Homework Help: Dollars spent by amateur racers in the USA (talking to school kids Friday)

Once a year I take one of the race cars to a local elementary school for their careers on wheels day to talk about jobs in racing.

I have some basic facts but the one I don't have is what is the value of amateur motorsports is to the economy. There are millions of dollars being spent by amateur racers but I don't know how many

Also for those of you who make a living in motorsports, whether it's a team or,supplier or whatever if you want to add how you got into it and a bit of your experience I'll happily take that information as well.

This year I'm bringing the Formula 500. As most people only think of drivers, which we all know very few people get paid to do that, I instead talk about engineering, machinist / fabricators and mechanics. I also touch on marketing as well.My favorite moment is when I mention Formula 1 teams have only two drivers but several hundred employees supporting those two drivers and cars. It really hits home with the kids.

Thanks in advance.

In reply to Tom1200 :

I don’t know the answer, but I suspect PRI could provide it, if no one here knows. 

You could start with Greg Holmberg’s cost data and cross that with entries from the major clubs like SCCA, NASA, PCA, BMWCCA, etc and maybe the lower level semi pro stuff at the ~100 major tracks in the US to get participation numbers and get a crude estimate. Then of course you have things like rally and drift you could add. To keep the survey scope manageable maybe you sample a few representative tracks carefully and roughly handle the others with assumptions about what’s been typical from the data you develop in detail. You’ll have to estimate a lot but I’d be interested in your rollup on the total spend.

http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?79220-Operational-cost-differences

Very familiar with the the post on Apexspeed.

If we add up all the tires amateur racers buy, the machine shops, the prep shops and  suppliers like Racer Wholesale, Flying Miata, Tire Rack, Hoosier, Toyo, Summit, Pegasus, Koni, Bilstien et al it has to be several hundred million. 

Pete thanks I'll check with PRI.

In reply to ace37 :

Not to mention amateur drag racing and circle track guys, which is huge. 

I have worked as fly-in crew.  If you want to message me your e-mail address I'll share the information I have.

When you do get an answer please let us know. I am very interested to find out how racing stacks up to hunting/fishing, golf, etc.

Here is one study on 'outdoor rec' : https://outdoorindustry.org/pdf/OIA_OutdoorRecEconomyReport2012.pdf

pretty impressive:

- 6.1 million american jobs
- $646 billion in outdoor recreation spending each year
- $39.9 billion in federal tax revenue
- $39.7 billion in state/local tax revenue

Maybe SEMA has some data you could use. There will be some overlap between racing and hot rods etc.

I could probably supply some insight into the motorsports industry (currently work for the motorsports engineering department of an automaker) and am also involved in some amateur racing. If you want, send me a message with your email. I can't provide specifics on our operations but would be happy to talk a little about all the different roles involved. 

In reply to enginenerd :

Thanks I'll send a PM. While I can speak in general terms I don't have great deal of knowledge on some aspects.  I can tell them about being an instructor and doing arrive & drive events but the engineering side is one that I don't have great knowledge of.