Costs of Racing

[Graham]

Good day, Gentlemen (and ladies)...

Being a long-standing spectator (sitting sometimes ) I've often wondered just how much it costs to race the cars I see. I'm not talking about Tuscans or stuff like that, but proper club (historic) racing where you get your hands dirty and swear a lot.

It seems from those I've had contact with on the 'Net and off that there's a definite trend for racers to have jobs in the computer industry, usually at management level or above. Do you really need to have a 'big job' to race without losing your worldly possessions? Or does it just get you a bigger motorhome?

And does it, all things considered, cost more to race a historic than a modern car (parts, development, etc). Or conversely, because a modern car has had less time for development, does this make it a more difficult proposition?

Andrew Guy (http://www.tintinracing.com) - he he!, keep plugging it, keep plugging it - is a computy developer dude in London and he gave me some figures for racing his Talbot Sunbeam. To me, they were FIGURES (in capital letters, mind). Yet he races a small(ish) car in a small(ish) championship - now don't all you CSCC chappies start attacking.


Okay - I'll come clean. If I can hoard enough moolah and find a job (not necessarily in that order) I'd like to take to sprinting, hillclimbing or race in one of the Castle Combe series in 2001, with my brother. Nothing spectacular - just me, Andy, a Mini (possibly) or an old TVR (dream on...) and a back row grid position at every race. Oh, and the all-important grin (maniacal or not). I happy bunny I shall no doubt be.

Can anyone suggest a good way of starting the climb from watching to doing? Car, series, expenditure involved and so on...

I *may* be able to extract sponsorship from a couple of sources, but I'm not betting on it. Will most probably be me against the world.

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If I can get an idea about this, I can figure out now whether it's a dream that can't be fulfilled so I don't get me hopes up. It's improbable anyway, because I spend so damn much on film each season taking piccies of you lot!

BTW: I live in England. In Dorset, so Combe nice and local and cool (and cheap, I presume).

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PS. How the hell do you afford those massive motorhomes? Sponsors? It's funny when a 36 footer with all the trimmings turns up towing a battered Mini.


Cheers,

A sad little wannabee