Your Cost Per Lap or Per Run.

Another thread got me started on this. Someone mentioned there cost per lap being $30.

I actually have data on mine. My numbers are total cost of ownership. This includes all maintenance an the cost of the two vehicle and trailer.

Vintage Races $40 per lap. These out of town so the cost is higher. If they were local the cost would $23 per lap

Time trials $10 per lap. The track is 9 miles from my house.

Autocross $16 per run. Ironically my vintage race weekends work out to about $16 a minute.......which is essentially what autocross is.

Knowing that number could really put a damper on the fun...  

So in 2021 I bought the Rio, added suspension, wheels, brakes and intake/muffler. Total spent was about $7500. 6 sessions, ~5 laps per session 30 laps per weekend for ~19 weekends. 570 laps. Including gas and oil, around $15 per lap. That doesn't take into account the 40k road miles its also seen, working out to about 19 cents per road mile. 

Basically, very little because it IS the tow vehicle. 

Somewhere around $10 a lap, though I usually do it per hour of run time. Laps vary per track.

Autocross, ~$20/run and yes I would prefer to not have that knowledge.

2014-2019 we spent $3-5 per minute of track time. We've not had our usual cars on track since so I can't comment.

An autocross has a grand total cost of maybe $120CAD at most, so with 6 runs that's $20 per run. Excluding that one run that looks like it's going to cost me clean over $7k and pretty much took me out of racing for a year...

For a track day it depends which one I go to and how many laps I do. One good example, a track night on the Shannonville Nelson short course probably has a total cost of around $170CAD, if I run an hour of laps there (could get some more in if work didn't get in the way) with an average time of 65sec per lap, that's 55 laps so only $3.09 per lap. That's the bargain-bin option though. It would actually have cost more per-lap this year when they switched to the long course for track nights too. I could calculate what that would be with some sim laps.

One on Mosport DDT might be around $350CAD largely due to an entry cost that's almost 4x higher, but that gets around 2hrs of track time. Assuming an average lap time of 1:48, that's 66 laps so $5.30 a lap.

And it can get more expensive from there, a track day on Mosport GP has easily 2x the entry cost of one on DDT and runs on a similar schedule with lap times somewhere in the same ballpark.

Since I'm including transit and food costs etc the GRM Challenge would have to be the most expensive event I've done, with a mix of autocross runs (maybe 6-10), drag passes (maybe 20) and laps (possibly close to 100), with a grand total cost of about $3k, that would average out to around $23 per run/pass/lap, so maybe 2x a Mosport GP track day. I haven't been including brakes and tires because most of the events I do use so little that it's hard to measure, but a FIRM track day alone will eat through an easy 1/4 set of pads so maybe I should tack some on there.

I came up with about $16 per lap for an HPDE day. That considers only consumables--some of us track our daily drivers, some of us have purpose-built racers, and so factoring in the cost for each is kind of tricky. So, fuel for the race car, fuel for the truck, tires, brakes, entry fee... stuff like that. I think I'm OK with that. I guessed that I would have gotten in 55 laps if I had done all five sessions on Saturday.

Tom1200 said:

Vintage Races $40 per lap.

Is that based on race laps only, or also including the practice and qualifying laps?

Driven5 said:

Tom1200 said:

Vintage Races $40 per lap.

Is that based on race laps only, or also including the practice and qualifying laps?

That is every lap I turn. Practice, qualifying and the race. 

Rodan said:

Knowing that number could really put a damper on the fun...  

Not at all.

As a purchasing guy I want to know the cost. 

My D-sports Racer worked out to $65 a lap in today's money. 

While it was 30 seconds a lap faster than the Datsun, it was not $25 a lap more fun.

I track it per hour rather than per lap, and use a figure of $650 (counting fuel).  So that's about $22/lap if you assume a lap time of 2 minutes.

That said, that number doesn't include costs that don't match up directly with the amount of track time -- entry fees, hotel, towing costs vary too much by event so I track them separately.  I'm also not including depreciation of purchase cost on the race car or tow rig, driver safety gear (suit, helmet, etc don't last forever), timing out of seats and harnesses, etc.

Too much.  So I quit.

I wanna do autocross or drag racing with my challenge car, but nothing around.  I might do a track day at Roebling road over thanksgiving.

No.

If things go well with our Lemons car it is $8-10/lap depending on the track, about $275/hr.  This includes everything from food to towing fuel, car consumables, a repair fund contribution, etc, and in a car that is fairly easy on consumables but also a top 10 car.   Not including the capital of the truck and trailer, safety gear, etc.  

Ugh, I've done this math. It's bad. In my Z06 at an open track day at Arizona Motorsports Park, once I factor in tires, it's about $100/lap - a bit more than $1 per second.

SC2s are freaking EXPENSIVE. 

When I was racing an ITB VW GTI twenty years ago, I figured my tire cost alone was $1.25/lap. That would be doubled, or more with today's tire prices.

I think our Lemons Volvo turbo wagon car costs us somewhere between $15-20 per lap depending on how we do and how far away the track is.  That includes fuel, towing, maintenance, tires, brakes, entry fees, etc.  Does not include garage at track. 

TOOO much

Scared to really know

Hope my wife doesn't try to sell the Mustang at what she thinks I have invested in it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sonic said:

If things go well with our Lemons car it is $8-10/lap depending on the track, about $275/hr.  This includes everything from food to towing fuel, car consumables, a repair fund contribution, etc, and in a car that is fairly easy on consumables but also a top 10 car.   Not including the capital of the truck and trailer, safety gear, etc.  

And it's worth EVERY.  LAST.  PENNY.

Either that or I'll go with the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, LOL.

Nevermind cost per lap, I am almost curious to know how much I've spent in total on racing.  Almost curious...

I'm not clear on the accounting methods being used here.  ;)

If you were running it like a business, the car, trailer, tow vehicle, tools, etc. would be capital assets on the balance sheet.  They would depreciate on a schedule of X years (10?) and that annual depreciation is what you would realize as expense.  You would then add that to your typical running costs (gas, tires, brake pads, hotels, etc.) to get your actual cost.

Painting with a very broad brush, my typical annual cost for depreciation (10 year schedule), maintenance and equipment is $15k.  My average cost per event is $1355 (entry fees, race and tow gas, tires, hotel, etc.)

If I do nine events per year (races or track day weekends), it works out to $3021 per weekend.  If I do six sessions a weekend, it works out to $503/session.  If each session is 15 laps, it's about $34/lap.

This was a depressing exercise that I wish I never did.

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

Your numbers jibe with mine.

I guess I'm weird; I want to know every penny. This way I can balance what I am spending on racing versus some other hobby I might enjoy.

I am spending between $4500-$6000 in any given year for the last 6 years. Prior to that I only did local events so I was spending about $3000 per year.

When I wsa racing Spec Miata around 2006 I calculated $285 per hour.  That did not include truck and trailer, no travel expenses at a local track, and nothing breaks.  That was for track time, not including race fees.  And Spec Miatas are "cheap" racing....

This thread dovetails with one I posted a couple of months ago about participation costs.  I might be able to afford a car but I doubt very much I could afford all the extraneous expenses of participating in a sanctioned event.

Doesn't bode well for the sport, IMHO.

I kept a detailed spreadsheet for all the years I raced FC in SCCA road racing.   I didn't count the cost of the motorhome, but did count travel fuel etc. On the Apexspeed forum I was the self-declared "King o' Cheap".   I was a one man band, did my own setups, maintenance, etc.  Didn't calculate my labor but it was about 40 hours of shop work for each weekend of racing averaged out over the years.  Sometimes it would be minor stuff, other times frame-up refreshes.  I was somewhat lucky in that I had a bit of sponsorship from Hoosier...  I was driving older chassis that were worth probably $10K - $15K;  not $70K cars at the pointy end of the field.

When I retired in 2015 it was costing about $47 per lap at Road Atlanta if it was a single race weekend, and $34 per lap if it was a double race weekend.  ($22 to $31 per minute on track.)

Race fuel in 2014 was about $5 per gallon, last month i was paying $14.75 per gallon for the Outlaw Bug.

In 2014 I knew guys using prep shops that were into it at about $8K per weekend after they paid for the car.