Cost of Majors

[Daryl DeArman]

"If the per-race weekend total expense was cut in half most people would race twice as often. More entries brings more entries. "


Never going to happen. Dream on.

Engine builders are not cutting their charges in half.
Gas stations are not going to cut their charges in half for the hauler fuel.
Car insurance for the hauler isn't dropping to half.
Motels are slashing their prices to 1/2.
Tire suppliers are lowering race tires to 1/2 price.
Race tracks are not reducing their charges to 1/2.
Safety gear companies are not lowering their prices.
Race fuel isn't going down to $5 a gallon.

Come on' Froggy. You admit to being part of the same frugal subset of folks that I am. You keep exhaustive records of all expenditures.

Make that engine last 4x as long between builds at the same cost.
Make those tires last 4x as long and cost only $600/set.
Do those two things and entries will increase by 25% or more....so reduce your entry fees by 20%

Keep all the other expenses the same.....

How much did your entire budget just get reduced? I'm guessing close to half.

[dsmithwc04]

It seams to me that we are all trying to make something that is inherently expensive into a cheap affair relatively speaking. You can try to cut costs all day long but in the end there aren't really that many costs to cut in SCCA. In a perfect world I'd say we could potentially cut $100-150 off of track/entry fees per weekend by running one less day, $50 less for race gas if using pump gas (my car can't use pump gas...) , $100 off tire costs per weekend from some magical tire supplier contingency and your still spending around $1000 minimum with mechanical/parts wear figured into the equation and that's if your running a cheap, spec class. How is a couple hundred bucks going to solve the cost issue? It's a drop in the bucket when comparing all the costs of racing at the track and in the garage.

If you could eliminate half of the entry fee through sponsorship, have cheap RACE gas available, and cut tire costs by 25% then you would most likely have guys going to the same amount of races but in more expensive classes rather than guys going to more races in the class they are currently in. Let's be honest, most people didn't get an A in economics judging by their life choices.

This is all coming from a guy who makes a very average annual income and has a stay at home wife and child. I have every reason to want to make racing cheaper but I just don't see how it's possible since the same ideas are rehashed over and over. Reminds me of the bullet points for the Presidential candidates of our country for the last 100 years..... there are all claiming to have answers to the same damn problems and sure enough nothing ever gets done no matter who's in office.

[farrout]

In the interest of figuring out how to reduce event costs, I would like to hear from other Race Chairs. How do you make it financially feasible?

For the 2 day race weekend at Barber, our race budget looks like this:
Track, wrecker, EMT - $30,300
SCCA (Ins, Sanction, Vol Fees, etc) - $6300
Worker (payments, purchasing outside workers, lunches, Social, beverages, shirts) - $16400
MSR Fees - $2200
Misc (Tech Tent, scales, trophies, etc) - $3700

As you can see, the big numbers are the basic track costs and the worker costs.

Entry fees are calculated based on average driver entries.

[Daryl DeArman]

If you could eliminate half of the entry fee through sponsorship, have cheap RACE gas available, and cut tire costs by 25% then you would most likely have guys going to the same amount of races but in more expensive classes rather than guys going to more races in the class they are currently in. Let's be honest, most people didn't get an A in economics judging by their life choices.

While I agree with your last sentence, I disagree with the former.

If that were the case we'd have many more people racing FA or GT1 one or two events a year.
People have found a balance they can justify. Get the entrant numbers up and the entry fees go down. Get the costs down and the entrant numbers go up. You figure out whether it's the chicken or the egg

[clint]

Jay,

Besides the Runoffs, what other events have you been required to use track fuel?

The june sprints

[clint]

Most likely this wont work for a lot of drivers but one of the ways I keep costs down is by loading several cars in my trailer. Even if you only have room for one more car that equals out to half the travel expenses. Try posting up a "trailer space forum" and see who's nearby that would work out. I have had to give up my golf cart in order to make space for other cars but its either race and have to walk to places or not race and set at home. I carry four cars to every event I go to now and the financial impact for everyone involved has been great. Again, not for everyone but if only 25% could make it happen that's a lot more racing that could be done.

[David Locke]

Jay,
Besides the Runoffs, what other events have you been required to use track fuel?

The june sprints

Was that your particular class? I've never been required to use track fuel at the Sprints.

[clint]

Was that your particular class? I've never been required to use track fuel at the Sprints.

My class is F5 and we were told at tech there would be fuel testing at impound. In fact there was after the race. I'm pretty sure it was for everyone because the tech guys didn't know which class I was in at the time. I have been to the sprints twice and bot times this was the case. If they weren't going to check for the color of the fuel my fuel would have passed tech. I don't disagree with having to use track fuel, but I do disagree with the 100% up charge just because of the color of die in it. Its like saying " we have you by the B@LL$ and theres nothing you can do about it". Like Jay said, the same performance of fuel can be purchased a lot cheaper.

[David Locke]

My class is F5 and we were told at tech there would be fuel testing at impound. In fact there was after the race. I'm pretty sure it was for everyone because the tech guys didn't know which class I was in at the time. I have been to the sprints twice and bot times this was the case. If they weren't going to check for the color of the fuel my fuel would have passed tech. I don't disagree with having to use track fuel, but I do disagree with the 100% up charge just because of the color of die in it. Its like saying " we have you by the B@LL$ and theres nothing you can do about it". Like Jay said, the same performance of fuel can be purchased a lot cheaper.

I've run the Sprints the past four years and haven't ever been required to use track fuel. (There is no requirement of track fuel in the supps, which are still available online.) There was fuel sampling done in 2013 at the Sprints, in preparation for the Runoffs, but there was no requirement of using track fuel. The gentleman who tested my fuel (Sunoco 260 GT) at the Sprints told my engine builder and me that the fuel was perfectly legal, but it wouldn't be permitted at the Runoffs simply because it didn't come from the track's supply.

[scott sanda]

Other than SRF and SM, I cannot recall any time the Sprints required track gas, and both of those were short lived experiments at the request of what I believe was a majority of the drivers attending in class.

Fuel testing takes place (or is supposed to) at every national (now majors) race. The track gas is tested, and cars are tested.

Nothing I know of says you must use the track gas, even when the track gas is tested.

And if anyone thinks the Regions putting on the various events get a portion of the "track gas" sales, you are grossly mis informed.


farrout, what are "payments" and "purchasing outside workers"?

Thanks

[Purple Frog]

I can answer "paying outside workers".

It has become very hard for regions to get enough volunteers that will dependably show up to cover all of the flagging stations.

Meanwhile, since most tracks in the SEDIV run seven days per week, the track: (1.) either has on staff a population of corner workers. or (2.) private companies have been established to provide corner workers.

In Barber's case there is a private company that provides workers when needed.

Interestingly, at some of the tracks I have visited the private companies are hiring, or are run by experienced SCCA flaggers.