........either temporarily (a couple of years or permanently).....how'd you cope with it.

As I gather most on this forum, even those who don't race, most of us are passionate about racing, whether it's watching it on TV, attending races to spectate or racing at the club level and beyond many of us eat, live, and sh*t RACING.

I watch every form of racing known to man. Before I got into racing and HPDE's about 10 years ago I watched Football, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer and racing. In the past years because of time constraints the only thing I watch on TV is racing. I've taped races the past few years I haven't even watched yet.

However, each season is getting harder and harder because of work and family commitments. I have three kids who are now reaching the ages where they are becoming heavily involved in sports and this means choosing between racing and my kids activities.

To make a long and boring story short I am having to jump through more and more hoops to accomodate my racing. Working unbelievable hours at home and work to be able to race. Getting to non-local tracks at 5 am in the morning of race day (Beaverun and VIR this year). Having to kiss up to the wife to go racing (she usually has a long list of items that need to be done the week before I go racing).

I've slowly come to the conclusion that the time is nearing where I need to hang it up for a while (3-5 years). My kids are still at the age where they are quite a handful for my wife (twins who are 5 1/2 and a 2 year old). I am gone all week at work and then take off for the track. Last season (04) I raced a total of 13 weekends, this year I could only muster 6 weekends.

I always wanted to race at Daytona in the 24 Hour since I was about 15 years old. I've been to the 24 Hour race 10 of the last 14 years. My ultimate goal and dream was to one day race there. It's one of the few racing venues that seem achievable. Lemans, F1, Cart will only ever happen on XBOX but Daytona is realistic.

The cost to rent a ride is quite hefty as most of you can imagine. However it would make leaving racing a lot easier knowing I got there (regardless of the result).

I am contemplating either doing it in 06 or 07 in GT class. If done in 06 I would hang it up. If not then I would do one season in ITA and the ARRC and then give it a shot in 07.

I have no dumb visions of winning it. I would likely be a backmarker or mid packer. My goal is simply to compete in the event and do decently to say I raced with the guys we all watch on tv each weekend. I tested two Rolex cars at Homestead about two years ago and ran competive lap times against two Rolex regulars in the same car.

I sometimes wonder if I could actually walk away temporarily. I have been addicted to racing since I was a small boy. It's like a drug!!!!

If you gave it up for a while or permanently how hard was it ???????????????

Regards,

Jon

 

i've met lots of people (at DE's) in their late 40's and 50's where just just bought the recent sports cars, and finally came back out to play after extended periods of hibernation from tracking. often times they were ex racers. life often just takes over, especially if they have wife and kids. sometimes work takes over too. on the bright side, now that they've return usually they are well positioned financially and have the time to do so as well.

i've asked them how could they have stayed away for so long, the usual reply is they didn't even have time to think about it.

i didn't track much of 2004, but it was because i was overseas. i just occupied myself with basketball and didn't have much urges to get on the track. but then i came back to california and the 1st day i got back on track, i knew i would do everything i can to keep going to the track... thus the track ***** life is resumed.

 

Thats pretty easy.

In 2004 I sold my car. I didnt like the idea of putting more money into it. So I decided it has to be done.

I then took up flight school and helicopter flying. Needless to say the price is exhorbitant! So after 29 hours of flying that money tree died..

Currently I am planning to get back into racing but long term I see myself flying!

 

I quit for a year right before I got married, for us it was a financial decision. I didn't want to go into the marriage with a large amount of debt. For me it helped knowing the leave was a temporary thing and I would be back in a year.

Have you thought about switching to autocross? You can run a local schedule and only spend one Sunday a month away from the family. Depending on what the daily driver is you may be able to use it, or you could pick up something relatively cheap when you sell the race car. ST* classes offer great bang for the buck, if you buy a car that is prepped the costs are crazy cheap because street tires last forever. A lot of road racers look down on autox, but it's a lot better than doing nothing.

 

i hang out at 2209. costs me $30 in pink slushies and mexican pork weekly.

i go to the junkyard and sell crap. allows me to wrench on cars (that arent mine).

its pretty easy to "cope" with when youre financially in a hole and half your paycheck goes to getting out of it.

everyone asks me if i still race, or if im going to again. i dunno, at this point in life, theres a lot of other things important to me, i dunno where spending lots of money on a hobby fits in. not saying its at the bottom of things i want to spend my money on, but its not the only thing im looking forward to once im in the black, which finally is close enough and around the corner in january.

 

Autocrossing just isn't my cup of tea and I don't mean that in a negative way. I think most autocrossers make great road racers but it rarely works the other way around. Someone suggested just getting a fast road car and do a couple of HPDE's a year but that's where I came from originally. You get to a certain level in HPDE's and it becomes very boring.

Once I started racing, I mainly went to track days to keep in touch with my friends. When it got to the point where I simply couldn't do both it was an easy decision despite having to sell my beloved 400 hp track car and go racing in a 130 hp race car. Wheel to wheel was more fun even at much slower speeds.

In my case it's not really a question of budget or having to stop because the money well has run dry. That is of course a consideration but not even close to the time factor.

My main concern is selling everything only to find I want back in and having to buy up everything again and possibly have to re-apply for a license and go through all that hassle.

There are plenty of things more important in my life than racing, however when it comes time to play, I can't really think of anything that comes close. Whatever free time, if any, that I have I can't imagine spending it whacking a white ball on some manacured lawn or pretending I am Lance Armstong cycling through the countryside.

Just wondering if those who gave it up really missed it

 

I am not sure how I will cope with it. I have just started tracking my car last yr so only at 2 yrs now. I have done so many track days. I have done at least one weekend event a month and sometimes more. I am selling my S2K. I am not sure what I will be getting. It def won't be a track worthy car nor a worthy replacement for a s2k. I'm not sure what I will do in the mean time....

 

Why don't you just cut back to a more reasonable schedule? I will do 6 weekends this year and I consider myself super lucky! I can only dream about 13!

My job is putting a hurting on my racing as well. I was in 5 cities last week -- 6 flights.

Earlier this year I came home, put the car onto the trailer, and went to Roebling. When I checked into the hotel, all I wanted to do is go home. I really didn't want to spend my weekend at some crap hotel in some hick town -- I do that for work! Plus nothing makes a happy wifey more then coming home on Thursday only to head out for the weekend.

So I am pretty much down to Road Atlanta only and single race weekends. I will do 4-6 RA ProIT weekends next year plus the ARRC.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SPiFF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Earlier this year I came home, put the car onto the trailer, and went to Roebling. When I checked into the hotel, all I wanted to do is go home. I really didn't want to spend my weekend at some crap hotel in some hick town -- I do that for work! Plus nothing makes a happy wifey more then coming home on Thursday only to head out for the weekend.

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Zsolt,

I hear ya'. Last season I drove straight through the night from DC to Beaverun. Got to Beaverun at 6 am and unloaded the family at the hotel...unloaded the car at the track and felt like total ****. Raced that day with no sleep whatsoever and ended up punting my teammate and good friend Ian off the track. And this was after spending all of Friday at the hospital with my 2 year old son who was undergoing MRI's. I had no business being in a race car the next day with no sleep and a zillion other things on my mind.

You may also recall my 13 hour tow to Roebling with my family only to have my motor grenade during the second session. 800 miles and $500 in gas for about 15 laps.

This year on more than one occassion I simply didn't want to get out of bed and go racing. I get literally 4-5 hours sleep each weeknight. Up until the last race weekend I hadn't made one Saturday night awards ceremony. I am usually back at the hotel sound asleep by 6 or 7 pm.

For me it's either race a full season and race for a title of some sort or stay home. I told myself this season I'd only do the Summit races and forgo the Championship. Well that lasted until the first race weekend. Suddenly VIR and Beaverun were on the schedule as well.

If I raced two more full seasons in ITA and ran the ARRC both years that budgeted money would allow me to rent a ride in Rolex and be a hell of a lot easier.

 

I have thought about a similar situation many times for my racing "future". I have though alot about it.

Without a sponsor its potential finacial suicide to try Pro stuff on your own dime.
Especially if you have to sell everything and stay away for 1-2 years to pay for the ONE race. That race may be great, it can also be a complete nightmare.

-Taken out on lap one?
In that case you don't get to race your dream race at all and will have to pay alot to fix damage.
-Say, you are one of 3 drivers, one of the others starts the race and get taken out 1st lap, car is destroyed, you don't get to race, but no refund on your money.

I am all for making the step, I want to quite badly myself (Not the 24 exactly, but another pro series), but pro racing is brutal on the wallet, and mind. The one venture into the big time may ruin racing for you for the rest of your life.


You can do alot of racing for the cost of 1 or 2 pro events in a rental.
What about selling your ITA car, do fewer races in more car, formula car, GT car?
I don't know what the fields are like in the faster classes in your area, or if you are bored in your current class or not.
Renting in a pro series can be good, but it can chew you up and spit you out a bad mess really easy too, I have watched it happen.

 

The only thing that keeps me in the game is the fact that I work with the organizations I run with. NASA has been extremely good to me and I do whatever I can to do my best for them. If i'm not inspecting cars at tech first thing in the morning and answering questions through out the day and getting the late stragglers on track. I recently went through instructor school and will be filling in on that as well. I've been doing this for 2 years and have done an event almost every month that entire time. All in my daily driver. I don't want to hang up the driving shoes just yet, and i'm fortunate enough to meet some really great people who see me for what I am, a broke kid with a passion for driving. I'm not out to prove anything to anyone, I just love doing it and I love helping the organizations grow. I know this thread is about walking away, but I figured i'd throw in why i'm NOT walking away to set a contrast.

 

I have taken 2 long breaks from racing. They were mostly for financial reasons so it might be different for you. But here's my take.
First break was in '00-'01. I was just out of money. I did manage to get 3 race weekends in there but I regret even doing those. I was using peoples leftover tires, the wheel bearings were questionable, the tranny was giving up, and the car overall was just beat. At a Sears Point event I had 3 different brand tires on the car at the same time. It was great to be on the track but I was struggling to keep the car up to speed. I decided to wait until I could really drive the car hard before I'd drive it again.
Not racing sucked ***! Especially since I really didn't know when/if I'd get to race again. I still went to every event as an official. I helped create a series (very similar to what Karl and Scott were doing with the ECHC but for all makes under 2.2 liters.) Instructing and trying to bring up new racers helped pass the time. But it still sucked a lot of ***.
Eventually some new and old friends helped me get my car all freshened up and I'd saved enough money to have another go at racing. In the beginning of '02 I was really racing again. And it was well, AWESOME! It was actually way better than before. There were now more people racing cars like mine. I wasn't just getting lapped by Corvettes and lapping AE86s. I actually had people to dice with. And most importantly I was still fast (yes I am cocky. If you didn't know that before just take it as a given from here on out.) Moving on.
So I guess my point was. If you have to take a break from racing, well it's going to suck ***. Don't pretend it won't. But racing will still be there to come back to. I haven't raced since we did the thing at Mid-Ohio a year and a half ago. And well, it sucks. But not so bad this time. I've had some paying gigs for magazines and private instruction. And there are people that think I'm a racer even if I'm not racing. But more than anything I get by knowing that I will race again. And when I do I expect it to be even better than before.
Your situation is different since time is what's holding you back. If I were you, I'd do Daytona. Do it as soon as you can. Your skills are up. You've got the cash. Go do it. You may never get the chance again. If you have the space, keep the Integra. When you have the time to really enjoy it you can come out and play.

Best of luck to you whatever you decide to do. Just don't think I've forgotten about that steak dinner.

 

Jon - have you considered doing the DC SCCA races only? They're all at summit, which would make things easier on the travel/time aspect.

I'm not going to stop racing anytime soon, but I'm going to be cutting back my schedule next year, probably only doing the nasa-va weekends and instructing 3-4 other weekends as I can fit it in. Partially due to budget, but also because I start to get burnt out. The new job I started this year is also keeping me way too busy, I dont want to be dealing with the car all the time and I want to do other things as well - maybe a few track days on my bike next year too

 

The best advice I can offer is this: Keep the understanding wife very understanding.

Take the kids racing with you, when you can, and give your wife a break. I don't know whether your wife enjoys being at the races, but if not, don't drag her there.

Scale back as necessary. I think I only raced 5 weekends in 2005, but worked another.

Avoid missing most of the kids' activities. I made it to most of the T-ball games, even when autoxing.

My goal had always been to be a vintage racer (describing the cars, not the drivers!). At this point my race car will be "vintage" before I manage to go vintage racing.

Keith, who bought (many parts of) a vintage race car when my wife was expecting our first...

 

I am in this situation now.

I came from a few years of HPDE and did one year of racing before stopping this year.

Yes it is hard, but here are my reasons for quitting and my plan:

1. By not racing this year, I was able to eliminate ALL credit card debt.
2. I have an agreement with my fiance that after we pay the bills, save what we agree to save, then we each have our "own" money. True, this may only allow 2-3 races a year but I rather do this than:
3. Not have enough money in the future to pay for kids college, go on vacation, etc.
4. Plan on instructing at events. True, that instructing is dangerous, but at least I can get on the track for the cost of gas. Yes, it is only HPDE's, but it is better than nothing.
5. Plan on getting my future wife and future family involved.

How I am able to cope with not racing:
6. Simply realize that my family needs are more important than my needs. I am a selfish individual, but I am learning to put my family before me.

 

Winning Powerball or whatever lottery is in your state would help you cope nicely!

Seriously, I dont' know what I can say since I'm a frustrated racer (indoor gokart races don't count). I would think that talking to the family about it could help. Share the first post in this thread with them. Maybe that will help.

 

I just surfaced 2 and a half years after my son was born at my first autocross. Only problem was my wife gave birth to my daughter 2 weeks later, so back into the hole I go. It's not just the money. (well for some anyway) The time away is what killed it for real for me. I attempted to keep a schedule with a one year old, and life at home got so bad it was almost disastrous. I made it to one HPDE, a licensing school, and one race before it all crashed down. Money was gone, but more importantly, my son was starting to walk and I hadn't seen him for almost 2 weeks, and my wife was in hysterics. I was in line at the SCCA annual tech and my wife was in the emergency room with my 6 month old son who was running a 104 temperature. It was time to quit.

Walking away sucks. Every weekend it bugs me. I lost money on selling the car, the equipment, and it is costing me relationships with friends I barely see anymore. I can only look forward to yard work and maintenance on my cars and house to get me out of changing diapers and dealing with screaming newborns or toddlers. It used to bug me daily, but now only weekly. I might start autocrossing again with the DD miata, but definitely not regularly, and probably not again for at least 8 months. I am still looking forward to about 5 years from now getting my son onto a kart and seeing how that works out. I think as long as I have young kids it's just not going to work out. My family is not worth sacrificing for my hobby.

 

Do the things you want to do first, then it will be easier.

I set a goal of standing on the ARRC podium and I did that earlier than I expected, now I think I can walk away with no regrets.
Would I like to do stuff like race in Grand Am Cup and do a 24 hour? Sure, but those things are so far out of reach for me I might as well put them in the same category as a trip to Mars, so I don't even think about that.

I used to work 60 to 70 hour weeks. Back then I had plenty of money but no time. Now I'm self employed, and have plenty of time but no money.
Oh well. Whatchagonnado.

I used to do 10ish weekends a year. In 2005 it will be 6.
In 2006 it might be as little as 3 or 4.
The question I'm struggling with now is whether its better to turn the whole operation into cash or hold onto it to race 3 weekends a year. The practical thing is to liquidate, but this isn't a practical hobby.

I do know this though. Once I'm out, I'm out. I won't come back.
Just autocross and maybe some karting. Thats it. No more race cars.

 

have any of you thought about karting? There are many series that road race. Entry fees are around $70 for a weekend, and if you don't need a big enclosed trailer you can tow with something small and get 20+ mpg to get to the track. That and they are much cheaper to buy and go fast. The 125cc shifters are in the mid 30's at road atlanta.

I don't have the budget to road race a car, so instead of starting out and then having to cut back I'm trying this approach to get on track. Might be an option for some of you as well.

 

[QUOTE=FLATOUTRACING
As I gather most on this forum, even those who don't race, most of us are passionate about racing, whether it's watching it on TV, attending races to spectate or racing at the club level and beyond many of us eat, live, and sh*t RACING.

I watch every form of racing known to man. Before I got into racing and HPDE's about 10 years ago I watched Football, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer and racing. In the past years because of time constraints the only thing I watch on TV is racing. I've taped races the past few years I haven't even watched yet.

[/QUOTE]


jon I hear you on all of this, i have become the same way, no time to watch any other sports but the racing I TIVO

I am in the same boat with kids, I have 3 kids (5 year old daughter, 3 1/2 year old son and one year old son)........it is a struggle between work, time at home, money etc. to balance it all ..........

how do i balance it......I don't but i balance it in favor of my family.....maybe it is easier for me because I have never had the combination of time and money to do it all, i have always had to get by squeeking out 4 to 6 weekends a year, some times that means driving to track sat money at 4:00 am. or getting there friday night at 2:00 am............ (i can't recall getting to a track before 10:00 pm. friday).....

it also means, low budget on the car, i have never had a well prepped car because of time and money.....nowdays even if i go racing i have ZERO time to work on the car (in fact my car is exactly as it was when i last raced), i drove it straight off the trailer into the garage and there it will sit until the week before the NASA event at VIR.

my other compromise is vacation time.... as soon as the schedule hits (for me that's NASA- MA) (no time to do SCCA), i block out my work calendar (what that means is every monday after a race weekend........why, so the wife get the day off from the kids and the kids get a full day of nobody but dad, it makes up for them not seeing me when i am at the track........ but makes for a long weekend for me, work a full week, head home, have dinner with the family, leave for the track after dinner if possible or leave after the kids go to bed, get the car loaded on the trailer, get the to track late, race all weekend, leave ASAP after the race is over get home hopefully in time to put the kids to bed (summit and VIR are about 2 1/2 from myhouse) get up at the crack of dawn the next morning with the kids, then go in early the next day to workk to catch up from the time offf..........


it can be a grind and a bad mechanical weekend at the track will make me want to sell it all..........but, that's be crazy........watching races, etc. doesn't do it for (neither does autocross or HPDE), its got to be racing and if that means using two year old tires and a blow suspension to save money and only going 4 weekends in a year....its worth it......

everyone had their own method or "wants" out of racing, being running in the 24hrs, or a podium at ARRC. ...........for me its any racing i can get is better than none...... go watch Todd' Reid and Eric Rosen's video from summit this year, us "slow guys" at the the back are having just as much fun (heck Jon, you know that, you were racing right with us (at least when we block you ;-)

 

Family is far more important than racing.

RJ has a good idea with the DC region SCCA races at Summit Point. If you don't care about championships and just want a bit of wheel to wheel fun every once in a while you could do the double or triple weekends. Five weekends out of the year and you could have 10 races.

Doing the 24 hrs and hanging up your wheel probably won't happen because we all crave that need to get back on the track. Besides, like someone else said your car could break and its over before it started. You could run a couple of races a year to stay sharp until your kids are older.

 

Have you considered selling the wife and kids?

 

I only raced 3 events this year with one being a pretty big trip to California for the crossover. I had to put money away for that trip, but it was worth it. Not racing more local events, now that sucked.

Unfortunately, things like the new fence and kitchen remodel didn't happen like they were supposed to. And now, hopefully, I won't have to dig up the front driveway to fix the drain out there.

I think a lot about where I want to be at retirement, and that makes me wonder where racing really fits in right now. The battle in my head is about wheather you race now while you can, or later when maybe you can't..

 

All I can say is I can relate to the question you have, as I've been considering this myself. Both time and money is a factor and it's very difficult to justify the time away, the money spent. Racing is a totally selfish endeavor, however, if you're at all "into God stuff", the one phrase that keeps popping into my head is "I desire compassion, not sacrifice".

I'm not giving up the race car yet, or the idea of racing next year. However as I've gotten more time with the wife, the little girl, and friends I've lost contact with while persuing racing, it has gotten a little easier.

I'm not in the same boat as you however. I used to do about 20-30 weekends of autocrossing, then I decided to go for road racing. The wife thought I'd be home more often since it would be "like every weekend", but just an entire weekend less often. We've found it doesn't matter, there is more preparation, as I'm sure you all know, with road racing then autcross... or at least there can be.

I've found that I was able to do a day trip with NASA-NE to the most local track to me, Pocono. It was a lot effort to go up and back the same day, but I got my fill.

Also as others have said, if you can plan on coming back to it some day, or even if you can manage to compromise and only do a couple/few weekends a year, at least you can look forward to those weekends. It can make the time away not just barable, but enjoyable.

Good luck with the decision and thanks for posting this question here.

 

FLATOUTRACING,

I have found myself getting to an age where I want to move on with my life beyond spending every penny I earn on a racecar. Every time a spend a great weekend hanging out with friends and family, I think to myself that people are better than cars, and cars can't be everything in my life.

One day I would love to have my own kids and have the family life, but I imagine having boys that I can bring up with cars, maybe put them in racing when they are young. I admire seeing guys at the track with their pops. I remember when I saw Adam Saruwatari drag racing his RX-7. As I walked by I heard Adam say "try it again Dad" and I've wanted that ever since. (My dad believes that cars are only for transportation)

Anyway, I say hang the sht up for a while and just watch racing on TV. Spend the money where you need to and raise those kids of yours right. Its great to have a project car in the garage no doubt, but it can't be your life. I knew a kat that found himself in a divorce because he loved his 98 ITR more than his wife. Don't be that guy.

And with that being said...I am coming closer to making my OWN decision...