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

A lot of talk has been going on for awhile about how the rising costs have effected sprint car racing. We have all seen teams having sponsorship problems and having to race on local circuits such as PA, Knoxville, and California. It seems that a lot of drivers have the talent (see Daryn Pittman for a few years) to be racing with Sanctioning Bodies such as the Outlaws on a full time basis but are not able to because of the lack of rides available. I know quite a few owners are on here so just wondering if any had any input on what would need to happen for some to make a plunge to go racing nationally instead of regionally or locally. I know that the costs are high and some already have full time jobs, but I was wondering if maybe this schedule wasn't so demanding based on the amount of dates and travel, or if the purse just isn't high enough to justify the risk involved?

I think its really quite simple.

The costs are much higher than the purse can justify. The purses are close to the same as they were 10-15 yrs ago but the costs are much higher.

One of the biggest problems for the traveling teams would have to be the price of diesel.

It costs somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 cents/mile just for fuel to drive the rig down the road.

That's not figuring anything for the other operating costs of the truck.

As much as everybody outside of Pennsylvania likes to rip on the Posse, those guys have it made being able to race as often as they can so close to home for good purses.

I sure wish there was that much 410 racing going on in the IA/MN/SD area.

41 @ silver dollar, 32 @ Placerville i think 31-32 at Antioch, I called a top dollar engine builder for some help he was busy building 3 new 410's for a top local team and has more orders than he can fill. Duno where the money is comen from but 410 deal seems healthy in Cali

1) california has one of the highest costs of living in the country

2) if you cut down the amount of woo shows, what are the drivers going to do for a living? also the cost of employing crew members will be the same.

to indy and beyond!!

It seems that two things are the key things that contribute to the lack of teams nationally from what I have seen which are the purse (which goes with the costs, not enough money to win to justify the risk of traveling) and the amount of events. I understand that promotions like the WoO are not like Nascar or Indycar or NHRA that can put 100's of thousands of dollars on the line each weekend for a race. The big difference that I see between the big promotions and sprint cars is that most of the race weekends are sponsored for Nascar, Indycar,etc. You have the Aarons 500, or the Izod 300, STP 400,etc but it is probably hard for some tracks to get companies to sponsor an Outlaws or an ASCS weekend unless it is a place like Lowes dirt track or Eldora and Knoxville. I think if tracks are able to do this you would see more people traveling on he national level and drivers like Shane Stewart not out of a full time consistent ride.

Nascar gets big money because of National Television broadcasts and Millions of viewers every week. If Nascar was not broadcast on a major network they wouldn't get those sponsors either. Those sponsors can say they care about racing but 99% of them could care less about racing, they are about having Lowes or Crest or Depends smeared across that car and being on TV for 3 hours and hopefully there driver is competing cause that means more TV time. Unless dirt track racing can get to a bigger television stage I would not count on too big of sponsorship deals. We can wish for more money in the sport and that all racers had big rides but as a spectator I will say that I enjoy the size of the sport as it is, we can go to a race, go to the pits and talk to the crew and even the drivers with no issues. You start getting into big money Nascar or Indy car stuff and you can kiss all that goodbye. I'd compare it to the oil boom in ND, from the outside looking in everyone is envious and thinks its great, if you go talk to a local that was there before it and is even making money off the oil they will tell you they wish it would all just go away and they could go back to their quiet little farming community they had before.

This sport is expensive, no doubt about it, if you don't have or can't come up with that money then you need to compete at a lower level that you can afford. If you figure out a way to make it cheaper, give it 5 minutes and someone else will come up with a way to make it expensive again, thats just how racing has always been and will always be for the most part.

http://gph.is/XMLGff

Speedkills hit it.

You take the TV away and those race sponsors would disappear faster than two plates of food put in front of Rosie!

 
I LEARNED ESP FROM MY MOM

"PUT YOUR SWEATER ON: DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW WHEN 
YOU'RE COLD?"

If you are racing local, the owner only wants to race local and you are being funded by local sponsors than you will have a local driver. Other than the WoO; NASCAR, IRL & a few others, local = weekend warrior & some special thru the week races. You ARE NOT looking to make a living as a race car driver or team. Part of the problem with perspective of fans (& some drivers) in PA is IT IS LOCAL RACING NOT FOR A LIVING. Owners like Hamilton, Weickert, Dwyer & a few others have hurt the sport. They put 410 owners who wanted to have a competitive and winning car on the track each week into the position that they had to spend like banshees to compete against them (for the most part). Have a full time driver & full time crew chief. If you want to make a living at driving a race car then go find a series/sanctioning body whose purpose is to support full time race car drivers.