napacruzerc5

Back in my younger days I did 2 tracks days at Sears Point (Infineon) in a Fiat X1/9 and in a Fiero GT. Both cars at that time were my daily drivers. In the Fiero I did a spin at the top of turn 2 which got me into the dirt on the outside of the corner and stopped pointed the wrong way and seeing another car cresting the hill and just barely slowing on time to stop from clipping my front bumper. After that event (after changing my shorts) I decided then and there that I would not do track days/road racing until such time I had a dedicated vehicle and that I could afford to write off or repair same. So I haven't been on a track since then although I've put on many autocross laps in various cars including a Solo II B-Prepared 1968 Corvette Roadster (late 80's and early 90's) and my current '01 C5 Coupe. So the '01 would be my track car should I choose to do so and I would have other vehicles to drive should I crash it. My question then is what are the expenses involved in doing track days aside from the event fees? Consumables would be tires, brake pads/rotors? I have a Silverado so I presume a good open trailer would be a smart expense. Assuming I do 3-4 track days a year, what am I looking at dollar wise also assuming no crashes or offroad incidents.

ace996

3-4 days a year isn't that much, so funding that wouldn't be too bad. Depending on what tires you run, and how you drive, you may just be looking at fluids and pads. It's been discussed before, much to many's dismay, just how much some serious HPDE running costs. Again, how fast you drive will really make the difference = driving fast on r-comps and race fuel can get pretty expensive, up to $1K per HPDE...pads, tires, gas, hotel, fluids, food, track insurance. I"ve done HPDEs with little more than a brake fluid swap, keeping my speeds slow with my daily driver or shaking down a new, to me, car. Other days have wound up costing me a pretty penny - hotel, race gas, new pads, complete fluid change/flush, rotors, and time off from work.

If you stay with street tires, you're expenses will be lower..less stress on everything.

Good luck and stay safe,
TomK

rfn026

I've been running track events for about 15 years now. When it's all said and done you need to plan on just over a $1,000 a day. That covers travel, entry fees and some of the wear and tear. A set of new Hoosiers will destroy that number.

We also run the 24 Hours of LeMons. That series isn't cheap. The running joke is that we all have $500 cars and $10,000 worth of safety equipment. Travel expenses are a killer with the LeMons series. It's usually a pretty good tow and you need a number of motel rooms for multiple nights. It's inexpensive racing - which is different from cheap racing.

Richard Newton
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The Panther

At first it does not seem too bad but then you decide you need a cage and seats and new tires and wheels and a HANS and firesuit and gloves and shoes and cameras and data logging and a trailer and bigger truck then a bigger trailer and more tires and extra wheels for all the tires you have and then a bigger house to keep all your wheels and tires and then everything on your car starts falling off so you might as well upgrade but you are broke so you try to sell off all the random parts you have laying around so you can spend a small fortune for bushings to help you go in a circle half a second faster.

So in short you will eventually spend every extra dollar you have but whatever you do don't ever add it all up.

gmccreary

Jason

Racing costs the same as it always has. All of it.

Wayne O

Buying my new 2005 C6 rekindled my long dormant interest in road racing. I kept the car stock for almost a year before replacing the engine, beginning other modifications and getting it on the track. I've been a track junkie ever since. Here in southern Arizona we run year-round but the schedule slows-down considerably with the extreme heat in June, July and August (limited to a few early morning events). I run mostly time trials with Proautosports, NASA and events at the tremendous Inde Motorsports Ranch near Tucson...probably a couple weekends a month. After a long period I finally felt competitive enough to join Arizona Corvette Racing, a group of very serious, fast road racers...a great group of Corvette enthusiasts! I'm not the fastest car nor am I the slowest but I'm continually striving to improve my car and my driving skills. Most importantly, I'm having a blast with my car!

The sport is a considerable expense but I consider it money well spent. My C6 was always a toy but its finally evolved into a dedicated track car (although, I'm having a difficult time deciding whether to gut it or not). I periodically consider buying a Z06 to make into a true track car but I don't want to part with my C6 and when I consider the expense of buying, modifying and tracking an additional car I hesitate. There are still many modifications I want to make to my C6. I don't have to be the fastest car on the track. As long as I'm reasonably competitive, improving my lap times and having fun my C6 will suffice just fine.

I'm not sure what "extra dollars" are and I haven't gone broke but I agree one thing leads to another depending on how competitive you want to be. I agree, you probably don't want to hit the auto sum button on the spread sheet.

Jason

To actually answer your question, i autox'd for a year and a half on street tires, a year on R compounds, then started doing DE's but realized nobody but me was keeping score so i went looking for time trials. 2 years of TT and i'm going to w2w next year. I'm a slow learner.

63Corvette

"I've been running track events for about 15 years now. When it's all said and done you need to plan on just over a $1,000 a day. That covers travel, entry fees and some of the wear and tear. A set of new Hoosiers will destroy that number."

I concur!

TARANTULA

I just did 3 HPDE's this year with my 09Z and besides registration I spent nothing.

Jason

Our cars can take about 1 full season + - of hard running before you start getting into major maintenance.

spdislife

Did my first 2 events this year and that figure of 1,000 a day seems about right. I'm somewhere around 750.00 with entrance fee, ins, fuel, brake pads, rotors, fluids, wear on tires. No hotel/motel expenses since both events were within a 40 minute drive of where I was staying. I will be adding an oil coller in the spring and brake cooling ducts so that'll be the start of those investments that aren't wear and tear items. Then it'll be seats, harness, roll bar/cage and on and on and on....

spdislife

How many events or actual days would you define a full season as?

Jason

~An event a month 6-10 months.

AU N EGL

Start with the bold is a good place.

MYRX

I did all of the Rd. Atl events this year with NASA (HPDE3) and two with the SCCA....only spent the entry cost. ( I was starting my own business, due to a job loss/plant closing). Bottom line, I enjoyed the year met a lot of great people, made new friends and got some needed seat time!!

I did baby the car running year old Nitto's and brake pads. But I focused on learning the line and putting it to memory.

All that being said, of course if things were different, I would have spent much more on pads and tires. But it can be done on a budget if necessary. Don't quit if it is a passion.

ScaryFast

One or two events per month (in the spring/summer/fall), so...about 12 events, or 24 days.

There's nothing better than having pumped about $150,000 over the years into a car that's worth about $12,500.

But hey, we have lots of good stories

spdislife

I guess if it weren't meant to be spent, it wouldn't be made out of paper.

MartyZ51

That is the funniest thing I've read all week! I'm at $700 a day on used R6s. I would add that at some point you realize that it would have been cheaper/safer to have bought a dedicated track car that was built by somebody else at the very beginning.

rfn026

Race cars may actually be the cheapest way to go. You can buy used race care (good ones) for less than $.50 on the dollar. It's also easy to check the records (and track gossip) to see if it's any good.

btw - If you think there's any such thing as cheap racing let me tell you what it costs to run a Camaro in the LeMons series.

Richard Newton
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