Joe Newbie, 20 Builds a "Stocker"' in 2023

[1347]

Originally Posted by AJ Laferty

Rulemaking has consequences. Lack of enforcement has consequences. Racing for money creates multiple effects.

How can you drive down the cost of racing in general, not necessarily just stock/super stock?

Please share your thoughts.

I don't think you can. In all forms of motorsports, and even sports in general, money changes everything. When I was a kid, we played little league, and then there was a all star team that did some traveling. It was all pretty local, and wasn't expensive. Now parents spend 10s of thousand of dollars for Travel clubs, showcases, private lessons etc. You will see it in all other sports too.

Look what happened to a sport where you put a mini bike engine in a go kart that looks like a dragster and race against other kids, created by the late Vinny Napp. That original car still exists, and if it didn't have the Castrol GTX paint job that says David Knapp on it, and you showed up to race it, you would be laughed at. The amount of money spent on those engines and cars could buy a decent engine for a stocker. A friend I worked with had home built a 1/4 midget and a jr dragster for his kids in the 90s, he brought them in his pickup truck to the racetracks, by then, most of the kids were already hanging out in their motorhomes inbetween runs, as his kids sat on folding chairs on hot asphalt.

Look around, it's just not classracing.

[Mike Gray]

I think Paul Merolla’s post is right on the money. I’m a newbie to stock eliminator and haven’t made a single pass yet. I did race in super-street and super-gas for about 15yrs. A .90 car is an easier build than a class car and you can purchase 800hp crate motors for less than my stocker engine. But where is the challenge? It may be in the driving but a lot of us like the engineering/building side of challenge also. I sold my cars and took time off to raise my kids and now it’s time to go racing again. I’m retired and that’s probably we’re a lot of the new class racers will come from as they raid their 401K to build a competitive car. Sure it’s expensive but if thought out and done carefully the money invested won’t totally evaporate.
You guys make stock sound real hard but I’m planning to be legally under the index first time out. A front runner probably not, my goal was to keep the car legal and see how far I can push it even if it ruffles some feathers.