What does one do to save the farm when one sees tornado clouds are on the horizon? Maybe it will hit my farm maybe it won`t, but best turn off the gas line to the house, put the chickens in the coop, put the wife, kids and the dog in the storm cellar, take one last look at your years of hard work and hunker down in the cold dark cellar with the family and wait it out. Maybe the weather gods in D.C. will decide to make the sun come out again, allowing you to get on your tractor to plow your fields and pull the SRF out of the barn into that sunshine.

stu coomer wrote:and pull the SRF out of the barn into that sunshine.

...only to find that the cow pooped in the seat during the storm.

Cost; why does it cost so much to enter and run at an SCCA event? Example here in the SFR: The resent Dbl Regional: Cost $415, 5 sessions of about 110 minutes total track time, $3.77/minute, $83/session. Track day with a proven company, same location, corner workers, medical, tow truck, announcer, grid staff, and extremely safe and limited to a max of 35 cars per session; $129, 5 sessions of about 105 minutes total track time, $1.23/minute, $25.80/session; option 2 $179, 5 regular sessions, 4 race sessions, total about 185 minutes of total track time, $.97/minute, $19.89/session. Help me if my math is off, just done quickly.

Thunderhill
Dbl Regional 3 days, $415, 110 minutes, 5 sessions, $83/session; +3 days expenses
Track Day 1 day, $129, 105 minutes, 5 sessions, $26/session; +1 days expenses
Track Day 1 day, $179, 185 minutes, 9 sessions, $20/session; +1 days expenses

??

Dave you are up early,,, thanks email sent, this hit me driving last night and thinking about the LS event coming up, which is even more $$$, doing SRF budgeting....

Walsh or someone else who really knows should probably answer this but here is what we get back east, at least at nationals: multiple tow trucks and roll offs, so that multi-car wrecks don't take hours to clean up; a doctor, some nurses, and at least two ambulances (really important in case one has to leave); equipment and personnel to clean up fluids and other messes; fire and related safety equipment and personnel; and, for better or worse, many more workers than at a track day (tech, grid, etc). You mentioned "extremely safe". Big difference. Wheel to wheel racing offers many more opportunities for damage, both to person and property, and we pay for that. I don't know for sure, but I suspect insurance for a wheel to wheel racing event is much more costly than for a "track day".

Michael Hausknecht (NE#60)

My thinking also, i figure that's what I will hear also, however, being a numbers guy, the dots still don't quite line up, the track days pays for the corner workers and all the track clean up staff etc. Luckly I have not seen the need for a lot of long clean up/towing at events, knock on wood, the track days time lost comes out of the group that caused it so others don't get cut short,,

I am sure insurance might be more and the way events are scheduled each person has to be there 3 days,, one difference is we run 6 or 7 groups, track days I go to only run 4,,,

well I am still working on my budget. So far I can do 5 events in a SRF for the same fuel costs my Corvette burns in one track day which will be in bold print when I show it to my better half,, tires will be in very small print,,

if you want to know exactly the budget and where the $$ go, just get involved in your local region. You'll quickly see that while there are times that $500+ entry fees make money, there are plenty that don't. We just raced at TWS, in the deluge, a lot of people cancelled their entries. I don't recall the exact numbers mentioned, it takes say 125 for breakeven (and there were more than that preregistered), but the race chair said that due to cancellations they would be minus $20K for the event.
you're also comparing a one-day event to a 3 day, yes, the track time is not hugely different, but the 3 day costs are 3X the single day, but the entries are not 3X.

Laguna Seca and Sears Point are very expensive to rent. It also seems we have to pay to rent the track we own. The region had to up the prices to make up for the loss of entries. (That is why I started this thread, to see if people aren't entering because jobs aren't paying as well (economy) or if the increased cost of entry (economics) prevents entering as often.) The region also is trying to make money on well attended events, Laguna and Sears, to help break even on the less attended events.
We happen to have two world class iconic tracks we have to pay to play on.
Bob

I don't know that guy a few posts up that pasted the link, but as those of you who have clicked on it know, you have already gotten or will be getting a separate thoughtful reply from each of the region's board members....no matter how busy they are at the office today.

Here is a quick self-test. See how you do.

1) How many crews does it take to safely and efficiently conduct a sanctioned SCCA Road Race event?
2) Can you name them? Can you name the other six you forgot?
3) What would entry fee be if staffing Pro events did not compensate and subsidize Club Racing?

Bottom line: All regions run to net zero dollars. Most by now have squeezed as much of the small easy economies out as possible. All regions make guesses as to entry counts and then schedule and run to those projections as realistically as they can. Want lower entry fees? Car counts fix everything; Buy your brother-in law a race car and make sure he shows up. Think regions don't know who racers, where they race, how many times they race, and why some don't? Think again.

tony