than lapping in a car that I care about. My two cents, Drops mic and walks off stage.

This is true assuming your LeMons car doesn't break...see my JB Weld and zip tie budget. Seriously thought, if you race LeMons enough you'll have a weekend where you spend $800 or whatever and never see the track.

Bull ring racing is a lot of bang for your buck. The cheapest way to go is hornet racing or whatever the local variety is. My son was given the car, and we spent about $200.00 on DOM tubing for the cage, bought a head gasket and a few small parts to get it going, and that's it. (I had a new seat and window net). It costs him(me) for a membership, pit pass, transponder rental because he doesn't have his own and a burger per race day. Most of his race gear is handed down or used other than a new helmet, and the car is still running the same tires with one race left as we started with. (worn out all seasons). Its a bone stock Honda Civic so he parks it in the shop after race day and checks the oil and coolant before the next race. So his season including start up costs were about $1200.00 for costs including fuel and food and maybe $500.00 to build the car. he kept it out of the wall and other cars all season so it is still good to go for next year. Actually he volunteered at the track with weed eating and emptying garbage cans so he did not have to buy a membership.

Hornet racing is supposed to be an entry level class so lots of kids and beginners. You can race at 14. Great father and son/daughter hobby. But we have no restrictions on entry so a lot of drivers come down from the other classes and it is really competitive. They split them into A and B classes and the A cars can get really pricey. It still costs money if you want to win.

Hornet racing? Haven't heard of it. Is that like a 4 cyl class?

Yes, it is very difficult to hold back the urge to be faster at the cost of reliability. We honestly have been somewhat lucky, just gas and tires for 40 hrs of racing. With old junk cars getting abused hour after hour with multiple drivers of varying degrees of competency any thing can and usually will happen. On the other hand we started with a tractor of an engine and a sturdy drivetrain. The bug has bit and the modifications have begun next season will be interesting.

bearmtnmartin wrote: Bull ring racing is a lot of bang for your buck. The cheapest way to go is hornet racing or whatever the local variety is. My son was given the car, and we spent about $200.00 on DOM tubing for the cage, bought a head gasket and a few small parts to get it going, and that's it. (I had a new seat and window net). It costs him(me) for a membership, pit pass, transponder rental because he doesn't have his own and a burger per race day. Most of his race gear is handed down or used other than a new helmet, and the car is still running the same tires with one race left as we started with. (worn out all seasons). Its a bone stock Honda Civic so he parks it in the shop after race day and checks the oil and coolant before the next race. So his season including start up costs were about $1200.00 for costs including fuel and food and maybe $500.00 to build the car. he kept it out of the wall and other cars all season so it is still good to go for next year. Actually he volunteered at the track with weed eating and emptying garbage cans so he did not have to buy a membership. Hornet racing is supposed to be an entry level class so lots of kids and beginners. You can race at 14. Great father and son/daughter hobby. But we have no restrictions on entry so a lot of drivers come down from the other classes and it is really competitive. They split them into A and B classes and the A cars can get really pricey. It still costs money if you want to win.

That is truly grassroots priced racing right there

bearmtnmartin wrote: Bull ring racing is a lot of bang for your buck. The cheapest way to go is hornet racing or whatever the local variety is. My son was given the car, and we spent about $200.00 on DOM tubing for the cage, bought a head gasket and a few small parts to get it going, and that's it. (I had a new seat and window net). It costs him(me) for a membership, pit pass, transponder rental because he doesn't have his own and a burger per race day. Most of his race gear is handed down or used other than a new helmet, and the car is still running the same tires with one race left as we started with. (worn out all seasons). Its a bone stock Honda Civic so he parks it in the shop after race day and checks the oil and coolant before the next race. So his season including start up costs were about $1200.00 for costs including fuel and food and maybe $500.00 to build the car. he kept it out of the wall and other cars all season so it is still good to go for next year. Actually he volunteered at the track with weed eating and emptying garbage cans so he did not have to buy a membership. Hornet racing is supposed to be an entry level class so lots of kids and beginners. You can race at 14. Great father and son/daughter hobby. But we have no restrictions on entry so a lot of drivers come down from the other classes and it is really competitive. They split them into A and B classes and the A cars can get really pricey. It still costs money if you want to win.

I have a dirt track 2 miles away and the nearest road course 125 miles away, I just wish they added some right and left turns. I am thinking that the cost would be similar to kart racing. What do you spend on gas in the car?

To be a competitive front running Lemons or Chump team, expect to pay 3K to 4K per race weekend.

I have speadsheets...

Of course, that is split between 2 to 6 drivers for the weekend.

I know a few years back, Don Prudhomme said that running a 2-car Funny Car team cost $10 million, barring any major financial setbacks (like wrecking a car or blowing up an inordinate amount of engines)

Funny thing about circletrack and all that left turn business is that you have absolutely no concept when you are racing. You are three wide and the track is an endless banked turn. You move up and down the track looking for an opening. I have never once thought "how boring, tired of turning the same way all the time"

Also the whole redneck thing is overblown. Just speaking for my track, but I run a business and I race with two pilots, a school teacher and many others. Oh, and one fast guy is 79 and still winning.

I can say from a outsider looking into the circle track after being a track photographer for the past two years, it really does get to be fun by the looks of it though. you spend most of the week working on the car, race on sat, recover on sunday and repeat. The 4 bangers are the easy class to get into at most tracks, then you move up to street stock which can get more money, then mods, and the winged and non winged warriors classes. it would seem about $400 for most nights at the local leverl is pretty ave, the gate pass, gas for truck and car, entry for extra people, food and drinks, any extra stuff.

It's not 4 wheels but the cheapest racing by far is motorcycle off road events; my local GP (1 hour timed race short loops of 4-6 miles), the entry is $40 and a $1000 bike will work for an amateur. I had a $900 01 YZ125, that had a fresh motor and Ohllins rear shock. A set of $150 tires would last all year including trail riding. I did several events for around $75 each.

Tom

I wrote a paper on this about 9 years ago and got a lot of information and feedback from multiple race teams in the ALMS and Grand-Am from different classes. ALMS GT classes seemed to run on about $1-3 million a year not including the price of the car as they wouldn't disclose that information. Prototypes were around $2.5-4million a year. Grand-Am was significantly cheaper around $0.5-2 million. Add inflation from the last decade and it's probably close to that amount.

That information was operating costs to have crew and car arrive at the tracks for the season, food, gas, tires, etc. Didn't account for testing time, shop time, etc. So I'm sure those prices were skewed a bit.