As some know, I tried my hand at a bit of racing this year and thought I'd share my personal experience of how much it costs. Now, this will vary massively person to person, level etc so isn't supposed to be a guide or exact etc. Just wanted to share my own experience. I know there are others on here that have much more long term experience so won't be new to some. I'd also add being new and lack of experience meant I spent a lot more pre season than I probably needed to as well as during the season on some things. I also haven't included absolutely everything here such as converting the bike to a race bike as I was always going to do that even if I wasn't going to race. What I have tried to include as additional cost is stuff I didn't expect or found I needed during the season as well as the season entry deposit. Food and drink isn't included either as I simply can't remember how much I spent each weekend. I'd say 30-80 quid depending on how much . Also not included is post season servicing which can be upwards of £2,500 if you do a full refresh. Some context which might help with the breakdown I crashed at round 3 causing a small amount of damage, but I had to replenish spares. A cost I forgot about. I always factored in needing to use them. Gearbox imploded after round 3 hence no oil cost as it was included in my very expensive new gearbox cost Clutch although working, wasn't working well and needed to be replaced after round 6 I found a much more efficient set of brake pads to run mid season which although more expensive, lasted for the whole of the 2nd half of the season I don't have my own van so had to rent one although I got an extremely good deal on them I did some coaching with Dean Ellison that others might not do, although this was cut short by the imploding gearbox in point 2 Other than the van rentals, nothing else came from sponsorship, so perhaps would be free/discounted in some cases Total season cost £16,529
No, would be nice though. Probably shouldn't call it a deposit as it's more an initial payment to then spread the cost of remaining entry fees which gives you a tiny discount so just makes sense to do it that way if you planned to do a full year like I did. They just call it a deposit so just copied it.
In the end it was, but 3-4 rounds earlier in the season I'd use 1 front for a round (4 races and qualifying) and test day and same for rear. This was a bit of a mistake to be honest for the rear and that's why in later rounds it jumps up. For Croft and Anglesey I got a couple of cheap new tyres a few years old so lower cost (never doing that again). The last round I had 1 new rear and a scrub BSB rear and front.
As a comparison at the other end, iirc my couple of years of racing small control tyre Ducatis with no warmers was about £4k pa. Tyres lasted two rounds (!), were £145 a set (!). Entries bit cheaper, but used to enter extra races so about the same in the end, had a trailer that cost me £800 and I sold for £800 as I git fed up with renting/borrowing vans. Tow bar was £700 extra on a new car I had. It’s why CB racing is popular: fun but at a quarter of the cost. Damage is hardly anything, engines are fairly easy to get hold of but so reliable they do t blow often anyway. I’m thinking of getting my ACU next year again (been 10 years!) and using the panigale. So find this a really useful post In all honesty, I expect the cost of trackdays for the same amount of days probably isn’t much less…. I wonder how many add it up
Forgot to add I also did an endurance race at Brands (only a short one) plus an extra track day there which is why that's an extra expensive round.
Lots of dependencies, but someone I know that races in cup 1000 went from 600 to a 1000 (experienced, unlike me) and he said it was a 50% increase for reference, but he did use more tyres than I think he needed to. 2 fronts a weekend unless you are doing multiple classes isn't really necessary. Another difference is BEMSEE have much shorter races so will be slightly cheaper.
Yeah, rubber ain’t cheap. Or fancy fuel. Talking to a young lad and his dad at donington- these were the sticking points…
Tbh they weren’t too bad. Sure, not huge grip but enough to scrape anything you want from lap one, turn one with just warm up lap as tyre-warmers Although some were better than others…I remember a pair of Pirelli we used for a year that were shocking!! No wets either btw…
Awesome insight thanks @JamieW I know someone who came close to winning the freshman cup in thundersport a few years back - not including any capital costs (Bikes, van, tools ETC) and not including damages - So just race fees, consumables, tyres, fuel and engine rebuilds he reckons was close to 25k for the season Being old and slow didnt make me want to part with that kind of cash each season, dozen track days a year is enough for me thanks!
That’s a great point actually. Not only test days but also number and length of races. NGRCC seem to be short and fewer for example than NL.
