how to do this

#1

The economy is in the dumpster, I know a lot of us are getting streached on our race budget. As many of yall have heard, I have been racing 20 years…well whenever I had money I was racing, the rest of the time I was trying to figure out how to do this without going broke. I used to drive my shitbox to RRR, sleep on the ground beside my car, and hope it got me back home…come to think of it I still do , although my car is much nicer now…

some tips:

Drive your damn car to the track…get AAA premier, you get 200 mile tows free.
Use your race car in a way that you can write off mileage.
Camp at the track.
Race on Bottlecaps, You can sell those fancy 15 inch wheels for close to what you paid for em, I mean seriously do you need $1000 tied up in wheels to have fun??
Use a cool squirt instead of the $$$ cool shirt.
Get another set of bottlecaps to put shit/practise tires on, save 2-3 heat cycles per weekend on your “good” tires.
Pack in your food,(thanks Beertech!!) and buy one gallon of distilled water instead of all those expensive small bottles.
Get some used rotors from me, they have been heat cycled and will last jsut as long as those $40 new ones.
Just because the rules say you can make a modification, it does not mean you should…I spent probably $1000 on stuff I did not need. Rear shock brace, adjsutable FPR, adjustable bushings, etc.

I am sure others can add to this.

Dont cut corners on safety crap, but shop around.

Al

#2

HERE!! HERE!! I have to agree, my first racecar I spend double what I should have, now I spend all my time trying to determine what works for me and whether I should bother doing it! But I am still having loads of fun!

#3

Another idea: add a few zeros to the 50/50 rule. :wink:

#4

And continue to wear 20 year old t-shirts.

Al is actually in style though. Vintage t sirts are all the rage but his really are 20 years old!:stuck_out_tongue:

#5

Shaving your head cuts down on expensive haircuts and provides a distinct aero advantage.

#6

Bringing your own chicken to the track can provide breakfast and dinner.

#7

Keeping your head shaved definately makes your helmet liner last longer!

We should have documented the build on the #800 car, that was the most logical race car build ever done. Travis’ first race was on the old e motor he did all his schools on, we did the stuff to keep the car running and did not worry about buying the trick stuff…The car is pretty damn good now.

Al

#8

Gasman wrote:

Leaving it under your hood to cook while you race cuts down on fuel/charcoal costs

#9

FARTBREF wrote:

[quote]Use a cool squirt instead of the $$$ cool shirt.

Al[/quote]

What’s a cool squirt? (Or should I ask???)

#10

Cool squirt:

Old cooler, old washer pump with hose, 2 wires, one hooked to the hot wire to the cig lighter the other wrapped around your hand brake handle with about 1/2 inch stripped, fill cooler full of ice water, stick hose down top of driving suit. When you get hot, ground wire on hand brake handle. You might need to strap cooler down somehow. Do not use in middle of corner.

Al

#11

Great list Al! Thanks.

I picked-up a few pointers that will definitely save some bucks.

I’ll add one…which is kind-of one of yours but a bit more specific.

Use RA-1’s for practice and enduros. You might even buy some from Spec E30 racers who don’t do enduros.

Also, we just “won” a new aero bed from the local Harris Teeter grocery store, after spending a certain amount. I’ll use it to camp at the track in the back of the boxtruck.

Carter

#12

How are RA-1’s legal for enduros?

#13

Don’t quote me, but I think I remember reading that tires are “free” in an Enduro

#14

Yo Vic

Maybe you should talk to Toyo, cause they sure as hell do hand out TOYO bucks for the enduro’s…You can run anything you like as you are in CLASS E2…although we are running Spec e30 rules…I got the run around from them this year, they were telling me one thing and did another, I have not been very happy with them, especially as we ran every enduro and burned up quite a bit of their product…

Al

#15

Living the dream:

#16

TheRedBaron wrote:

[quote]Living the dream:

[/quote]

which end is his head?

#17

victorhall wrote:

3.3. Class legality
3.3.1. Cars (as represented) must meet their respective class’ technical rules, except that all cars may run any D.O.T. approved tires that fit on the mandated wheel size for their class (unless otherwise specified).

#18

FARTBREF wrote:

not anymore…toyo is catching on to it…i think toyos have to be the spec tire (which they are not for E2) to pay out toyo bucks…

#19

scottmc wrote:

[quote]TheRedBaron wrote:

[quote]Living the dream:

[/quote]

which end is his head?[/quote]

where is the chicken?

#20

Also, the Toyo bucks form states that max of 2 races per weekend can be claimed for the award (and one per day) so anybody who was able to claim 3 races for the weekends earlier this year was basically lucky that Toyo didn’t follow their own guidelines.

And, Dave is correct that it must be a spec Toyo series in order to claim the bucks, which means the enduros do not count. That is also printed on the claim form.