Racing 101-Week 2 - April 10th, 2009
Welcome back race fans! Last week was opening weekend for the PA Super Sportsman. Rain cancelled the opening night at the famed Williams Grove Speedway, so the opener was pushed to Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, PA. It turned out to be a pretty good night all around for the #175.
Before we get into the second installment, I need to address an issue from an email I received. The reader was picking apart my grammar and indicated that I should be ashamed to be a teacher to write like I do. I bang these out in about 15 minutes. I do a quick check for spelling and attempt to write in a conversational manner so everyone can understand no matter your educational level. If you’re looking for perfect grammar, go read about how bad the stock market is doing on CNN.com. If you’re looking for a good story about racing, stay here.
For what will be the first real installment, I’d like to start with one of the most common questions that I always get from folks who don’t own a racecar-“How much does this all cost?"
That is a very difficult and mind numbing answer to come up with. The dollar amount can really vary depending on class, your abilities as a mechanic, skill as a driver, and the one true wildcard, your luck. I’m going to briefly go through what it takes to operate a Super Sportsman or any other mid-class race operation. By mid-class I mean something above a bargain basement class like an outlaw or street stock but below a big block modified or 410 Outlaw sprint.
By far, the biggest expense is the motor. This is where your mechanical ability can really cut costs. My team builds every motor that we’ve ever owned. The usage of the word “built” means selecting the parts, sending them out to a competent machine shop for the work needs to be done, and then assembling them ourselves correcting any problems that arise. We also have a great network of friends who share information when it comes to making selections, solving problems, etc. Even with saving the labor of building them at home, our SS motors will run about $4000-$5000 in parts and machine work. If those motors were purchased from any one of the competent builders out there they would be $8000-$10,000. The numbers are similar for the 2 barrel sportsman motors that have been a tradition in NJ for quite a few years, possibly adding a few more dollars for the turn key models.
These figures do not include carburetors ($500-$1000), ignition systems ($500-$700), and accessories such as fuel pumps, power steering pumps, alternators, radiators, hoses and lines, etc. Adding up all the figures puts you at about $7,000 or so if you are doing ALL the work yourself, buying all new parts, and doing it all right the first time. If you lack that ability or have really bad luck you better start adding numbers real quick. These numbers are first time numbers. Many of these items last season in and season out, so your year 2 and onward prices are way lower. Freshen ups are usually once a year, and cost about $2000 without any major component replacement.
The advent of crate motor racing was intended to not only to level the playing field, but to reduce the costs of supposedly lower cost classes that have gotten pretty expensive, like traditional sportsman modified classes. The crate motor craze has lessened the costs in some aspects but in other ways increased the long term costs. You really need no special mechanical ability to call your local GM dealer and order a motor that is sealed from the factory. Call up your dealer, lay out the plastic, and a few days later your new racing engine is on a loading dock in a wooden crate.
The price of $3200 for a motor from GM is a tad deceiving if you are starting out because you will still need to buy a carburetor, headers, accessories, etc. Many of the bolt on components for crate motored cars are crate specific, so finding used ones can be tough. The other, long term problem with the crate motor solution is that many tracks do not permit you to rebuild the motor at all. Damaging a motor by touching a bearing or wiping out a camshaft, 2 problems that can be cured with a $300-$500 fix if you do your own work, will require you to trash the entire motor. Even the tracks that do permit you to rebuild them require that it be done at an authorized repair shop. The good news is that if you care for your crate motor well, it should yield you a few seasons with no major component replacement or even freshening up.
The other problem that has arisen with crate motors is cheating. There are Internet vendors opening selling cheated up parts, seals, bolts, etc to all make you look like you are not cheating. Then again, cheating has been a part of racing since day one.
On the other end of the spectrum are the big block modifieds and 410 Outlaw style sprint cars. Ordering a motor from a reputable builder is $30,000 plus, and in some cases, way, way, way plus. There are very few home built 410’s and big blocks out there that are winning. The technology changes quickly and most successful teams have the money to have one or two available and to be cared for like gold. The maintenance costs on 410 sprint car motors will make your head spin. They typically last about 8 weeks before a general freshening is needed.
One of the great arguments from many old timers is the Flemington rule of “three wins in the sportsman class and you move to modified”. As you can see by the expense comparisons, this is simply not feasible today. A guy who gets hot in a crate powered modified style car has $4500 total in his power plant. Asking him to multiply his investment by 10 is not going to happen. Long gone are the days of going to a junkyard to find a big block to put injectors on and run in the modified class. In fact, try calling any junkyard to see if they even have one big block in stock. If they do, it is most likely a late 90’s 454 out of an old NJ Turnpike truck with a bazillion miles on it. Take it a step farther while you have them on the phone and ask them if they even have any 4-bolt 350 motors. I’d bet the ranch the guy on the phone might not even know what a 4-bolt is, let alone know if he has one in the yard. The days of even finding junkyard stuff to use on motors is quickly fading. What little you can find is typically used up junk.
After the motor, the chassis is your second most expensive item followed by just about everything else. I didn’t even manage to touch upon these expenses or your tow vehicle, fuel etc. Without going through every item like I did with motors, I’ll throw a number out there: a Sportsman class car with a newer used chassis and a motor you built yourself is an easy $12,000.
To wrap this up, I’ll give you a quick expense chart from the past Saturday night. This was just the weekly run down of what my expenses were for this week:
Tolls and fuel for the tow vehicle out and back to the track (thank God for $1.87 gas): $75
25 gallons of methanol at $2.05 a gallon (I know that is less than some folks were paying back in the late 1980’s): $52
1 tire. We get two weeks out of a pair of rear tires on tacky tracks. This averages out to about 1 a week. Front tires on my sprint cars last a long time. Tires are another price that ironically, has not gone up proportionally over time: $170
1 Jacob’s ladder, one torsion arm, and one radius rod. A spin-out to miss a wreck on the track bent these pieces in the rear end suspension, but we still managed to qualify even with these parts being bent: $100
2 back gate fees: $40
Tally of expenses for 4/4 $437
Payout for a 16th place finish: $135
Bottom line for 4/4: -$302
How much does it cost? Sometimes I really don’t want to know. If I were to calculate in the depreciation loss of all the equipment like chassis, truck, trailer, parts, and consumables like gear oil, motor oil, etc… it’s a loss no matter which way you look at it. A good weekend for my operation can’t be based on dollars and cents in 2009. Long gone are the days of many teams being able to turn a profit anymore unless you win a few big money races and have excellent sponsors. This is the definition of a financially successful weekend in my book:
1. Everyone came home safely
2. The car is in one piece come Sunday morning
3. We were competitive or learned something that will make us more competitive
4. We had a good time and want to come back next week.
The true “costs” of racing today are difficult to measure since everyone operates differently. Life stinks when any one of the 4 things listed above does not happen. Luckily for us, most weeks they all happen. If you’re one of those overachieving folks who say “anything less than a win is a letdown” you better be prepared for a bunch of letdowns and an empty wallet as you will overspend yourself in a hurry.
Far too many people outspend their means and end up leaving the sport because of it. It is a tough racket to own a car today, but it can be done as long as you keep it all in perspective and realize that this is entertainment for most of us. Very few people do this for a living anymore and those that do, are not getting rich off of it.
That’s it for this week. We will be at Port Royal this Saturday for the second race of the season. Until then, take care, be good, and go see a race this weekend.
Here's all the Editions of "Racing 101"
Racing 101-Week 4 - July 9th, 2009
Racing 101-Week 4 - May 15th, 2009
Racing 101-Week 3 - April 19th, 2009
Racing 101-Week 2 - April 10th, 2009
Racing 101-Week 1 April 6th, 2009