Bryan Watts

I love the press releases..."team so&so signs driver so&so to drive for the 2010 so&so season". In actuality, "driver so&so signed a large check to team so&so to drive for the 2010 so&so season".

Bryan Watts

Sounds low to me.

Flying Finn

Interesting discussion but so far it seems only regarding US race drivers, how about European counterparts?

Not sure about the low end drivers but I know that bunch of higher end drivers are paid. I'm talking FIA GT, of course Le Mans etc. not sure about for example British Touring cars?

Oh and how were things few years ago when economy was booming, was it as poor as it is now and majority had to pay to drive?

BrandonH

Racer Magazine had an interesting piece a few years back calculating both the pathway and pricetag associated with becoming an F1 driver. The total, if memory serves, was ~$7MM, beginning with karting at $1-300K/yr, through the ladder system of formula classes, culminating in F1 test rides at $1M per.

Racer also did an article profiling F1 drivers who had blatantly bought their initial GP rides and there were some real stars among them, Niki Lauda the only one I recall for sure.

Having mingled the last 6-7 years with many racing families ardently pursuing pro racing careers I have observed in real time the discouraging dawning realization that there really isn't much of a professional path in racing, period. Other than the top tier of Nascar in the US and F1 in Europe, it's safe to assume that most drivers are racing on a coin-operated basis.

The exceptions are those who through grit and determination, living like ski bums, earn a place as a hired gun paid driver for affluent teams (Boris Said, Randy Pobst) Others build businesses around their hobby (RJ Valentine, Kevin Buckler). An elite very few, (Scott Speed, Patrick Long) who really distinguish themselves at an amateur level (such distinction having been earned at the expense of Dad) get lucky when they are discovered by a discreet process (in their cases, Red Bull Driver Search) and get to move directly to "GO." But that's rare.

J richard

...bout $200k low on a shoestring budget...

Bryan Watts

It's a catch-22 in road racing as well...it takes spending a lot of money to get the results needed to be considered as a driver that someone would "pay" to co-drive with them (or at least allow to co-drive for free). But once you've spent all of that money, everyone knows that you can afford to fund yourself.

NASCAR is totally different realm. If I had any sense, I would have gone roundy-round racing years ago. Even in the lower tiers, some not so great drivers are making a livable salary, or at least not paying a dime to go racing. And there's potential for a very comfortable salary if you can get into the Cup series, even as a back marker. Plus, now that Grand-Am is pulling drivers from the roundy-round circles due to the NASCAR connections, there's plenty of chance for a road course experienced roundy-round driver to hop into sports cars.

Bryan Watts

That's starting to sound more like it. I was guessing that $800K was a good "middle of the road" number.

multi21

This is so true ^^^. I'm sure Lewis can attest to the big $$$ spent by some dads from a very early age in karting (Heck, Lewis may be one of them). When my daughter started in karts at 5, she raced against a kid that was also starting out. Both of them were at the top of their class in kid karts and pretty much split race wins that first season.

The difference is that his dad owned a construction company and has moved on from club racing to regional, then national series and wants to break into the "America's and International" type karting series clearly grooming his son to be a pro one day. We ran into each other at the Cal State Championships and we got to talking. The dad (like most of us) doesn't want to add up what he spends per year, but estimated that he could buy a new Ferrari every year with what he puts into his 11 year olds karting each year. I said,

blake

BTW - I based my assessment on a post that I saw on Rennlist a few months back.

Black Swan Racing, an American Le Mans Series Racing Team has committed to purchase and campaign two (2) 2010 Porsche Cup cars in the new ALMS GT Challenge Class. The ALMS is the best endurance series in America, bar none. It is the best managed, best attended, most relevant sports car series in in the world. Black Swan is searching for one driver that wants to advance their driving to the next level and join our program. Funding requirement is $450,000 for the full season, all 9 races, which includes Sebring 12 Hour, Laguna Seca 6 Hour, and Petit Le Mans 10 hour, as well as 6 sprint races of 2 hours 45 minutes. The program will provide a brand new 2010 Cup car and everything else you need, even your own pro co-driver. All you need to do is bring your gear and your passion for racing. Interested parties with proper budgets or sponsors can call Peter McCarthy for details at 1.978.580.6667

This is more expensive than crack!

-B

Bryan Watts

Sure, that will get you to the races. But I suspect there will be crash damage. And I'm sure the team will want you to show up to test on multiple weekends leading up to and during the season...and it will be a necessity if you have thoughts about being competitive. And then there's the travel, hotels, food, rental car, etc at every race and every testing weekend. And you'll need to make a trip to their shop before the season to get fitted into the car and meet the team more than likely. And while you can bring your own suit, you'll probably want a custom designed team suit for a few thousand dollars and maybe a new custom painted helmet for a few more thousand. That $450K becomes $650-800K pretty quickly. The $450K may not include a big name "Pro" either, so you may be looking at floating another $10K or more a race to cover the travel and payment of someone else if that's your desire.

Not to mention that during you're off weekends, you'll probably want to be racing somewhere else 1-2 times a month to keep your skills progressing...hard to race at that level if that's all the practice you get. The practice during a particular event is limited, and a lot of it will be spent with the Pro driver in the car getting the car setup. You may be bringing the $$, but you're still the "co"-driver.

When it comes to racing, it's ALWAYS more expensive than advertised.

BrandonH

Oh easily. I could name five families who I know are spending over $200K per year on karting, and another 20 families who I'd wager are spending that much. And when I watched qualifying at the WKA season opener two weeks ago at Daytona, I concluded once again that the starting grid formed up in pretty close proportion to the cumulative cost of the seat time that had been bought and paid for over the years.

Re: Bryan's comments on costs, which I agree with, the only price difference between karting at a national level and entry level formula car racing is... crash damage.
A season of Skip Barber is equivalent in cost to a season of TAG karting, right up until your driver backs one of their F2000s into the wall at T17 at Sebring, ask me how I know.

007DT

HAAA.. I know exactly who you are talking about.... I instructed him.. Matching shirt, Seats, & All.... Out of respect I'll leave it there. He is very proud of where is $$ put his son.

CCA

Dad didn't happen to have a yellow GT3, did he?

007DT

93 FireHawk 968

It all goes back to that question; How do you make a million $ in racing? You start with $2 million.