The day we stop pretending
 

A couple weeks back, the great Kevin Swindell posted a tweet that read “The day we stop pretending the purse is where anybody in racing makes money it will be a good day” That statement drew plenty of comments. I found it very interesting. He laid out expenses vs profit if he won a 10k to win race. By his calculations he would barely break even. There’s plenty of ways to go on this, and I’m sure you, the esteemed members of IOW, will find different paths to debate this but 2 things jumped out at me. First this brings to reality the small team, weekly racers apparently are the ones who the purses are the most important. And secondly you better have sponsors or someone with a very fat wallet bankrolling you if you want to run big time wings. In that thread, I believe I saw McGhee say averaging the year it’s $6500 a night to race a top shelf car. I don’t know what you think but man that’s salty. I just want to thank all the sponsors and teams who keep us entertained spending that kinda dough. Ok Stevensville, you asked for something to chew on, there’s a bone. I just hope I don’t get slandered for bringing it up

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

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

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

agree and sounds on point, but then also: those that follow a point fund have to appreciate when thats paid out? Basically WoO & Allstar top spots only ones that really worth it tho? Wasn't ASCS pretty high a year or two ago and then they lowered that when Lucas left?

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

I think we all know that racing at the grassroots level is a very expensive hobby. The purse is just there to ease the burden a little. Flip it 180 and I think you could make a similar discussion about track owners and promoters. A break even is a win.

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

It costs money to go fast. Not sure what the real answer is. You cant really ask patrons to pay 50 or 60 bucks at every event to attend, but you can demand more money from the streaming services I guess to help??....

Being old and remembering open wheel trailers hauling the cars. Then it was the small enclosed trailer. Now they have $500,000 to $1,000,000 rigs. And they wonder why it cost so much to race. Glad there is sponsorship out there willing to help out these teams.

Back when it was profitable, the tires lasted for numerous races. With hard tires you need a heavier car, also making it cheaper. With cars less hooked up the engines last much longer. It’s a pretty simple equation that only the poor guys want to go back to. But they aren’t the ones who get to make the decisions.

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

Fellow at work asked me if we made any money racing:16 I said Hell yeah, do we make a profit? Hell no:5: See how the prices at the gate has gone up but the purses sure haven't grown that much:15:

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

Originally Posted by EldoraMark:
Being old and remembering open wheel trailers hauling the cars. Then it was the small enclosed trailer. Now they have $500,000 to $1,000,000 rigs. And they wonder why it cost so much to race. Glad there is sponsorship out there willing to help out these teams.

And there's no reason in the world why most local racers couldn't still have a cheap open trailer pulled by their daily driver pickup truck without sacrificing a single competitive element. I see these half million dollar rigs around here and they never haul the car more than about 20 or 30 miles to the track and back. i've got no problem with these folks spending money on this stuff, but when these same people start complaining about the cost of tires, shocks, etc. and that they can hardly afford to race weekly, I have to question their judgement in how they spend (waste) their money.

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

Look at the fella that gutted the school bus and uses it for a hauler. Burns is his name I think. I agree some teams have way more than they need in haulers / trailers but hey it's America. Gotta keep up with the Jones'.

Re: The day we stop pretending
 

The day we stopped pretending was when we.
1 Went from some type of production car frame to a racing chassis.
2. when went from a production street or drag tire to purpose built dirt tire.
3. When we went from a production engine and heads with some bolt ins and modification to a purpose built race motord.

the old timers are right, You could make $$ back in the day when you had a grand total in the car and the motor and tires lasted a season.

Sprints are running for a million to win tomorrow. Based on that one race alone, You think the owner makes money on it?. NO.

Originally Posted by Charles Nungester:
The day we stopped pretending was when we.
1 Went from some type of production car frame to a racing chassis.
2. when went from a production street or drag tire to purpose built dirt tire.
3. When we went from a production engine and heads with some bolt ins and modification to a purpose built race motord.

the old timers are right, You could make $$ back in the day when you had a grand total in the car and the motor and tires lasted a season.

Sprints are running for a million to win tomorrow. Based on that one race alone, You think the owner makes money on it?. NO.

Open wheel cars using Essex frame rails and Atlas Bucrons stopped being a thing 55 years ago.

Grandpa raced in the 50’s and he quit because it was getting too expensive to build a competitive Flathead with a Winfield cam and 180 degree crank. And that was with a stock/single carb intake and stock heads…

This is not a new problem.