Real Cost To Arrive-And-Drive TAFC & TAD?

[cephus]

we stayed in my camper, and my new trailer has living qtrs., which saves a lot, a lot of money is wasted on hotels
but my crew chief 2 the stars wuld only stay in a hotel room !!!!

 

[Pete]

Hey Bob, not 100% sure on T-bone....Uncle Frankie ran above $500k in the mid 2000's. Im sure that # had gone up substantially by the end of last season.

 

[vegasnitro]

Hey Bob, not 100% sure on T-bone....Uncle Frankie ran above $500k in the mid 2000's. Im sure that # had gone up substantially by the end of last season.

I would be surprised if that were true. One constant lament in Division 1 Alky Funny Car circles was they were spending twice the money as Uncle Frankie and he was still beating their ass. He ran out of the same trailer for 20+ years, got new pipe only when he needed to and didn't tear up parts as badly as some (TBone). He was also notorious for just running hard enough to win ... It wasn't always set on KILL ... it just seemed like it.

 

[Toejam]

Does anyone camp out at the track?

Most tracks don't let Racers camp out at the track...

 

[MM]

Most tracks don't let Racers camp out at the track...

Really? Like where?

 

[Jay]

Very cool info here...thanks guys....

It seems like there is a pretty wide range depending on what you want to accomplish....

 

[Mooseman]

Someone will disagree with me, but I find these threads interesting. It seems you have the teams who want to run hard but also want everything first class, first class food/accomodation/flights. Everything top notch. But then you get the guys who want to run hard but travel modestly, eat modestly, use modest accomodation.

Then you get those who don't run hard but do everything first class and those who don't run hard and do everything modestly.

Neither the first class way or the modest way is bad, but the logical thing for me would be however you do it prioritise your spending to where it will be most effective. You could have a big money first class operation and yet barely qualify.

I was reading an article the other day about racers who take a huge big tool box to the races with every tool imaginable in it, "Prepared for everything as they say", yet 70% of the tools in the toolbox don't fit anything on the actual race car. The article sounded really logical to me, makes alot of sense only taking what you absolutely need.

 

[Toejam]

Really? Like where?

You talking on Track Property, or across the street?

 

[vegasnitro]

You talking on Track Property, or across the street?

Joe, I don't know of any track that won't let you stay in the pits in your toterhome or RV if you are a paid entrant. One of my favorite things to do at national events is wander through the pits about 11pm on Friday night ... You would be surprised who is still there and not leaving.

 

[Butch]

Looking back in time the majority of the KICK ASS CARS where tuned and driven by the same person.

I would be surprised if that were true. One constant lament in Division 1 Alky Funny Car circles was they were spending twice the money as Uncle Frankie and he was still beating their ass. He ran out of the same trailer for 20+ years, got new pipe only when he needed to and didn't tear up parts as badly as some (TBone). He was also notorious for just running hard enough to win ... It wasn't always set on KILL ... it just seemed like it.

 

[cephus]

is amazing wat happens after hours lots of fun, poker, golf cart races, a swig of bama moonshine always makes things happen I miss the Div 2 races and the
racers but oh well

 

[Toejam]

It's all in what your goals are. If you just want to go play and don't expect to go rounds or line the shelves with Wally's you can do it fairly reasonable since there aren't 25-30 cars showing up for 8 and 16 car fields like there used to be. Just like some of the lower budget TF teams, you can race as your budget allows and still get to set up your stuff at the big show. But if you are there to kick butt and take names you need to have depth in your program which means spare engines and everything else under the bench with all the right parts on them and extra everything in the cabinets. At one race a few years ago we went through three engines in four runs. When Bucky ran TA/FC he would count the number of rounds it took to win on Sunday be it three or four and would have that many engines rolled out of his rig on engine stands with engine covers on them ready to go, including ignition systems timed...locked and ready.

RG, back in the 90's Dale Van Gundy showed at in Dallas one year. I met he and his crewman (Those two were it!) They didn't even have a spare motor, just a spare set of Heads! That is about as Low Dollar racing as it gets!

 

[cephus]

joe is right based on goals,, a good crew chief is a must we ran the same 2 engines the whole TAD time I only mess up some rods one time missed a shift, didn't do again to expensive wen u pay the bill you learn real fast

 

[Toejam]

joe is right based on goals,, a good crew chief is a must we ran the same 2 engines the whole TAD time I only mess of some rods one time missed a shift, didn't do again to expensive wen u pay the bill you learn real fast

I met Spiro Kontos at Indy 2 years ago, he hired Randy Anderson that year as his CC, and he said the savings in Destroyed Parts was incredible!

 

[the zone]

many do camp at the track now with the nice toters. Bartone is certainly the one who spent the most Bob M likely because of paying and flying in the CC. Pete I would venture that even the 650k you say he spends was not the norm even for him. Not doubting he told you that but doubting he told you the absolute truth. The couple teams I know that travel a bunch due to their geographic location (furthest travel distance to make a 14-20 race schedule) spend a pretty good percentage less than that with three or four fly in crew. Manzo may have had a high paying sponsor and his yearly cost would be high due to all the testing he did on a weekly basis but his cost per run would have been less that a number of teams.

Dean

 

[the zone]

Just an addition to what Marc said. While it is nice to have 7 nationals (good solid tracks) now to claim for national points the cost for travel has gone up do to the added travel and it sucks imo. only three regionals in the divisional for TA really loses the chance for any small dollar team to keep and run a TA car.
The only positive is that NFC has become a great class and has grown by leaps and bounds
Dean

 

[Thrill]

We can talk about the amortorized cost per run, cost per race type of deal where you spread expenses over x number of runs or races. Many times cash flow can be the killer, especially in the beginning of the year with recert expenses. Updates to parts, new parts, restocking, etc.

If you drove, tuned and worked on the car yourself with a volunteer crew that rides in the truck to the races, you might get by on $2500-$5000 a race, depending on travel. And that's a no frills, stay at the track type of deal. Many times trying to get a few more runs out of a part can prove disasterous.

It's not hard at all to spend $8500-10,000 a race, especially with travel and airfare. Especially with some modest damage (spread across the season). Kick the rods out, easily will cost $5k plus. We broke a crank at the end of 2012, killed block, pistons, rods, ti flywheel, clutch components, ring and pinion and cracked the chassis.

The teams with big name crew chiefs (not me) and a bunch of fly in crew help (getting paid too) and a full time guy are probably spending over $20k an event.

 

[FABMAN]

Randy Meyer said last year the trip from K.C. to Houston fuel bill was over 2,000 dollars for the trip alone, that doesn't included getting team there.

 

[cephus]

when Div 2 was rolling had 4 races within 3 hours of home was sweet so cost was not bad,

 

[FastJackFan]

New to the board but this has been a very interesting read, wish there was more open discussion about things like this in the sport of drag racing.