Money in racing?
 

Is there any way to make, or at least not lose as much, money in any of these racing events? I do not know much about the racing industry. Thanks.

theres always the i make my money, & thats by illegal street racing & gambling, but you gotta be confident that your car is fast & beat anyone that challenges you.

Only way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a large one...

Can't remember who said it, but another way to look at it is "I know there's alot of money in racing, cuz I've dumped a fortune into it!"

So there are no racing classes or whatnot that I can acually enter legally and at least come out with enough money to repair my car? Damn, that means I won't be doing any racing for a long time:)

Briggs Cunningham: "The best way to make a small fortune racing is to start with a large fortune."

Anon.: "Racing is an addiction cured only by poverty."

Seriously, the only way to make money racing is to be good enough to get people to pay you to drive their cars. Read Carroll Smith's "Drive to Win" for an insider's tips on the industry.

Most amateur road racing, by definition, has no prize money. Sometimes there are contingency awards offered by car, tire, oil manufacturers, etc. To win those, you have to meet the sponsor's rules - usually prominent graphics promoting their brand and a podium finish. Mazda does this - check out the contingency awards section of the Mazdaspeed website: www.mazdamotorsports.com Pro series, by definition, have prize money, but to get there takes a lot of talent, a lot of experience, and a lot of money.

Now if you're talking street racing or 1/4 mi stuff, racing for pink slips and selling off the cars you win can work - but if you lose, walking home sucks!

are you confident that your car is fast enough to beat anyone that challenges you?

you make your money by street racing with an 87 GXL??
wtf

A) Yes, there is money in racing
B) There is not *enough* money in racing
C) With the most common belief inline with those expressed above, no one *making money* in racing is going to tell you *how* to make money in racing. Figure it out.
D) No one cares if you are racing or not.
E) I'm not trying to be a jack ass, its called honesty.
F) I don't make money racing, I'm in the financial industry
G) No, I won't give you hot stock tips either.

M.

well lets say this, in august i was running 13.8 at the track on 6psi with a turbo i got from an old 1984 745 volvo(i think), a fmic i took from a 323 mazda, an intake manifold from a t2, for intercooler piping i used pvc piping from Home Depot, with a safc & a ported motor. then two months later i decided to with a upgraded T3 with real piping (kept the intercooler), changed the injectors & fuel pump, installed a Nos kit(installed but hasn't been used yet)& bought a power fc. now im just running on 16psi & now im waiting for march to come so the track can open & i can time my car. & its a n/a motor.

Where do i get my funds from........street racing........now before i even start getting flamed, im not supporting street racing or saying its fun. its an illegal "sport" & none should be doing it.

OK - lets say that you actually DO make a buck or two at "illegal street racing" (the poser name is enough to keep most of us away!) you can't make enough to even pay for the mods to your car. Perhaps not even enough for regular maintenence. Certainly not enough to support yourself, or a family, or even enough to pay for a tutor to introduce you to the miracle of punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. So by all means continue to pretend to be a big street racing hero while your financial expectations are low. As a matter of fact, your pursuit of a criminal record and huge financial penalties for killing someone while enjoying your non-sport will help make sure that your financial expectations stay low. Thanks for your psedo public service message - no one SHOULD be doing it, except you I guess? Why not just stand in a crowd and scream "please everybody look at me and think I'm cool - I really need attention!" It's cheaper, and considerably less dangerous to innocent bystanders.

When I was still playing baseball, I was always amazed at guys who claimed that they were sure they would have made it to the Majors if their Little League coach had given them a fair shot. I've played alongside both Major and Minor league players and the reason they made it is............they are f***ing incredibly talented, highly coached, and unbelievably motivated! The same is true about professional race car drivers, of which there are VERY few in the entire country. I consider myself to be pretty adequate behind the wheel of a race car, and when I've had an opportunity to race with pro talent, it became clear that they are there for a reason. I'm not saying that you or I couldn't have been much better if discovered early, put in a well prepared pro car, coached well, and given ample experience, but give these guys their due. They are in the car because someone believes that they have what it takes to compete at the pro level. All the good looks and sponsor approval don't get you any exposure if you can't put the car in the winners circle.

Do "Illegal Street Racers" make a buck or two?? Sometimes yes & sometimes no, some do racers do some don't. For example, last night I raced a Corvette C5-R & won 2 out of 3. Was there money on the line?? Yes, all the three races. How much did i make?? $350. So yes there is a little bit of "spare change" to be made at "Illegal Street Racing" but not every night because the night before I only made $25 which only covered the gas & Mcdonalds. Illegal Street Racing is definately not a job, or a sport as i called it, its more of a hobby. Can you support a family no, hell no. I myself have a real job, live with my parents, go to Rutgers University & I'm going for bachelors degree in Criminal Justice. Am I some big street racing hero?? The answer is no by your defintion. Are my financial expectations low?? No, because with the money I made from street racing I'm going to pay the cable, light, cellular, & house phone bills for the month of January as I have done for the last 6 months with funds I recieve from street racing. Am I in a pursuit of a criminal record?? Yes, most definately, but guess what, when the cops show up to stop the races, I'm not going stop & wait for them to come & give me a ticket, I'm going to hop in my car & run just like everyone else. Ands whats even worse, there are police officers that street races when there off duty. They also come in prepped up Civics wanting to race. And the owner of the C5 was none other than the son of the head of the SWAT team in Jersey City, Nj. Who challenged me during the middle of a class & bragged about how fast his C5 was & how hes gonna shit on another cheap import. So you can just wonder how much "The Law" really cares about street racing when they can't follow the law themselves. Am I risking bystanders lives by racing?? Yes, but if your there at the strip with your car parked & instagating & waitng for a race, guess what, you should already know the consequences of street racing & what could happen. Me personally, I dont race on highways. Where everyone here in the New York City & Nj area come to race is on a little backroad in Newark,Nj called Avenue P between three junkyards & 1 abandoned plastic factory. And belive me "innocent bystanders" dont drive by there at 2:00 A.M. anyone thats been to Avenue P can vouch for me on that. Am I a hero?? Hell no. Don't glorify me, the real hero's of today which this country glorifies are for example are all the police officers, firefighters, EMT's that died during 9/11 in NYC & the soldiers in Iraq(I don't care if you people support the war or not) who are dying trying defend this country. Am I glorifying street racing?? No.

To the starter of this thread who posted "Is there money to be won in racing". Yes, but you have to be exceptionally good to get sponsored & I can tell that your far away from going into pro racing because you asked that question. I just made a suggetsion to you which I guess some characters on this forum where offended by. Boswoj, about the part that you typed "...give professional drivers thier due because someone believed in them..." I give them all the credit & respect in the world because when I was 15, I worked in a speed shop for Dexter Pereira, & I got the opportunity to drive his 8 second Integra at the track, & guess what, I sucked, I did an 11 second run on a 8 second car because I got scared of the power & speed when i was in 3rd gear & just let the car roll all the way to the finish line. Dexter believed in me. He taught me how to race & when the time came around to finally driving the Integra, I hit a 8.98 & he was proud of me & I was of myself. & thats where I learned that racing isn't easy. Your probably wondering...."How come you just don't go to the track & race at a sanctioned event." For the simple fact of I don't wanna drive three hours to the track to pay $30 to race three measily times & then on top of that waste $30 more dollars on food & gas to just drive back for three more hours. Thats half of my day wasted for runs. Also the track is always jam packed like sardines in a can & you could be waiting for about for an hour for your next run. Waste 6 to 8 hrs at the track & waste money or waste three to four hours & get money by street racing. Fuck that shit!! I want to get paid so i go street racing.

I also played Little League & High School baseball(atleast we one thing in common)I apoligize if my punctuation, capitalization, and grammar is horrible. I'm so sorry if the way I speak, write, & typing is hurting your beautiful eyes. I tried to to proofread & edit this post so I dont have to offend you(Do you notice the sarcasm. Well atleast you didn't say my spelling is fucked up too because then those would be fighting words. :p: ) I'm just playing. I just posted this to defend myself & explain why I do what I do. If you don't like street racing, don't do it, but don't go off later & post a thread on the kill section saying "I just spanked an Eclipse on the highway when I was coming out of work." because then you'll just be hypocrite & become worse than me.?? If you dont like street racing, then you have 2 options at night: stay home & go to sleep at night or stay up & watch "The Honeymooners" reruns.

P.S. Boswoj this isn't an attack stated directly at you. This is an attack in general to the anti-street racing community. I respect your opinion. And as we are both mature men(I hope) I expect you to also respect my opinion.

wow that was long

Damn. That was long. Chill. Nasapro 7 thank you for your honesty, it only makes sense.

I believe Penske said it takes a large fortune to win a small fortune in racing.

Getting major sponsors is where the money is (helps to cover operational costs) plus of course the prize money. Running a car that is competitive can cost thousands of dollars a weekend. Better have spare engines/transmissions, tons of rims/tires, and a fat bank account to truly win time and time again.

Racing isn't cheap bottom line. Stick to keeping it a hobby and save up for a house!

-GNX7

One thing to think about -

At local roundy-round tracks, even the guys in the cheap cars usually go away with some money. It may not be the kind of racing that you really want to do, but it can teach you some important things about setup, prep, and driving. The track owners want to sell tickets, and the drivers are the show, so they usually at least spread around enough money to defray your costs. Don't know of any classes currently taking rotaries, but you probably would want to race something that you don't mind getting destroyed anyway.

I got the motorsports bug from my father. I built my first car at the age of 19 or 20. I did well. I have won races against guys who went on to Pro levels. At one point I was dropping $1500 per race, 2 times a month for a couple of years. I hired a PR firm to obtain sponsorship to go Pro. It never materialized. I then went into business for myself to get the money. I have past my prime. I hope my son will continue my dream. I have learned the secret of motorsports and plan to make sure I do what it takes for that to happen for him. Here is the secret.

You need Money. You need Skill. You need the correct attitude. You need the correct look. You need no life outside. You need more money. You will need to prove yourself. You will need more money.

It is the simple Chicken and the Egg thing. Just like your credit. You need credit to get credit - You need money to get money in motorsports. When money is made in motorsports you have already spent much more than that to get there.

-billy

"last night I raced a Corvette C5-R & won 2 out of 3. "

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


didn't know pratt and miller let people borrow their cars and take them to NJ to street race. No such thing as a c5-r other than the few that pratt and miller made. and i assure you. You'd lose.

Get an automatic car leave it stock and go bracket racing. That is the only way I know of.

In the Feb 2005 issue of Grassroots Motorsports, they shed some light on the cost of road racing. In the World Challenge Touring class which is shown on Speed TV, they have very close, intense road races for smaller cars such as the Acura Integra and the BMW 325i. Will Turner’s BMW’s always run up front, and the cost is high: he says it costs him on average $14,500 per car each race weekend.
Note that this is the cost of the small bore Touring class. The big bore GT class is MUCH more expensive, especially when you consider you are racing against factory teams that budget as much as a million dollars a year.

If there was money in racing more of us would do it and fewer of us would be so strapped in just trying to pay the bills that allow us to go race ;)

Bah, there's lots of money in racing, despite what everyone says. Lots and lots of it. It just... tends to go in and not come back out. :D

A great article was I believe in SportsCar, the SCCA mag, about Randy Pobst. May have even been ny him. But to listen to him is to understand the desire, certainly the talent, and the motivation and gumption to go out and get it. He talks about starting out in Showroom Stock cars, that were daily drivers. He had such a desire to get into it and be paid for it that it took years of paying dues. He also mentions not wrecking as the car was his ride to work on Monday. If he didn't win, he got no contingency and tire, etc money, and no way to race the next time. So he literally went in with no option to lose mentality. Couple that with natural talent, and you can see why he made it. But first, he made it his life, as someone mentioned earlier, having no life outside of racing if your dream is to make money at it. I have been autocrossing, hillclimb, Solo I, and have only once left with any money from a race, and that was a hillclimb, that I had made it to the top 10, 100.00 bucks. Terriffic, gas one way was paid. ;)

LOL at Pratt & Miller lending out the C5Rs. hope this kid doesn't think a C5R is what your C5 becmomes with an auto zone Type-R sticker on it.

Cheers,
Travis

:rlaugh: :bigthumb:

Lemme go into the quotes archive .... :D

"Road racing makes heroin addiction seem like a vague wish for something salty." - Peter Egan


Racing at any level is expensive. The amount of money necessary to be competitive at any level is immense. Maintenance, entry fees, licensing, wear-and-tear items, TIRES, gas, safety equipment, modifications to stay competitive .... it's an endless pit. And if you want to be a front runner all the time, double that cost .... at least. Look at Spec Miata. It was supposed to be the cheap way to get into wheel-to-wheel. Now just to be in the front pack, guys are dropping $8-12K on B&B'd motors to eek out that little extra HP.

Credit cards are evil little things for a racer. ;)