Intrested in road racing, $$$$??

[Justins99GSX]

Well im at a stand still on what to do with my 91 AWD... I don't make a lot of money(yet...)... Just curious if I could get some insight on how much it would cost someone like me to get into road racing??? Of corse my car wouldn't be competition ready but I could get a lot of practice~! So what I am wondering is what would be the expenses of wanting to get into road racing???

 

[Achelea]

My suggestion would be trying to find an auto club that goes to race tracks. Seeing as how most tracks don't rent out to individuals(cheaply), you might be able to get onto some tracks with clubs for a day on the track. Prices Vary as some are Autocross, some are road courses. It just depends on where it's at. Additionally, check their requirements for racing, a lot of them require helmets, and they will inspect your car before they will let you on the track.

This is according to the research I have done. There are some here that do race that might have better and more in depth experience of the racing experience.

 

[mattdev]

It depends on how serious you want to get... Pretty vague, haha.

A prized set of coilovers will cost around $2k, weight reduction, roll cage, racing seats, wheels/tires, brakes... These are all fairly expensive (except weight reduction).

Then, on top of suspension upgrades, you have HP upgrades. A 16g should do, as it's a good all around turbo, but again, all depends on how serious you want to get...

I'm finding out quite quickly, suspension work/upgrades are quite costly...

 

[Achelea]

"The best way to improve lap times is to tighten the Nut behind the wheel."

Might be a good idea to get some track time and get a feel for the car before you go for performance mods. All the mods in the world won't amount to anything if you don't know how to drive the car.

 

[tsiboosted]

It all truely depends on what you want to do with it and how far/serious you want to get. Auto Cross as others have mentioned may be your best bet in the begining as it is fairly enexpensive and you can get some seat time in your car in a controled enviroment and learn what you car can and cannot do. I wrote a thread on getting into road racing about a year ago and HERE it is. It may give you some sort of insight on how much you could expect tp pay for road racing.

Another something to look into is the PCA (Porsche Club of America) and their Driver's Education events. They will host them at tracks around the country and are very reasonably priced for the track time you get. BMW, Corvette clubs also do these as well. You can get an instructor to ride with you at your first few events and this is very beneficial to you as a driver to learn where to be on the track and what to do in certain situations. But I would say for sure check out NASA & SCCA websites for Auto Cross events near you and check one of them out. Good Luck

 

[Justins99GSX]

Thanks for all the input~! I will definately do some searching~! I live in tucson arizona, I'm not quite sure where the closest road corse is... As far as the upgrades go, a good friend of mine can usally get me a fair price on that stuff but he also said roughly 3-5k on suspension and brakes...

 

[tsiboosted]

Well in Arizona off the top of my head you have Firebird Raceway, Phoenix International Raceway and Arizona Motorsports Park. All are around the Phoenix area. Here are some links to these tracks. Also, the bottom link will show you where they are in Arizona and give you a course layout as well.

Firebird International Raceway - A Track For All Reasons

Home - Phoenix Raceway

Arizona MotorSports Park

Neil Killey Racing

 

[Ludachris]

Well im at a stand still on what to do with my 91 AWD... I don't make a lot of money(yet...)... Just curious if I could get some insight on how much it would cost someone like me to get into road racing??? Of corse my car wouldn't be competition ready but I could get a lot of practice~! So what I am wondering is what would be the expenses of wanting to get into road racing???

Are you asking about the costs of prepping the car to be competitive or just the costs associated with doing HPDE (open track events) for fun?

NASA is one of the cheapest open track event groups out there. They typically charge about $100-150 for a structured open track event. That will get you an instructor and about 1 full hour of track time broken up into 15-20 minute sessions throughout the day.

The basic cost of prepping your car for an event in terms of safety will depend on the condition of your car. You'll need working seat belts and all of your basic systems should be in good working order. No fluid leaks are allowed and your tires and brakes should be less than half way worn. No bare wires should be hanging around and your battery terminals should be covered and battery secured. That's just a short list, you can find a lot more on Welcome to NASAProRacing.com!.

You'll also need a fairly new helmet.

As for prepping the car to be competitive, well, it heavily depends on which class you want to be competitive in. Here's a basic guide:
Tech Guide: 1G Road Race Setup - DSMtuners

 

[awdfun]

AMP has been closed for a while due to noise ordinances with the *new* housing developments that were built close to the track. Still being fought in court. Beautiful track though...

If you are looking for local stuff, Club Racing Arizona is the local NASA organization that runs at FIR and mostly PIR. There is ProAutoSport as well, but I have not run with them.

I guess I'm not sure if you are asking about affording the racing aspect, or the car aspect. I'll assume your car passes tech, and you get out on the track. Here's a usual road racing (i.e. HPDE1 and 2) weekend for me:

Travel including gas and hotel $200
Entry fee $160
Tank of race gas $90
New brake pads (I end up buying new or different pads almost every other event) $60
Fluids - extras on hand, brake bleeding before, oil changes after, etc: $50
Food, water, cooler full of gatorade and ice $40
I won't mention tire wear, bearings, gaskets, engine/turbo wear, etc.

Add to that the changes you want to make to the car after each event...and you can see why some of the road race threads move a bit slower than others!

 

[Justins99GSX]

Thanks for all the responses~! Seems like road racing is a lot of fun, and not THAT expensive(a good friend of mine said I could spend over 10k a year!)... Im a "body man" in traing and hopefully will be making a really good pay check in the next couple months... I also have my 91 gutted and getting ready for a paint job, so now would be a good time to go over the rules and reg and get as much prep work as I can...

Really appreciate all the help~!
One other question, Is there prize money once you get competitive???

 

[tsiboosted]

Thanks for all the responses~! Seems like road racing is a lot of fun, and not THAT expensive(a good friend of mine said I could spend over 10k a year!)... Im a "body man" in traing and hopefully will be making a really good pay check in the next couple months... I also have my 91 gutted and getting ready for a paint job, so now would be a good time to go over the rules and reg and get as much prep work as I can...

Really appreciate all the help~!
One other question, Is there prize money once you get competitive???

That estimate is pretty close on what you could spend during a season. Just to give you an example, I believe I spent somewhere in the range of $10,000 - $12,000 last season for a six month series.

Yes, there can be prize money once you get competitive. There contigency plans from manufacturers that you can sign up for. They will pay out different amounts and a range of amounts depending on how big an event it and how many people you are racing against. Then if you are lucky enough to race in a series that pays out, there is the prize money from that as well.

 

[Justins99GSX]

Would applying for sponsorships help with track costs??? Or does having a sponsorship just help when you need something, like needing tires and having a sponsorship with the Tire Rack???

 

[snowborder714]

I'm sure Eddie could explain this more, but my guess is that you have to be able to prove yourself before you can get sponsors. I know of someone who has a few sponsors, but only got them after winning a few drag races. They want their name to be associated with a winner (or someone really good and well known), which is why it happens this way. I'm not saying it's impossible to get sponsors at this point, but I think it would be difficult.

Hopefully Eddie and anyone else who has sponsors for road racing will chime in about this.

 

[tsiboosted]

Would applying for sponsorships help with track costs??? Or does having a sponsorship just help when you need something, like needing tires and having a sponsorship with the Tire Rack???

There are allot of threads, websites, books etc. that go into the finer details of obtaining sposnors. So I will not go into those details. What I can try and explain is the workings of how sponsorships work. They are many different types of sponsorships and what those sponsorships do depends on the company & yourself. I will try and lbale them to best explain what they offer.

Level One - This level is most likely what everyone at some point began at. I know I did with some sponsors. Basically this level is where a company or indivdual gives you a break on pricing on parts. Or gives you some sort of reduced rate on a service (ie. labor at a garage)

Level Two - This level is where you will see a bigger increase in reduced pricing and maybe even some freebies here and there. This to me is kind of the "limbo" if you will of sponsorship. You are not quite getting loads for free but you are not having to pay a great deal either. Level two is also where a lot of people get stuck at times in their racing career as they cannot move forward for some reason or another.

Level Three - This is where you will begin to receive items for free on a regular basis and perhaps even a bit of money from a company or servive provider. This is where every driver is trying to get to. There are really 3 types of racing/drivers out there. They are, the ones who pay to race, the ones who race for free and the ones that get paid to race.

Another route to always consider is contigency packages offered by a lot of companies that you might already use their products. What these packages are setup to do is reward drivers for doing well in races with their equipment. A good one to check out is Hawk Brake Pads and Hankook Tires. They have excellent (in my opinion) packages out there for the "regular" racer. They will either give you money to use to buy more of their products or cash straight up. It all depends on the size of the field and wherre you finish. Most of the time, you need to podium to get paid. As it should be.

Now more specifically to your question on if sponsors will pay for your track time ? That is left up to the people/company that sponsors you. Brian said it well when he said you have to prove yourself first before asking to be sponsored. This is VERY true. unless your last name is Unser, Andretti or Pobst...Companies out there probably do not know how you are or what you could offer their company. A BIG thing to me when applying for sponsors is always take the approach of what you can do for the company. Not what you want from the company. These guys get thousands of people a year trying to score free stuff off of them. You have to stand out and be noticed. A lot of racers make the mistake of using I would want this or I would want that from you. Instead of focusing on the company and what you can do for them. That to me is the bottom line.

You need to have some sort of package put together outlining who you are, about your car, what you are planning to do, what you have done. Future plans, past results. What you can do for them in your area. Some companies will nto sponsor you just due to the fact they do not want/need anyone in your area. But again, all I can say is its about what you can provide and do for the company not the other way around. Most racers tend to look at it from their side and not the companies side they way you should. If you or anyone else would like to see my sponsor package. I would be more than happy to send you one so you can see a little of what I send out to prospective sposnors. I know this post got a little long, btu I hope it provided some insight on what you were looking for.