How much to crew cheif?

Was looking for some opinions on what a fair rate is to charge someone for crew cheifing their car for a race weekend. This seemed like a good place to ask if anywhere was.

The deal is a person I do car setup on the side wants me to take over the mechanicals, data analysis and race radio coms for him for full three day race weekends. He's asked me to come up with a figure to charge for this. My regular gig is mechanical engineer I have no idea what people usually charge. This would require me missing out of my normal job on Fridays of race week weekends I think it should be at least cover my lost work for that day. As a point of reference I am charging $50/hr when working on his car from my home garage.

Thanks!

How much experience do you have at it would be a big determining factor in my mind. Also what type of racing is it?

I have never done it before. I made it clear it would take me some time to get proficient with some of the tasks.

He races a Thunder Roadster. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/600-racings-thunder-roadster

I've crewed races doing roughly what you described for $200/day, just as another data point.

If you're at the race track for a weekend with any kind of positive cash flow, you're already in the top 1% of people there.

Tyler H wrote: If you're at the race track for a weekend with any kind of positive cash flow, you're already in the top 1% of people there.

This kinda...

Your life is complicated a bit by the driver being a customer that you might want to remain on good terms with?

I am a big fan of "No harm no foul" exit strategies when looking at cooperative ventures. Also a big fan of the drug-lord marketing scheme.

So, what I would do if go to a race with him an let him have a freebie. This will give both of you an idea of how you work together. It will also give him a taste for having a pit boss to organize his E36 M3 so he can race.

IF you like the gig, charge him whatever is going to make you happy. There is a secondary value proposition for you in that as soon as you get paid, you can put "professional race team management" on the resume.

If you love it, it's X if you hate it, it's X times 5.

Tough to come up with a price though. I've dealt very happily with people paying me for my expertise but when they become friends... Well it's much harder for me.

If you don't want to do it you should just say no.

I have done a few races as part of a crew. I do make a small amount of money at it, but it's less than what I would make in the same amount of time at my regular job. Also, the team covers all my expenses for the weekend (airfare, food, hotel, etc.). They also provide all of the safety equipment.

I'm with the once as a freebie opinion except I'd ask to be compensated for your lost day at work.

I used to work with a guy (in Rhode Island) who crewed for a Pro Stock team that raced Thursday nights at Granite State Speedway in Walpole, NH. He didn't get paid and even had to pay admission into the track on race night! He'd leave work a few hours early using vacation hours, drive a few hours to the track, work on the car, get back home at 2:00 am and be at work at 7:00 am. And he's around 60 years old. He's a good machinist/engineer/mechanic, and would think nothing of digging in and changing a major drivetrain unit between heats. He obviously loved it because he paid to do it. His only "compensation" was having his picture taken with the entire team at the end of the season.

I wouldn't start for free. I would ask him to cover your Friday and then maybe $50 a day which would equal you doing a solid hour of work those two days. Figure out how much of those days is really work and how much is having fun and offer to charge him 50 x the number of hours being there feels like work ( plus the Friday) going forward.

I work for a team that does this all the time. Figure $150-200 a day for work on the car, extra for transport, extra for food/trailer support. Assuming its a thunder roadster, I am not sure you can really get away with more than $1,000 a weekend including expenses considering it is a Thunder Car. (typically not the loaded types, but I am stereotyping)

PCA type goes for about $2-4k a weekend for full support/transport etc. (does not include tires/parts/fuel) But these guys expect to be coddled and arrive and drive in their own cars.

Thanks so much for all the advice. This is exactly what I was looking for. The engine builder who I met this person through had suggested the $200-$250 range which jives with what I'm hearing here. I'm going to go for my full day rate on the Fridays. I am a contractor with my day job. No vacation so skipping out on that day is money directly out of my pocket.

This should be a fun adventure if anything. I've been tinkering with cars and motorcycles for years and only recently has it turned into a hobby that actually makes me money. Hopefully it's downhill from here. I wouldn't mind spending more time doing it.

I get 200 a day to crew and 275 a day to drive the transporter, however I also have an unlimited expense account, get 5 star accomodations and all the food and beverage I want. While the actual work hours are hard to calculate, the work load is extremely intense in spurts.

I'm an owner/crew/driver in an SCCA P2 sports racer. The time on track is about 2% of a weekend, and it's the easiest part. The rest varies from merely hot, sweaty, repetitive and tedious to frenzied and sickening. I'm incredibly particular about prep and setup in part because I simply don't have the bandwidth to build a new car continually in the paddock all weekend. No way on earth I'd like to do that for money.

I was the crew chief for a number of years racing with a team up and down the north east. We ran mostly endures and had a blast doing it. Mostly SCCA and EMRA races. Some times the drivers would chip in and pay for my expense's some times not. It all depended on how tight $$$$ was. Towards the end we actually started doing very well winning our class in some 12 and 24 hour races and always finishing in the top quarter of the field. Yes it cost me $$$$$. As much as $1,000 a weekend. But it was a blast!!! We were all long time friends going back 20 years or more and I made a bunch of new life time friends doing it. We all really considered it a vacation from our real jobs and money was never even discussed. I miss those days but I have the memories for the rest of my life and those are worth 1,000,000 times what it actually cost me in $$$$.

dean1484 wrote: How much experience do you have at it would be a big determining factor in my mind. Also what type of racing is it?

You know what's funny? Both of these guys posting know each other, but may or not realize it.

With my tiny amount of brain power I'm deducing dean1484 is Dean from back in the RX-7 days?

Bingo!!!

Now you have me wondering if I may have met some of you. I was the advance man and crew member for this car running the EMRA enduro series from 2002 to 2005 and our main competition was an RX7.

Hal wrote: Now you have me wondering if I may have met some of you. I was the advance man and crew member for this car running the EMRA enduro series from 2002 to 2005 and our main competition was an RX7.

Unless your from Massachusetts I doubt it.

Mazdax605 wrote: Unless your from Massachusetts I doubt it.

I meant at the tracks. Dean mentioned crewing for EMRA endurance races. We ran the EMRA enduro series for several years. Pocono, Watkins Glen, Summit Point, etc.