I'm idly considering dipping my toe in the dirt-track pool. I don't live close to any autocross sites (two hours east or two west), nearest road course is 2 hours (although I want to do some HDPE's next year), and the Back 40 is just a gateway drug. However, there are at least four dirt tracks within 45 minutes of my house.
I'm looking at the four-cylinder FWD stuff (around here I've heard them called the "Hornet" class, I don't know if that's universal).
I'm wondering what the average prep costs are (and I realize that it will be cheaper to buy someone else's runner, and I intend to try), what it costs to run for a season, what the good choices for cars would be, and if anyone has anecdotal stories I'd love to hear them.
The more you can do yourself, the less sense it makes to buy somebody elses car. I built my first mini stock for $500, but I did everything except bend the roll cage, and that was cheap. You want a good cage, good suspension, and tires, and a reliable motor. Work on power once you have everything else figured out. After the car was built, I pretty much broke even on expenses the first year, and actually made a few grand the second. Dirt oval is easily the best racing bang for the buck. I'm not sure how it works there, but here, you pay your $20 or $25 to get in, and if you make the feature, you'll either finish in the money, or get your entrance fee back. As long as you don't wreck, you're only out gas money. A lot of people (even here) have negative things to say about turning left, but once you're 3 wide and sideways at 65 MPH, you forget about that in a hurry. Until you've tried it, you can't understand just how much fun it is.
I'll now bombard you with ads I find for this past season's castoffs. It's really easy/cheap to buy a 4 cylinder car because people step up to the next class and sell off their entry-level car.
Check out the rules for 24 Raceway, Callaway, Montgomery, and California. Decide what works for you (schedule and rules wise) and pick one up. Callaway/Fulton allows RWD, btw. (Mustangs, Pintos, and even S10s...last I was there).
Count me in on this effort.
[edit: and...um...we could totally work out a shared ride of some sort on a hobby stock car I happen to already have...]
Clem
The very first thing is to check the track rules.
In most cases they write their own and some come from the dark ages.
Hornet, Cruisers, 4cyl class etc. Again , each track has their own name.
iceracer wrote:
The very first thing is to check the track rules.
In most cases they write their own and some come from the dark ages.
That's good advice. Most tracks will have similar rules, but keep in mind that they often make little sense, and are typically written by people with little to no understanding of how things actually work.
Cavaliers and Neons. You can always take a peek at my Cavalier's setup any time at the Back 40. Its hornet class legal.
Take a look at www.4m.net and check out the ministock tech forum. Plenty of usable info there.
Also...last I checked, all the local tracks have a 'Murrican-Only type rule. Assinine, but true (again...last I checked).
I surmise that won't be a problem for you, but it culls a lot of good choices.
I will repeat what has been said above.....buy a already built car. I just got my car running for the end of the season "2 day shootout" and blew it up within 4 laps in the first heat race-still hooked.
And now I have most of a cage, fuel cell, seat and harness, gauges, and a nice big pile of recycleables for scrap
They are out there and can be found cheap
