Making a profit in drag racing ????

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by Bobby DiDomenico

You've got it Jeff.

In the latest Dragster there is a blurb about a new SS/AH car. To keep the math simple, if the cars costs $50,000, the engine costs $50,000, the truck and trailer costs $50,000, and to run it for 5 years costs $50,000 with all maintenance, food, lodging, fuel, tax, lic., etc. what 5th business class would even dream of breaking even? (Let alone having a paper profit...)

$50,000 for a SS/AH Chassis and $50,000 for an engine...........Thats way to cheap. Some chassis builders charge in excess of $100,000 to do the chassis AFTER you supply a decent car. Last track I had on a "Winning" fast SS/AH Hemi engine (might last 10 or 12 runs) was in the $75,000 range. I guess you could cut corners and tow it with an old pick up and a wooden flat bed trailer or use towing hubs and a tow bar.....lol.

[Rich Biebel]

Save a few bucks.....no towing hubs...pull the drive shaft and keep an eye on the rear end gears...

[sugar1366]

You could always take an old 10.70 bracket car, set up a ballast system with old barbells, and run 10.90 index. Keep the car basic with no stop or timers and keep the engine combo very basic+ mild so you don't have alot of maintenance. No-- Hold on--- That could never be competitive against all those cars with electronics.

Making money at racing is almost a pipe dream. I am satisfied with the fact that I have a hobby that gives me the opportunity to recover some of my expenses. Sometimes you have a GOOD year (don't break anything and win a few races). Other times you have a bad year( break stuff and don't win alot). It usually evens out. Just race for the love of the sport and you'll be much happier.

Eddie Bolton

[treessavoy]

If you really want to know how to make a profitt racing in the non-pro classes talk to David Rampy but remember, he still has a sponsor.

Doing it out of your own wallet will never work, don't care who you are.

Remember the old saying about Drag Racing: "If you want to be a millionaire Drag racer......start with 3 million" !

Racing is supposed to be fun, be happy that you can race and maybe break even.

JimR

[Michael Beard]

Another worthy investment you can make is in the driver... there are both live and online driving schools available these days, from the likes of Luke Bogacki and Scotty Richardson. Guest Instructors make that knowledge pool even deeper. Each has made an instant difference to a large number of their students. I spent 10 minutes on the phone with a bracket racer this weekend, and he went from a consistent .060 spot on the tree to being .005, .005, -.008.

Eddie -- You've gone over to the dark side. What do the numbers look like comparing taking two cars/trucks/trailers to the track compared to the new toter/stacker combo? It'd be nice to run two cars, but for me, I don't actually think the second car would save me any money, as I'd need a bigger truck, bigger trailer, all resulting in an additional investment and lower fuel mileage. I could be persuaded to ***** myself out to drive a second car for someone else. (Every time I get an "attaboy" from Bertozzi, I tell him that I'm just auditioning for him... LOL)

I've considered building an "NHRA" stocker engine for the Volare so that I could run Stock in NHRA, as well as both Stock and Super Stock in IHRA, but now that I have everything paid off, I question if it's worth investing in a new combo, when what I have works. Plus, my schedule is tight enough as it is. The excessive amount of time it takes to complete NHRA events is a turn-off to me.