I figure that a DE with entry, travel, fuel, tire wear, brake pad wear, and tech everything costs about $1000 per weekend average.

What do you figure you spend on average traveling and racing for a weekend? Is much of a cost difference between PCA, NASA, and SCCA?

 

Depends on organization, zoomyness of car and driver's desire to be competitive.

For example, you can probably run a mid-pack Spec Miata in SCCA for about $1000 a weekend. If you want to run up front, add a couple hundred (or more) to that. Some big-banger sled with fat stickies that get replaced every weekend (which you need to do if you want to run up front), you're in the "couple of grand a weekend" world.

Several variables come into play - How much of your own work can you do ? Do you need Class A accomodations ? Is a ham and cheese sammich acceptable fare ? How much trailer do you need (trailers being a somewhat phallic display these days) ?

To sum up:

Q: How much does racing cost ? A: How fast do you want to go ?

 

Including or excluding beer?

 

The costs will vary WILDLY based on car, etc. As Helmüt Tester points out, one general rule of thumb is: the faster you go the more it will cost.

I once made a giant spreadsheet (that has floated around Rennlist) that factored in hotel costs, wear on tow vehicle, fuel for towing, depreciation of car, opportunity cost of investments lost to track expense, etc., in addition to standard things like saving for engine/tranny rebuilds and buying new brakes/tires. I have not updated it in a while, but the short answer is that if you truly add up the costs like this it is a frightening number. So, most experienced racers do not add it up. That said, my spreadsheet suggests that running a 964 Cup like mine costs $864 per day. Again, I haven't updated that spreadsheet in several years and it includes a lot of hidden costs that most don't consider, but the ballpark doesn't feel that far off.

 

Charlie is that per day at the track or per day of the year? Because it kinda sounds about right both ways...

 

You'll get numbers all over the spectrum. A PCA weekend for me is about $2,000. This includes 1/2 a set of tires, fuel for 5hr tow, off-site pump gas for track fuel, test day entry, sprint and enduro entry, average hotel for four nights split by two people and $25/day for food.

Short of camping and bringing food from home, this is about as cheap as it gets and these are only the costs for that race weekend, not things like car maintenance, rebuilds, trailer, upgrades, more upgrades, even more upgrades, etc.

 

Is it possible to permanently ban threads like this? I like the little denial bubble that I'm in.

The general rule of thumb is "if you have to ask...."

 

I should add that if you do a series with a spec tire like the RA-1 then tires costs go WAY down. 25% of my budget is tires. This would drop to 10-15% if i could get 4+ weekends out of a set like the spec guys do.

 

No, No, No! Bad Dog, BAD DOG! Never ask questions like that if you want to race.



The best answer I know of: It is what it is!

 

How can you possibly race without beer!?!

I'm still on budget for this year... of course, I haven't turned a wheel yet, and I'm working on my 2009 budget, but I'm not over!

Back to serious... my budget's around $4k/yr, with only 6 local and VERY cheap races, plus one out-of-towner to Mid-O. That's running at the front of my very slow SCCA class, and half of that ($1800, to be exact) is my perhaps slightly optimistic budget for tires - 2 sets, may or may not get me through the season.

 

Don't ask don't tell.

 

I'm right about 1K per weekend.

That doesn't include the costs of the car, engine rebuild amoritization, time spent working on car myself that could be spent making money, etc. etc.

If you include that the cost goes up dramatically.

I've found that the cost people tell you is generally off by anywhere from 50-100% usually as well.

A good rule of thumb to figure how much a racing weekend costs is find out how much a rental is in teh car at the level you want. Add your personal expenses and that is about what you would be spending running a car yourself.

 

Thread set to ignore.

 

I like to think I am at $1000 per weekend (depending on how far I travel of course) but my yearly, year end receipt tally reveals something quite different.

 

<------Sticking Head in Sand!