Quote History Originally Posted By redfish86:
Looks like a blast!
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Yes it is. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in racing who is not made of money. Racing is expensive but splitting a car with 3 or 4 other guys makes it manageable. A team of 5 guys probably spends about $1,900 each to get themselves and a car ready (not including race entry fees and expenses) assuming that no one owns anything they need.
First the personal gear. About $700 for the most basic set of SFI or FIA rated double layer fireproof racing suit (or single layer plus fireproof underwear), SA rated helmet 2020 or later (motorcycle helmets are a no go) and SFI or GIA rated gloves, socks, and boots. Lemons sells a basic set up
here (as well as nicer ones) If you are really close friends you can share gear, but it gets really sweaty, and I wouldn't do it. They do a gear inspection at every race and check for the "gear OK" sticker on the driver's helmet every time a car enters the track.
If you are building a car, assuming that nobody knows how to weld, figure roughly $6k which includes
$500 for the car
$450 fire suppression system
$250 SFI and FIA rated harness
$600 racing seat (the cheap ABS seats are not OK.)
$3,000 to pay someone to build your roll cage (I guessed at this)
You will want to replace the tires, brakes and wheel bearings, and change the oil and coolant in your beater. You can do all this cheaper if you about scour Craigslist or Racingjunk.com for deals.
That gets you ready. Next are the costs for each race. From the Lemons website:
Entry: On-time entry is $1755 per team (includes one car and up to four drivers; additional drivers $245 each, additional crew $75 each), effective 1/1/2024. Entry fee covers registration, track time, paddock pass, track insurance, on-site ambulance crew, and anything else we come up with by then. Non-driving crew members get all the same bennies except track time.
Each driver must also have a valid Lemons Competition Membership, which is $100.
Spectator tickets are generally available for $40/weekend, and kids under 16 are free.The Lemons competition membership is simply a $100 fee payable once per driver, per year. If we assume 5 drivers, your first race will cost $495 each to enter.
Lastly comes the cost to get to and from the track, and for expendables such as fuel, oil, miscellaneous Walmart and Autozone trips during the race, etc. You can usually camp at the track (typically $50 to $75) per team in my experience, or pay for a hotel. Lots of people camp at the track.
All in all, it's not cheap, but for a destination vacation experience is still a pretty good value.