Last week we asked our beloved readers for their input on pro racing. While 10% of you have done pro racing, 85% of you said you were interested in it. The biggest question mark was around costs.
We asked how much you thought a pro season would cost, and here's how you responded:
Just to cut to the chase, here are some examples of real, round number season costs for a variety of pro customer racing seasons, collected from the teams that run them:
Half of you think a season of pro racing can be done for a number well below the lowest cost pro series we currently know of. As you can see, even an entry level series like Global MX-5 Cup (or Pirelli World Challenge TCA) costs around $100k. The costs go up from there. And, in our experience, even these numbers leave out the bad news about crash damage and mandatory upgrades — which can easily run up these numbers.
Why Pro Costs Are Higher Than Expected
We think there are a few reasons drivers underestimate costs:
A New Lost-Cost Pro Alternative
Winding Road Racing and our partners at Atlanta Speedwerks are working on a new pro series for 2018, called Spec MX-5, that addresses some of these cost issues. Frankly, you can't get everything that the existing pro series offer and cut the cost by 50%. Not even close. So, Spec MX-5 does a few things differently. Here is a preview of the new Spec MX-5 low-cost series.
Winding Road Racing also has a white paper explaining pro costs in more detail, using Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup as an example. Contact Jeff Sexton to get this document: [email protected].
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