A Voice For The Fans ~ Eye Of The Tiger: How To Beat The High Cost Of Racing

8/30/2013

PattyKay Lilley

I bid you welcome gentle readers, and as always, a warm welcome to our assigned reader in the Fan and Espionage Center in Charlotte N.C. I do hope your stay with us is a pleasant one.

 

Today will cover quite a mixed bag of things, or as some would call it, trivia. Let's begin with something your scribe has noticed time and again this year, and that makes me wonder why others are either not noticing or pretending not to... I'm looking at you John Darby, and maybe you, Mike Helton. Since the day the COT ceased to exist in any meaningful way, this lady and this column have been outspoken proponents of the Gen-6 cars, which are superior in every way to the generation just past, call it what you will. However...

 

As the year goes on, it's become more and more clear that something has changed in the construction of the cars themselves, and it's not a change for the better. We the fans, are constantly told how NASCAR strives to save the teams money. No, we don't necessarily believe that balderdash, but we're told it all the same. How much does one of these rolling billboards cost these days? I honestly have no clue, but I've heard that the engine alone in today's "Stock car" runs circa $50,000; the rest then is probably about the same, making the cost of one car around $100K, give or take a zero here and there. You get the idea. It's the same one many folks are harping on constantly... it costs too darn much to go racing today.

[Addendum: Before this went to press, I was advised by my editor that the thought he'd read a top-end figure of around $250,000 per car in the Cup series. Rather than change at that late date, I told him to let it go and if it were incorrect, my readers would let me know... and several of you have. Though I have not verified this, apparently the correct figures are closer to $100K on the engine alone... double what I had thought, and $250K on the complete car. That's a huge difference, and only serves to make me madder and more determined to do what I can to promote a cheaper and easier way to get cars on the track. Thanks to everyone that cared enough to correct me. Always appreciated here!]

 

Why is it then, that when two of these platinum priced ponies come together on a track or even barely kiss a wall, it entails a trip to the pits and often to the garage to repair major damage? Most of the cars out on I575 near me can and do withstand similar "bumps" in the course of their daily commute and come away barely scratched. Having just left the Bristol night race behind us for this year, it should be fresh in everyone's memory that these Gen-6 cars are behaving like little prima-donnas out there... too good to be touched. Touch me and I'll shatter... and shatter, they do.

 

Back in the Stone Age, when I was a Lass and old Shep was a pup, cars were made of steel! The steel industry was notably the backbone of the American economy, and this country was built on its back. In reality, it was steel that was king, not cotton. Ask anyone from Pittsburgh! So, what is she getting at? Steel, gentle readers, dents when hit. It does not shatter and leave sharp edges behind. Dents seldom require even being smoothed during the course of a race. Shattered fenders and front or rear clips require full replacement. The Gen-6 construction is in large part of "carbon-fiber." This writer can't honestly tell you exactly what that is, but when it hits a wall (Think Darlington stripe here), it shatters like an old 78rpm vinyl record, and the part still attached to the frame is sharp and jagged.

 

"Weight" has been cited as the purpose for using this compound rather than good old-fashioned steel milled from good 0ld American iron. Excuse me, but these cars have a minimum weight that must be met, and they are weighed both before and after each race, with and without the driver, because his/her weight is figured in the total as well as that of the car. No matter what they are constructed from, in the end, they have to weigh the same, so that argument carries no "weight" when common sense is applied.

 

The point is, these six-figure price-tag beauties should not have to retire to the garage for bumps and dents that their predecessors took in stride for some sixty years. Fixing unnecessary damage costs too much! Along those same lines of "touch me not", a slight bump in the area of a wheel well should not destroy the Goodyear found there. Locate the stem where another car cannot find or reach it. Fenders have a purpose, and it is to protect the tires. Flare them; put skirts on them as used to be done. Let them serve their purpose. Far too often, we see flat tires and someone's day ruined by the most incidental of contact, when the fix is so simple. Think! You can do it; We know you can! We just don't understand why you don't!

 

Sometimes in life, we find that more than one person may be harboring like thoughts on a given subject. As your scribe has been chewing on the ease with which this year's new stock cars seem to disintegrate, someone else has taken to the video screen to discuss it and ways around it. That someone is my friend and NASCAR legend, Tiger Tom Pistone. I was delighted when I received from his daughter Chrissy the first of what are now five videos done by Tom, as I understand it, in conjunction with his radio show, which unfortunately is at this time heard only locally in the area where he and his family reside. (We're working on that as I type)

 

Each segment to date is linked below, and my intent is to ask Jim if we can show the links somewhere on our Home Page here at Race Fans Forever, to make it easier for you, the fans, to find. YouTube is a wonderful place, but can at times be rather intimidating for a newcomer. Each segment deals with ways to save money and reduce the astronomic cost of racing today. There are some great ideas within each segment, all coming from the mind of a man that has been there... not just at local tracks, but at the very top of the elite series, racing with and among the best that have ever been. He bears hearing and heeding. I do hope you all enjoy these as much as I have and will as new ones arrive.