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While going through the latest issue of the NSSN magazine, I happened across a small story in the "Looking Back" section. The story noted that Jud Larson had won $950 from a total purse of $5250 for winning a 30 lap USAC sprint car race at Eldora in April of 1965. Being a retired engineer, I decided to compare 1965 to today.
A little searching on the Internet showed that to convert 1965 dollars to 2015 dollars the multiplier is 7.2. So:
$950 in 1965 = $6840 in 2015
$5250 in 1965 = $37,800 in 2015
Jud Larson won $950 from a total purse of $5250, or the winners share was 18.1% of the total purse.
On April 4 2015, Logan Jarrett won $5000 from a total purse of $22,450 or a winners share of 22.2%.
I don't know what a ticket cost for that Eldora race in 1965, but I do know that a ticket for my first USAC race (Salem, July 1967) was $4.00. In 2015 dollars converting from 1967, that same ticket would be $28.
So what's the point of all this rambling? Everyone has said that purses have not kept up with inflation, but I've never been able to quantify those perceptions until now. And while there is a lot of complaining on here about ticket prices, they are slightly underpriced from where they should be IF one uses the same multiplier for purses and tickets.
Now, before anyone says I'm bashing USAC, I'M NOT!! I'm a long time USAC fan. This example is being made because the information is readily available. I am pretty positive if there was information on local track purses from 1965 and it were to be compared to today, the results would look similar.
Steve
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