Ah, yes, the costs. Just how much does it cost to get out on a track and play? Hobby level racing can cost as little or as much as you want it to, but be warned--in the end you'll spend far more than you initially planned to.
You'll attend more events, you'll make more modifications to your car, you'll buy more specialty tools. You'll also spend a lot more time on it than you ever expected. Once you're hooked, it's awefully hard to stay disciplined about controlling your expenses. With that warning covered, let's look at some typical expenses.
What about wear on the car? Once you start racing your car, there will be some extra maintenance, but today's cars hold up very well. They aren't designed to extract the limit of their materials and components like a race car is, so even with some road course duty, the car is not going to start falling apart. Most cars see several years of hobbist racing without serious mechanical failures. However some parts do wear much faster due to racing. Typical parts that will likely need frequent replacement once you start racing your car are listed below.
Longer term wear items will need servicing sooner too. If you go out as often as 6 or more times a year, you can expect certain regular maintenance items to need to be serviced sooner. For example,with higher frequency of shifting at higher loads, you can expect your clucth to wear out faster, and the assist hydraulics to need rebuilding more often too. So pay attention to those things earlier in the car's life than your factory guidelines indicate.
Adding these factors up shows that a budget-minded racer can attend a one-day event with a total cost of $200-$300 if the track is within a couple hours drive, and is easy on your brakes.
The more liberal spender can attend a full two-day hot lapping or time trial event at a big track that wears out brakes and race tires, and spend from $600 to $1200 (ammortizing the cost of the brakes the tires over a few events). The higher performance the car the more it is likely to cost as you'll be pushing your components closer to their limits.
Most car clubs will organize about 6 events a year. This is often enough to keep active, yet fit into members' busy schedules. It also helps keep the total annual costs down. Amateur racing, such as with the SCCA, will have as many as 12-15 events a year for a given event class. This is for a more serious group of racers (and more financially capable) who will typically be competing for points.
Even as a hobby, racing isn't cheap, but it can be affordable for many people. Attending a few one-day events can provide some great fun throughout the year for about a thousand dollars. The more serious hobbyist is going to spend at least a few thousand dollars a year. It's not for the tightly budgeted, but it beats the multi-millions needed to run professional series cars.
Read Next Article (Introduction)
Budget Racer's Typical Costs for a Single Day Event
Club event fees | $160.00 |
Track fees | $ 20.00 |
Oil change (synthetic) | $ 50.00 |
Street Brake Pads | $ 75.00 |
Gas | $ 80.00 |
TOTAL: | $ 385.00 |
Moderate Racer's Typical Costs for a 2-Day Weekend
Club event fees | $300.00 |
Track fees | $ 20.00 |
Oil change (synthetic) | $ 50.00 |
Racing Brake Pads | $ 200.00 |
Hotel/Food 2 nights | $ 200.00 |
Gas | $ 120.00 |
Rotors* | $ 60.00 |
Race Tires* | $ 200.00 |
TOTAL: | $ 1150.00 |