A succinct over-view of racing costs.

[Fawbish]

Right, thought it may be useful to create a thread that sums up firstly generic racing costs, and then perhaps Class Specific costs.


Im looking at people that have researched this thoroughly (Big_Ham, Garth?) or people that have actually raced (which, to my immediate knowledge, G, feef?)

Im at work and dont have the time to research it all properly, and from my research on Bemsee etc they dont seem to be fantastically forthcoming when it comes to prices. I will probably email a race advisor tonight if I get chance.

So, for a typical round, practice + two races etc, what costs are we looking at?

How "cheap" (ha!) can you viably go?



So far, I can think of:


Generic

Tyre Warmers
Generator
Van
Tools (got most needed probably)




What else?
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"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[Wozza]

How much do paddock girls cost?

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[Fawbish]

You're a lovely man Chris, I shall have your babies.


And Wozza, depends where youre shopping, are you high class?


Riiight. So to sum up so far (NOT including transport etc)

Tyre Warmers £1/200
Generator - £2/300
Transponder - £300 new, £200 second hand
Entry Fees - £200 per round
Tyres - Class Dependant
Spares - £150 +
Spare Motor - £100~£400
Bike consumables - Class Dependant (New Oil every race weekend?)
Sprockets - Not tooo expensive. Factor £100 for a few different sized.

So, working at maximum so far, and taking out entry fees for now, starting costs are....

...~£1500 - and Im certain there'll be other costs I havent thought of yet.

And thats if you have a bike. And doesnt count your licence (though, I have a full licence now, so an ACU will be fairly cheap)

Then per race meeting you're looking at between £300-£500 depending on class (ie tyres) and how many friends you have available for deals on consumables and shit.


Hmm. Im starting to think this might be do-able if I commit to it. Need few more trackdays to get upto pace first though. I doubt I'd be racing with the zx6r in the 600's though, especially not if its a class where tuning is allowed. Im a little uncertain if theres actually a 600 IL4 class that is restricted enough to use a stock bike? Im certain superstock isnt stock
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"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[MarJay]

You've got to factor in Van fuel because its one of the highest costs. Also you'll never manage to budget for when something breaks a couple of minutes before scrutineering and you need to buy a replacement else it will fail. Stuff like that.

£1500 sounds stupidly low to me. The Triumph Triple challenge cost £12,000 (IIRC) a couple of years back which included a bike, a limited number of tyres, the bike preparation and race entry. I'm fairly sure that was seen as a bargain too... And it did not include van, tools, tyre warmers, paddock stands, ramp, fuel, van fuel, food or anything like that.

Club racing is expensive. Even MZ's and Yamaha Past Masters (which are seen as 'cheap') are damned expensive.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F; Cheap project: CBR900RR FireBlade
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Depends on the regs with each club, usually Superstock is full system, air filter, and a thinnder head gasket and that's it on the engine front.

Wheels must be standard, you can revalve the forks and fit different cartridges, you can also change the shock.

ACU CTC course is £50(must do this before you can get a license), and the admin fees are about £20 + your club membership which is usually another £20 or so. You'll also need a full eye test which is another £20.

Personally I changed the oil every 3 trackdays. Some do it more, some less, personally perference. No real need to change it every meeting with a stock engine.

My master plan if I get a full time job is to get a modern 600 and race it in supersport and superstock 600 classes, but we'll see.

Supersports tune is usually about 20-30bhp up on SS tune.
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

O, just for completeness the GSXR trophy is 9k for a full year's racing including the bike, down from 12k last year.

However most of those chaps are fast racers, so not great for a beginner.

The guy I bought my hornet off, his budget for a year's racing in the hornet cup was 5k, and he already had all the bits and bobs. You'll be looking at a similar amount for a full season not including bike and van.

A lot of it depends on how many rounds you want to do.
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[garth]

Also budget the totally unexpected. I.e today, off to Snett the night before (200+ miles, eash way) to go out for sighting laps, plus one more and the bike to break.* So I pulled off the tarmac onto the grass, and got a nail in the rear tyre, the 4 lap old rear tyre.**

* Swingarm end plate on the LHS shattered, local Ducati dealer and others tried had nothing in stock. Bodged with washers and magic.

**Tyre people on site had no 160/60's. No shop in a 20 mile radius had any 160 diablos.

Then when I put the wheel back in it now pinches up, like the bearing is getting pinched or something.




I've had a good day, me.

So thats ~£200 for 4 laps!


Don't do it.
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[G]

The TTC isn't the cheapest way to do it - but apart from the bike, you still need a fair few of the 'start up' costs.
It can be done quite cheaply. Ideally find someone else that's racing that you can pikey-in-on and use their power etc.

When I looked at the GSXR one make series it wasn't very good value in terms of the number of laps/races you got.

Think somewhere is running a stocksport class this year.
To be honest, you don't really need a tuned bike, you just need talent . The tuning makes up for the lack of talent to some degree (note that I generally had neither, thus no trophies ).
An ok rider with a stock bike will be battling with slower riders with tuned bikes.
Similarly, you can use part-worn tyres, but really you want a new set a weekend for minitwins and faster, I'd say.
I generally paid under £200 (about £180 I think, special price for racers) for a set of supercorsas, but don't know what prices are like these days.

For startup costs, if you want 'cheap', you don't /need/ tyre warmers and thus a generator. Wouldn't bother going out of my way to get a spare motor unless it's a sports ducati you're riding - they don't seem to handle serious use anywhere near as well as the jap bikes (while the monsters etc seem ok).
Some spares are nice, but must basic stuff can be got there - ie levers etc. Spare clip-ons and pegs are worth having. Gaffa tape and cable ties will probably sort the rest!
Get sprockets from another racer selling up.

Gutted garth, luckily I never had that bad problems. Though I did have to miss half an enduro a month ago because of a flat tyre (got a puncture trying to replace the inner tube with some van-tyre irons) ... though I think it was actually flat at the start of the first two hours, to be honest :-S. Meant I paid £45 for two hours riding rather than four!

[garth]

Just found out that the bike shop who did the tyre whilst the wheel was off at Snetterton put a spacer in the wrong way. That explains the wheel pinching up.

And I'm back there on Saturday, in inters, on a power circuit with a relativcely slow bike, with no warmers and un scrubbed tyres, on an unknown track.

Plus New Era are racing the day after, so I would assume the pace would be a little quicker.


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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

You run Corsa IIIs in Desmodue right?

Just take it easy for the first half of the session.
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[G]

I've had a brand new supercorsa at lydden at been happy to go for it from the start after a single warm-up lap.

[garth]

Bog standard H rated Diablos. It'll be ok, not worried about the tyres, it's a combo of not knowing the track, etc.
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[Fawbish]

Cheers for all the information dudes

So if I work this out correctly, I could enter Superstock with my 1999, 26K miles zx6r right? But my costs would be relatively high due to needing higher frequency of tyres etc.

Its completely stock bar an exhaust can.

I very much dont expect I'll enter the superstock via any club, though I feel most at home riding a 600 IL4.

Ech. Fucking money, root of all evil (and happiness).

Dont worry, this isnt a "would I do okay?" post. lol. Im well aware of how fast the series is, and how old my bike is (though, Im hoping that wouldnt matter too much. I was mostly at the front of inters at Rock with a fucked clutch, and few other things on the bike need sorting out, on my 3rd trackday. I reckon I've got a fair amount of potential, and Im determined to see how far I can take it, and have a shit load of fun on the way )

Trackdays for the rest of this year I think, wanna fit another two in at least. (Would be more, but Im off to Europe for 2 weeks on the bikes! Woop!)

I'll keep researching and add stuff I find to this thread
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"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."