By Jonathon Masters
Throughout the summer, we have covered the costs associatedwith national Dirt Late Model racing,the money behind raising your kid to be a racing rock star,and the rise of Dirt Modifieds as the largest racing division on dirt.
This week, we are going revisit our Modified friends andtalk about what it takes to tackle racing their discipline on the nationalstage. For the purposes of this analysis, we will assume the national stage onwhich the performance takes place is one or more of the big three Modifiedracing sanctioning bodies that competesacross an area more than four states insize.
As with our breakdown of racing national Late Models, weare going to assume you are starting with nothing. That means we are buildingthis team from the ground up. If you already have some of that equipment inhand, subtract those costs from your total. With that groundwork out of theway, let's talk about chasing your Modified dream.
Let's start with transportation. As we discussed in our evaluationof who needs a trailer and toterhome, this is going to cost us around $250,000.
National modified racing has grown over the past decade tothe point that most top teams now invest in a top-scale trailer. The diesel forthe year is going to run around $20,000. Now that we have our transport, let'sget some toys to put in it.
We are going to need at least two cars to tackle an entireyear of national Mod racing. After speaking with a few chassis builders fromthe industry, we are able to budget an average of $60,000 for two race-readymachines. Drop a $25,000 motor into our primary car and we're left with $85,000in a race car that is ready to hit the track.
We'll need fuel for that motor so we'll add 26 barrels at$600 each, which totals out at $15,600.
We'll need to keep that motor running so we are going toneed to add motor maintenance into our budget. That means a couple of trips toour motor builder toget the power plant back up to speed. The cost on thesemotors run around $5-8 a lap. We'll be running 60 races on our national Modifiedschedule and put around 3,000 laps on our motor. So add a nice round $20,000 toour tally.
The next item on our list is our tire bill for the season.Luckily, the Modified sanctioning bodies have worked out much better tire rulesthan our Late Model friends. One compound at around $100 a tire is the way togo. We'll need to buy two or three tires during an average racing weekend,leaving us with a yearly tire bill of around $7,500-10,000. That's still a big chunkof change but much more affordable than the $25,000 we were looking at for LateModels.
We're going to need the $15,000 worth of tools that wereneeded for Late Models. That covers pit carts, jacks, and hand and power tools.After all, we're going to beat that $85,000 investment up during our season, andwe'll need these tools to help us make it through. The replacement parts andother items such as shocks, driveline components, and new bodies we'll need forthis season aregoing to add another $10,000 to our running total.
(Charlie Weber, Fotos by Fizzle; USMTS.com)
So where does that put us?
For those starting from the ground up,the total costcomes out to$420,000. Now, that might sound a little high when our previous targetfor a national Dirt Late Model was around $500,000. Many people would think racing a Modifiedshould be much less.
The truth is that if you take the $250,000 for the trailerout of the total, you are left with $170,000 for the Modifieds and $250,000 forthe Late Models. That is a difference of over 30 percent. Modified racing is indeedmore affordable as a whole. Add to that the fact there are more chances to racecombined with the lower cost of entry and racing a Modified becomes a viableoption to any racer with national dreams.
We are going to continue our look into Modifieds next timewhen we look at the men and women who work on these cars. We will once againtackle the difficulties of finding good help and the expense associated withit. This time, however, we'll see how finding help in the Modified world is alittle easier thanks to the great regional and cultural scene in the upperMidwest and Great Plains.
- Jonathon Masters has a lifelong connectionwith dirt racing. His family has owned and operatedMasterSbilt Race Carsmanufacturing dirt late model chassis for 35 years. He attended college inNorth Carolina for motor sports management and has written for various industrypublications. Jonathon was an account executive at The InternationalMotorsports Industry Show, founder of the Heartland Auto Racing Show, and hasbeen a racing industry professional for over a decade.
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