The costs of racing

[chuck34]

I had this idea over in the Texas race thread, but maybe it deserves it's own thread.

Is it cheaper to field a competitive car (mid-pack) now with all the spec restrictions than it was in the late '90s when the formula was "relatively" open?

Why is it common knowlege that spec racing is cheaper racing when evidence seems to be contrary to that? Look at all the "small" teams that were in the IRL in the late '90s/early 2000s that are no longer around. Hemelgarn, Kelly, PDM, etc. They all ran well (at least at times). Now they are no longer around.

I tend to blame this on the expense of the engine leases. Engine leases seem to be MORE expensive than back in the day when all the guys could build their own. Honda has a monopoly and can charge whatever they want, and do.

I may be (and probably am) way off base, but I don't know any numbers. So maybe someone out there knows and can tell me why I'm out to lunch.

[Chris R]

I think that spec racing might have a cheaper cost of entry - but it appears to me that the longer the spec remains fixed, the larger the gap gets between the wealthy and "poor" teams....

I am thinking that, over time, spec series actually favor the teams with big budgets over those with lots of smarts but no budget. The key to improving a spec car seem to be fine tuning (which is really repetitive and really expensive and frankly not that glamorous) while an open formula allows innovation to be a major factor in the equation...

Look at Formula 1, over time the teams with the consistently biggest budgets came to dominate the old formula - this season two smaller teams snuck in with some innovative thinking under the new Formula and have done quite well - do not expect it to remain that way unless those teams find the dollars to fine tune the formula.....

I could be wrong - but I think spec racing is a really bad thing for top tier motor-sports. It took spec racing put the brakes on NSCAR, it has fundamentally ruined AOWR, more or less spec series like GrandAM and A!GP are booorrrriiinnnggg. The problem is that the nuances of fine tuning a spec car, while technically pretty cool and absolutely very difficult, are fundamentally not all that interesting to the average fan.

Cool to the average fan:
A Novi
A Cummins Diesel sitting on the pole
A turbine
"funny cars" with the engine at the "wrong" end
big wings meaning a 17 mph jump in speed in one year
that new fangled "ground effects"
a "Fan" car
A six wheel car


not so cool:
The 1,000 esoteric details that together make the Penske Dallara just enough quicker than every other outwardly identical Dallara to pretty much allow them to dominate unless something unexpected happens.... This is an admirable accomplishment but not necessarily interesting....