The “cost of racing” thread...

The tangent I can add to this mix has to do with the options of tow vehicles, I should add that our 1997 Ford F150 with a 4.6 V8 and five speed stick saved my wife's life by taking an epic hit on her way to work.  She just liked driving it.  It was not fast and was never going to pull more that 6500 lbs, but it faithfully did it's weekend work.

Our motor home has been the puller of necessity, but when the reality of 6 MPG hits home you look for options.  I have found that U-Haul works for me.  I how have a very focused need for a truck.  I own the trailer.  When they post our local event calender fot the year, Cal Club Solo2, I have 12 events to work with.  Half are 120 mile weekends, the other are 200 mile.  The local U-Haul trucks are the GMC Sierra that have averaged less than 10,000 miles, have the V8/V4 motors and automatic transmissions.  I am seeing over 15mpg on these weekends and my last event, a 480 mile pull, netted over 18.6 mpg up and back the Highway 15 to Highway 395 to Lone Pine from Redlands.

I am paying $110 dollars a day as an average that includes their "walk a way insurance" coverage.  This is not a perfect solution but not having to maintain a truck, cover the insurance( I pay the $10.00 a day to cover the hit my Credit Card would suffer if I had an event) and eat the deprecation.  I have found trucks that would provide a solution but..

My wife really wants me to find the truck that would now have to tow/pull/deliver her "off the track" Thoroughbred and have 4WD.  And she really wants it to have a stick.   

I don't know if there is something wrong with my trailer maybe I should check the axles. My camping trailer is only about 3300lbs unloaded and towing it with my buddies F-150 with the 5.0 v8 I still only saw like 11mpg towing and like 13ish empty in his truck.

In reply to Jaynen : what year?  My New 5.0  F150 4x4 gets 24.6 mpg empty on the highway? 10 -15 years old and you are in the in that range. 

In reply to Jaynen :

Not a bad idea to check the axle bearings but the mileage sounds about right.

frenchyd said:

In reply to Jaynen : what year?  My New 5.0  F150 4x4 gets 24.6 mpg empty on the highway? 10 -15 years old and you are in the in that range. 

 

2013 has the new 5.0 super crew and its 2wd. I havent had his truck to drive on the highway very far empty. But towing a 3500lb or less hybrid trailer and keeping it below 60 I've only averaged 11mpg on two trips

LanEvo said:

IRemember, I'm driving the racecar to events, which means no tow vehicle or trailer, and lower fuel cost. So, this is pretty much as low-budget as it gets.

How far away are the tracks you are running? 

I thought i was pushing it driving to and from track days (400 miles)

Your going wheel to wheel and driving home. that is awesome.

Kudos to you sir!

Yeah that's crazy! I don't really want to drive the miata to track days more than 3hrs away and its just HPDE

Jaynen said:

frenchyd said:

In reply to Jaynen : what year?  My New 5.0  F150 4x4 gets 24.6 mpg empty on the highway? 10 -15 years old and you are in the in that range. 

 

2013 has the new 5.0 super crew and its 2wd. I havent had his truck to drive on the highway very far empty. But towing a 3500lb or less hybrid trailer and keeping it below 60 I've only averaged 11mpg on two trips

I knew a crew can cost fuel mileage, I didn’t realize it would be that bad.  When I pulled my 4200 pound XJS  from San Diego to Minneapolis on a UHaul trailer   I still averaged  17 MPG and that was with the bed full with MG parts.  No I didn’t go anything less than 65 and a lot of it was 70 or whatever the speed limit ( well except for construction areas) 

LanEvo said:

I’ve seen a few “what’s it cost to race” type of threads around here lately. Maybe we can compile them into one megathread.

I ran my 190E 2.3-16 in a total of 4 race weekends last summer: 2 with the BMW CCA and 2 vintage racing festivals. More details in my build thread: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/87-mercedes-190e-23-16-vintage-racer-build-pic-hea/62702/page1/

So, what was the "damage" for a full season of racing?

• Two bent BBS wheels (beyond repair): About $500 loss
• Used transmission to replace the one I broke: About $1100 installed
• New clutch: About $600 installed
• One set of 225/45/15 Hankook Z214s: About $1000 mounted/balanced
• One set of Raybestos ST43 pads: $380 for all 4 corners
• One brake master cylinder: About $175
• Fresh Schroth harnesses, window, and center net: About $600 with hardware
• Maintenance (wheel bearings, trans/diff fluids, tech inspections, etc.): About $1000
• Entry fees (4 race weekends): About $2400
• Hotels (12 nights): About $2400
• Fuel (maybe 16 tanks = 288 gallons): about $800

I'm not counting the bodywork (bent hood/fender plus paint), because that happened on the drive to Mosport ... so I guess it wasn't directly related to racing.

A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation for my racing expenses for the 2017 season comes out to about $11000, or around $2750 per race weekend! That's surprisingly high considering I'm a relatively novice racer, running a (slow!) car at the back of the pack, in amateur club racing. I'm running cheap tires (Hankooks instead of Hoosiers) and using them at least twice as long as my competitors do. I didn't have any major incidents. Remember, I'm driving the racecar to events, which means no tow vehicle or trailer, and lower fuel cost. So, this is pretty much as low-budget as it gets.

I like the fact that you drive your race car to and from the track. I used to do that with my MGTD and it helped make the car extremely reliable. Round trip it could be over 600 miles plus whatever I put on it on the track.  

Then one weekend the oil cap came off and pumped out enough oil to dry the engine out and spin a rod bearing.  Luckily Bob Bodine was at the race track with his Ferrari GTO. Yes a real one that today sells for,  35 million?   But he unloaded it off the trailer and helped me roll my MG on.  Then street drove it back home.  What a Class guy!!! 

No he drove it but I drove his suburban and the trailer with the MG on it.  Do you know how wonderful a Real racing Ferrari sounds ?  Exhaust echoing through the trees in Northern Minnesota?  

When I die that’s what I want to listen to, not some fat old ladies singing in a choir but a Racing Ferrari V12 at full song!!  

Hotel rooms are way, way more than they were 15 years ago. I don't think we realized how much income they had to make up from not being able to make big profit off of phone calls, movies, vibrating beds and the TVs that you had to sink quarters into anymore.

My consumables cost is very low, as my brake pads and tires generally last several seasons.  The cost of maintenance on the car varies, this past season I had to do a head gasket job, which wasn't cheap.  I've gotten the car completely setup the way I like, so I shouldn't have any other "modification" costs.

Entry fees are usually pretty low for me, my NASA events are free since I'm an instructor and I pay $180 for PCA/BMWCCA events.

Trailer was bought 3 years ago, tracks are anywhere from 75-125 miles away so gas isn't too bad.  The track 75 miles away I just drive to and back in the same day, so no hotel cost.

I run time trials, so hopefully no body damage to have to clean up after...

In reply to GCrites80s :

Only rarely do I motel it. I either sleep in the tow car/truck/camper or in a sleeping bag on the ground.   Elkhart Lake has great showers and I like their rest rooms.  

A hotel is hundreds of dollars I just don’t have.  

It's hard to find outside-entry motels in some parts of the country these days. Racers loved those since you get to sleep right next to your rig rather than having to be on the fifth floor of a controlled access building.

Hotels are at least 100 bucks a night and usually 30+ minutes away from the track, still better than trying to drive out each day or at 5am (I was not awake enough the time I tried that and it did not feel safe). I prefer to do 2 day events and go the night before do I can be rested so that's probably 250 with taxes for a hotel

Add that to around 500 usually for a two day HPDE at VIR and maybe 100 bucks worth of gas driving the miata to and from and a track day  weekend even at the closest track to me ends up running probably 900 bucks?

You know, I actually book hotels for the showers more than the AC or the beds. I've found ways to sleep comfortably in the back of my FJ Cruiser through a combination of a well-fitting air mattress, portable fans, and mosquito netting. But I need to wash the layers of sweat, sunscreen, and track grime off before I can sleep comfortably. Some facilities in my area, like NJ Motorsports Park and Summit Point, have very decent showers and are perfectly fine for cargo-space camping. Some others aren't as nice.

That said, if I have crew members staying for the weekend I'll always spring for a hotel. Their time and effort is worth far more than the $150 / night that I'll spend on a moderately priced hotel room.

midniteson said:

How far away are the tracks you are running? 

I thought i was pushing it driving to and from track days (400 miles)

Last season, I raced at Mosport (1000 miles round trip), Calabogie (950 miles), Pittsburgh (775 miles), and NJMP (just 255 miles).

Jaynen said:

Yeah that's crazy! I don't really want to drive the miata to track days more than 3hrs away and its just HPDE

It's not so bad. The heat doesn't bother me (as long as I'm alone and no one needs to smell me LOL). The noise is tiring. I deal with it by wearing in-ear headphones with Peltor Ultimate earmuffs on top. The earbuds go to my iPhone, which I use for navigation and listening to streaming radio and podcasts.

I started using earbuds when driving the miata and it does help for sure. I think the biggest fatigue issue is no cruise control and no ability to really adjust your body position so different parts of your butt at getting sat on

Jaynen said:

I started using earbuds when driving the miata and it does help for sure. I think the biggest fatigue issue is no cruise control and no ability to really adjust your body position so different parts of your butt at getting sat on

You make a very good point.  A race seat is designed to hold you firmly in place not provide comfort. 

Elkhart  Lake is almost 7 hours away from me and to strap myself into a uncomfortable seat for 7 hours is pure torture.  Brainerd is only 3 hours away which is right on my limit for pain endurance with a break at 1/2 way.  

I wonder if I could do a quick change seat swap?  Stock seat for the drive and race seat for the track.  

When I was riding motorcycles long distances I learned that shifting hip position/foot position was key to being able to ride farther, I think driving is the same way but you don't really think about scooting forward/scooting backwards/changing foot position and how it impacts your sitting posture

In reply to Jaynen : One great advantage a motorcycle has over a sports car is the openness of it.  Stretch any way you want. Stick out your legs, arms,  ( one at a time hopefully)  however and you’re free to move that way.  

A sports car you can move the clutch leg just a little bit and the throttle  leg not at all.  

$100 or $150 a night for a hotel is roughly double to what i usually pay when i road trip. Hotel.com has some pretty nice deals, even a decent Hampton is under $70 almost always

In reply to Antihero : thanks for the reminder, although well attended events do usually fill up available rooms quickly.  

Interesting, if sobering, thread.  We all know racing is expensive, but when you sit down and add up the costs, it's always significantly more than we expect.  I'm struck by the fact that the O.P. runs in a lower-end series (I don't in any way mean than in any kind of demeaning sense - I'm sure the racing is a blast), and he didn't have any major unexpected events (e.g. blown engine or tranny), and it still came to nearly $3000 a weekend.

I know this is a bit off the Grassroots map, but it makes me wonder if my ultimate dream of racing in this:

https://simracewaydrivingschool.com/programs-experiences/simraceway-f3-winter-series-2017/

is really so crazy.  It's definitely very expensive at $5995 for a two-day weekend event, and it's really smart to take out the insurance they offer, which adds more to the cost, but all you do is fly in, drive your heart out, and fly home.  No car to keep running and sink mega-dollars into, no trailering, storage, etc.  Yes, you still have hotel and airline fees, which the O.P. included in his costs, so the Simraceway (strange name...) series is definitely far more costly than what the O.P. experienced, but you get to drive truly off-the-charts incredible formula cars, with zero hassles.  I visited them last year, and the cars really are as incredible as they look on the web site, and it seems to be a well run organization.  So, as an overall bang-for-your-buck value,  it doesn't strike me as so outlandish.  Anybody around here done this, or know anybody who has?

I need to not post in this thread.  I estimate that it costs me 10-15k/yr to rallycross and I worry that the actual number is higher.

Jaynen said:

I started using earbuds when driving the miata and it does help for sure. I think the biggest fatigue issue is no cruise control and no ability to really adjust your body position so different parts of your butt at getting sat on

Technically ear buds are illegal as are head phones. So much so that if you’re caught on the camera’s driving with them you are sent home for a week 

the threat is if you get caught a second time you are unemployed.