Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

How in the world can you afford to race a 410 WOO sprintcar for $6000 to win in a non weekend race?

It is better than not racing at all!!!

Sponsors.

16 years ago, when Pittman was running the family car, he told me that it cost them 2 grand to show up with ther 410 car and open the trailer door each night....and they didn't chase the tour all overt the country that year....that was 16 years ago, with a team that stayed fairly close to home...when motors were pretty much going 12-15 nights on a freshen...when most teams had one or at the most 2 mechanics.... when the best shocks you could buy only cost 140 bucks each...when diesel fuel was only $1.50 per gallon.

I say that to say this.... I don't know how these guys can afford to run for 10 grand to win/ 800 to start.

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

It doesn't matter what the purse is, racing is generally a losing proposition.  Heck, NASCAR teams usually can't make $$$ as their yearly budget to run the team is nearly $20 mill but the purse and point $$$ won by the Champion LAST YEAR was around $12 mil, that's an $8 mil difference. 

The only way to make $$ in racing is to use somone else's $$$ (sponsors, rich car owners) to fund the team and hope they don't get "bored with it" and decide to sell out.

As far as the Outlaws go, having a mid-week show for $6000 to win isn't a big deal, the haulers were already in the area (they sure as heck weren't driving back to their shops on the East Coast or in the midwest).

This is what most businesses call "volume" that helps offset costs.

Let's say you have a FIXED cost of $1500 per night (racing) to operate the car and you have the Variable costs of fuel for the hauler (let's say this swing to the West Coast cost each team around $6000 in diesel.  If you have 4 races total over the course of 14 days, you have a cost of $12000 or $3000 per race night (and $858 per day on the road).  Now, you add in 2 more race nights (even at lower purses) and you have a cost of $2500 per race night (so on PAPER, a $500 SAVINGS).  This is how the business model that the WRG has to use (as they have costs associated with operating the series too).

The max amount you could have earned to offset that $12,000 was $40,000 and the minimum you could have earned was $3200 (if you made the main each night).  Add in more races and the # changes to a maximum of $52000 and a minimum of $4800. 

I'm sure the end "goal" is to try to make it so teams come close to breaking even over the course of the west coast swing.

Is it a GREAT DEAL for the teams?  No, but is it better to be racing and have a chance to earn more $$ instead of just spending it daily because you are there?