after going to the etown event this weekend. i have to ask myself. what the hell am i doing ? obviously you have to work very hard to get anywhere in this industry. but all the cars/parts/haulers/ everything about this sport is a huge expense. id love to be in their shoes but cant see any light @ the end of a tunnel.

how long have you been doing this for, to get to where you are?

what is the "average" cost for a PRO team, such as Jason hunt's, to travel the series for a year? (including parts/traveling expense's)

what foots your "bills" ??

what kind of things do you have to do to keep your sponsor happy(besides winning races)

do you have to work all week, then hurry around to get to the track? or is racing a full time thing ?


for a smaller "team" such as myself and Steve. it just doenst seem worth it to even try to compete with these guys, as it would obviously lead into debt, and we wouldnt be getting anything out of it in the end.

what future does this lead us to ?? are we going to be racing when we are 65 ?

do you have time for your family life???

 

Every team has a different situation. While the high profile teams race and get all the attention, there are lots of sportsman level teams doing the same thing on a lower price scale. It would be impossible to say how much money as every deal is a different deal. Here are a couple of things to think about.
Figure how much it costs you to race and then you know how much money to ask for if you get a chance. Most deals are for a season, or a series of seasons, so the price will be set at the begining of the year and you have to be able to make it all the way before you run out of money. If you sign a contract to race all year and then the money is gone halfway thru, you are still obligated to finish the season.
Make sure you get enough.
Keeping the sponsor happy is the most important thing. Winning races is not always what the sponsor wants. Sometimes they want just to get exposure and/or sell a product. Your job is to use racing to get exposure. Pro racers are really marketing guys that race. They are not just race car drivers, they are marketers.
Race at whatever level you can afford. Be as professional as you can and treat everybody with respect and dignity. If you learn how to work hard, you got a chance. Go to every race you can. race as much as you can. It's not how fast you go, but how often.
I hope this helps.
Good Luck!

 

i felt the same way this weekend Dave, it was really cool meeting you guys, and the car looks amazing. i hope mine looks half as good as your guys. i remember seeing you guys line up w/ Lummus, and thought, damn thats rough. how is the little guy supposed to compete w/ that? i hope to win the lottery one day so i can be in the action. keep up the good work, and you guys will be fine. and start playing the lottery.

 

Haha, this is going to get touchy with some people.

Our team, Bergenholtz Racing, is a privately funded team. We do have some financial help from good people like Nitto, Fujita, Konig and Mazdaspeed, but that doesn't cover everything. Like almost all other teams, we have " volunteer " workers, including myself, to help aleviate some of the costs. I donate my time, machining experience, engine building and more to Bergenholtz Racing. Others on our team also donate their time and experience!

The only true employee of Bergenholtz Racing is Ron. He and Ed pay for everything through sponsorship funding, and when that runs out ( and it runs out very quickly ) then Ed kicks into his own pocket to get the job done!

We do get some product support from sponsors like Arias Pistons, Golden Eagle Mfg, Web-Cam, and a couple others, but we still pay for all the other items like shocks, cranks, rods, chassis work, paint, tires, rims, hardware, etc.

That is how our team operates. Also, we cut costs by sharing hotel rooms and sleeping on the floor and such. It's amazing how much that can cut down on costs!

 

I'm hanging out around retirement homes looking for some rich 80-90 year old lady to marry Sorry about the joke!!

You've never known poverty until you've owned a race car.

 

Thats very true

 

I pay for everything myself. Over the last 3 years of building my car and going to a couple of big events I am way in debt. But I guess I do it because I love the sport and what else would I do with all my extra money.

 

I was once told this by my dad long ago. Racing will make you a thousandaire if you start out a millionaire.....I guess that about sums it up. For most if not all its a hobby, if everyone were making a living from it then there'd probably be a lot more racers out every race weekend

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 93LSivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was once told this by my dad long ago. Racing will make you a thousandaire if you start out a millionaire.....I guess that about sums it up. For most if not all its a hobby, if everyone were making a living from it then there'd probably be a lot more racers out every race weekend </TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha, very true. Also, as the saying goes,
" If it was easy, everyone would do it! "
" How do you make 1 million dollars racing? Start off with 2 million! "

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mazda 3 Racer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
" How do you make 1 million dollars racing? Start off with 2 million! " </TD></TR></TABLE>
LOL. so true. But you can actually make money if you drive F1 but good luck to that. Oh and Shumi in F1 will be the first to retire, making a billion dollars.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4piston &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You've never known poverty until you've owned a race car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

no crap i'm so broke all the time it's crazy, but if i added up the cost of all the car parts i have i would be rich lol. but hey we are all doing what we love

 

Here is how I see it. To me, racing is a drug! I get high on it, I am addicted to it! Some people spend their money on drugs, some on alcohol, some on hookers and some on gambling! Racing is in that same " vice " category! Only difference is that you actually get something out of racing to show for it, win or loose!

 

I pay for everything my self, and boy i tell ya its not cheap i'd have to say im in about 30k plus on my car and it ain't even done yet....much props to the BIG Teams out there....it takes a hell of lot of time to go racing....plus mad($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$).....

 

This is sorta on topic, a buddy of mine used to own a top fuel team(very competitive, he ran the east coast events for a very large name sponsor) that i used to help out on. The pay out for winning a points championship was like 150K a year unlike now where its way higher. He told me that when he quit in the 90's that it cost him a million a year out of his own pockets. He figured outta all the years he was racing it cost him about 10 million bucks. when they say that if u want to make a million racing u need 2 is wrong, u really need about 10 million. JFYI his teams best run was 5.01

 

^^^^ I was about to mention the guys running powerade or the IRHA sanctions. I wonder if they go through the same troubles as the guys campaigning the sport compact series. Seeing as their payouts are substantially larger than our series, does it help them at all or do they spend more money than a sport compact team which equals about the same payouts between the different series?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mazda 3 Racer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Here is how I see it. To me, racing is a drug! I get high on it, I am addicted to it! Some people spend their money on drugs, some on alcohol, some on hookers and some on gambling! Racing is in that same " vice " category! Only difference is that you actually get something out of racing to show for it, win or loose!</TD></TR></TABLE>

ive always said that same thing. my family members would always say why do you waste your money on your car. and my reply is, can you **** the alchohol back into that cup and get your money back?. didnt think so. if worse comes to worse i can sell my car and get some money back you cant return your drugs or alchohol

 

What everyone is saying is definetly true. I guess for me i just kinda fell into it im building a car right now but at the same time work for a Pro team. After watching and learning how it works for a pro team i dont think i will ever get that far but as long as im racing something it all works for me. And sponsors definetly help my boss is running his car without one right out of his pocket and what iv seen he still manages pretty good for himself.

 

This is the exact thing i encoutered after i got my HR car done and went to 1 ndra race. i noticed after spended 40K plus on parts and thats at cost and not including the labor to build it.. there was no way possible for me to race in this class and be competive with the money and time it would take.. seeing how i need all my time to run my shop to make the money it would leave no time for racing and vice versa.... to sum it up it was a very expensive reality check for me.. racing in the HR class or that level takes alotta money and devoted time that was not possible for me. I sold the car took a huge lost on the whole deal but in the end i dont regret doing it... goo dluck to all the new race teams out there!

 

race for yourself and for the love of the sport don't worry about the next guy or the guy that has all the sponsers and money if you worry about him then he is already in your head and you've lost, set your own personal goals and just try to reach them. If it gets to expensive then just step back and work with what you got. Bottom line is racing is expensive when STR helped me they took care of the travling(for the car, hotel, and entry) But i still had to pay out of me and my familys pocket plane tickets to get me to the races(i still had a full time job and had to take extra time off)and parts for the car. In 03 i think i spent around 10-15 grand and since then just to keep up with times about another 10g's(thank you visa,mastercard) and i know that the top teams have spent well over that but i work with what a got and try to make it work. Am i a little in debt yes.But what good is life if you don't have stories to tell. If i could go back and do it over again would i do it hell ya. All right i'm done rambling but point is race for the fun and love of the sport don't worry about the guy with the $$$$

 

The big boys def spend alot of money. A guy in the building next to me is a crew chief for a bunch of buddys that own a car. It costs them 5K to pull the car off of the trailor, and thats if nothing breaks. They rebuild the engine after every race weekend. I know it killed him but that last time they went out they lost by .02 of a second to Ashley Force. Those guys spend huge money. I'm highly doubt if more than 1 or 2 of the Sport Compact guys spend anywhere near what the big boys that just do it for fun do. Its a matter of economics, u ever seen the crowds that the Top fuel guys turn in, it kills me to see what a SC guy thinks is a big crowd. The payouts for SC is a joke, i know of tracks that payout more for scooter races than some of the SC classes. Look at some of the Drift events, crowds are huge, the SC draw just isn't what it used to be. Years ago the average guys could take his SC out and be competitive, now even the sportsman class have what are basically what are pro cars, which is completely the opposite of what the sportsman class was intended to be. I'm not knocking as i'm also working with a Co. to build a Sfwd car. Why spend 100K to build a hotrod car when u can spend 30-40k to build a sfwd car. Its just gonna be the way it is.

 

You just go to what you can go too. Give 100%, do your best.

 

thanks everyone for the replys/encouragement.

i just want to know. how "everyone" go to where they are today. (titan,jotech, scranton bros, bothwell, bergenholtz, eggum racing, gardella racing, prodrag racing, etc) i know this kinda stuff isnt given to ya on a silver spoon.

 

Both of my cars are funded directly from my pocket 100%. We have some help on parts(very little) but that is it. My truck gets 6mpg loaded. You guys can say what you want but losing sucks! If you can make it to the finals then the payouts still suck but the contingency helps alot. Winning is what keeps the teams coming to all the events. If you can win a sportsmen class payout is 5-600 and a fair amount of contingency is around $800+, that give you money to make it to the next event and you dont have to take it out of the mortgage money.

 

I can't speak for everyone else, but I was with Kenny since day one. That car started out just like any other street car turned race car. Luckily, at that time, it didn't cost nearly what it does to compete now. I was all funded out of pocket, it went to most races on an open trailer! Kenny put out A LOT of his own money to make that happen. The sponsoship didn't start coming in until 3-4 years later. Nobody wants to sponsor somebody who is building something or says they're going to race. They want to see it done. You can't expect to get a sponsor to get your program going or get a sponsor so you can get a big rig. Almost everybody out there came out of pocket for all that and put a race program together. If you're going to make it big in this industry, you're going to spend A LOT of your own money doing it before anyone starts footing the bill. Even when you're "big", you better still have deep pockets, because the odds of having a program where the sponsors cover your yearly costs are pretty slim.

 

im trying to find out what type jobs or career's these "top guns" have, which allow them to race full seasons, year after year, foot the bills, etc.......