Yet another racing budget question.

Everyone has their priorities and ways to swing the racing / project budget. So heres my question: Would you rather go to one big event each year, like One Lap of America, Taga Newfoundland, or the 200X challenge. Or, a full season of local autocross, some road rallys, and maybe a track day or 2?

Bigger events. We already have the hotel reserved for the events all year and registrations in. Knock it out with the tax return. That eliminates the excuse and set the goals. Motivates and commits. The bigger events are so much better then local small ones IMO.

That's a hard question.

I'd lean towards one big event.

Both. I ran my region last year, travelled 10,000 km, won the region in class and overall. Next year, I think Mid-Ohio for the IT fest and maybe Brainerd or Kansas or something on the prior or following weekend.

I am looking to improve my driving so for me its all about getting as much seat time as I can afford. I vote lots of little events.

I've been thinking about this a lot and it boils down to what are your goals? If you want to be an auto cross national champion, than autocross all you can. But if you want to be a F1 driver, I think you need wheel to wheel track time (not that autoX doesn't help with all types of driving).

I'd figure out a yearly budget and then split that up in a way that suits your needs and goals.

Wheels777, I like your thinking. Nothing like non refundable deposits to motivate !

Back and forth...

Year 1: Build a $200X Challenge Car and compete with it.

Year 2: Sort out and compete with challenge car in local autox's, track days and road rallys

Year 3: Go back to year one

Both. I typically run all of the local events I can (we have "season passes" in one club that are pretty cool) and make 1-2 large events. Last year's big event was a 3-day open lapping event in Medford, about 300 miles away. We also have some fairly big local events (2-day "Duel at the Mill" at the Packwood Nat'l Tour site, Packwood Nat'l Tour, Packwood ProSolo) as well. Yes, we're doing all 3 of those this year.

I have a goal of the AMC Nationals in Cordova in 2012 with the Hornet though...

Challenge >> all other events.

Small events instead of one big event if you have problems or blow the car your out of a big event

I'm a big believer in seat time. I can't believe how bad I am after taking so many years off (I guess it doesn't help that autocrossing isn't as much like circuit racing as I thought). Still, it's a hobby for me-and that means there should be a party somewhere. Have you thought about doing half the local events and blowing the rest of the budget on the Challenge/LeMons/Babe/TargaNF of your choice?

If you have the challenge in your backyard-its just another one of the normal sized events!

I gave up autox when I started running in the BABE rally. This year we'll do the rally, GRM and one Lemons event.

I enjoy the building much more and the big events give me more time to plan and execute the build and a chance to meet a bunch of great people that I dont get to see everyday.

Jeff wrote: Wheels777, I like your thinking. Nothing like non refundable deposits to motivate !

Paint the target and shoot your arrows at it. Even when you don't shoot well you get what you want. Some folks shoot their arrows and paint the target around them.....call it a bull's eye......and wonder why they did not get what they want.

I don't think you can do One Big Event without also running some local ones. In prep for the Targa, I ran as many track days as I could to get my skills sharp. I also took part in a TSB and a rallycross.

But there's a difference between a local event and traveling to a slightly-less-local event. A day at my local track is fairly cheap (actually, since I run those track days, they're free!), where a trip to run at Miller or Pueblo means an overnight stay - and Laguna Seca or the Mitty means a very long weekend.

I'd rather do the small local events and the One Big one than a bunch of moderate ones. Wheels is right, the big ones are a lot better.

Gearheadotaku wrote: Everyone has their priorities and ways to swing the racing / project budget. So heres my question: Would you rather go to one big event each year, like One Lap of America, Taga Newfoundland, or the 200X challenge. Or, a full season of local autocross, some road rallys, and maybe a track day or 2?

Full season of local racing in the cheapest car I can.

That is why I have been tracking a 944 for 10 years and getting 10-20 races/track days in per year.

Last two years I was able to make the tow from Phoenix to Miller. IN 2008 for 25 car 944 spec race and then in 2009 for Nationals. I am very happy I went to Nationals and plan on going in 2010. However one event is just one event. I like driving my car so running a full season of events locally is alot of fun for me. For 2011 Nationals is in Ohio again and I will not compromise my entire local season just to two 2000 miles one way for Nationals.

I wish there was a more economical class that could be run (at Waterford Hills) but the fact is that racing is expensive regardless of type.

A season at Waterford Hills is 7 weekends. A season autocrossing and rallycrossing might be 20 events. The seat time will be about the same but I think the best value would be in the autocross and rallycross but I so long for wheel to wheel action again!

Lets do a seat time comparison. One season at Waterford Hill is 6 races. A "Regular" weekend is 1 qualifying session and 3 races. You'll get about 65 minutes of seat time per weekend. (1 20 min qualifying and 3 10 lap races, about 15mins each depending on your car.) So 65 min x 6 weekends is 390 minutes. 20 autocrosses, (thats a busy season. Every weekend for 5 months) 4 runs each with 1 minute per run. 80 minutes. One season at Waterford is nearly 5 times the seat time! OK, entry fees. 20 Autocrosses at $40 each. $800, $10 a minute! One season at Waterford, about $1200, 32.5cents a minute. So far, Road racing is looking like the best value.

Now, however, you have to buy a racecar. Say you find an older ITB car for $3500, and spend $500 to freshen it up. Now you've reached $13.33 a minute to road race and still haven't bought a truck, trailer, extra tires, fire suit, and a big garage to keep all this stuff in. Speaking of stuffing, you'll stuff the car into the tire wall one day, of course after you just spent another $2500 in the latest upgrades, and have to start over. Fully in the red mist, jr's college fund turns into a T1 Corvette, and the 401k (whats left of it) gets cashed out for a motorhome and enclosed trailer. We're going to the SCCA runoffs in style! I've long since lost track of dollars per minute, but back a 10 bucks I was spending it faster than I was making it. The moral of the story? Racing is a powerful drug. It'll keep you up at night, make you go to work red-eyed and disheveled. Takes all your money then whores you out for any mechanical odd job to get more. Your bonds with family can get strained as you drag them along, so you get them hooked to. That's why everyone at the track encourages you to hang out with them. They don't want to be alone, they push that drug, (and used parts) on you! The worst way to get hooked? When someone offers you the chance to co-drive their car in exchange for crewing, RUN! The first time you strap in and hit the starter, some bastard just smacked you up with 100cc's of red mist!

Stay home and play Grand Turismo. Buy a $29 trophy at the store. Sleep well. With all the money I saved, I could buy a nice Miata. Maybe add a Turbo kit and some cool wheels. Hey, theres a track day next month.....

Gearheadotaku wrote: Now, however, you have to buy a racecar. Say you find an older ITB car for $3500, and spend $500 to freshen it up. Now you've reached $13.33 a minute to road race and still haven't bought a truck, trailer, extra tires, fire suit, and a big garage to keep all this stuff in.

The weirdness for me here is that I've recently been having this kind of discussion on Facebook (of all places) with people I haven't seen in years. They see that I used to circuit race, and after looking at the autocross links, they wonder why I just don't go road race again. When I describe that kind of spending as "cheap" usually shuts them up...