What to race?

I think my racing
career is at a crossroads.

 

I want to move
on to a pro series; something with more exposure, prize money, etc. SCCA Pro
Racing has just announced the end of the Pro Spec Racer series; and in any case,
I think it’s time to move on. The problem is, I can’t find any great
options…

 

2004 Pro Formula
Mazda – an excellent new car next year, and
from what I can tell, this is a well-run series. Heavy commitment from Mazda, a
television contract, and races within the U.S. Sounds great, right? A few
problems…one, there are very few cars still available in the planned
production run. Delivery won’t be until the end of the year at the earliest, but
they need deposits immediately. Second, the cars are pretty expensive – about
$70,000 (ouch). Third, no payout until the end of the season. Total cost to run
a season, not including car – probably in the $100,000 range, plus crash
damage

 

Fran-Am
2000 North American Pro Championship – A relatively new series, excellent
cars from a technical perspective, and pretty
significant payouts. And if I could pick the races I wanted to run at in
North America, they’ve got them – 5 weekends with CART, and 1 or 2 with Formula
1. Wow, how cool is that? Payout – $28,500 purse per-race, year-end payout
involves paid rides in the Formula Renault V6 Euro-cup. TV contract, but
tape-delayed to November/December timeframe. And there’s actually a car in
California for sale right now. Downsides – car is also pretty expensive, around
$50,000. And many races in Canada, which are a really long tow from
Denver, which translates to either a lot of time or a lot of money. Total cost
to run a season – probably around $120,000, plus crash
damage

 

Formula SCCA – a new car, new
class, new series. Relatively
inexpensive, with the car selling new for under $30,000. Downsides are many,
however. First, lousy payouts. $800 for
finishing first in a pro event? Come on, that doesn’t even cover a set of tires
and entry fee. Second, sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing – the same crew who just
cancelled the Pro Spec Racer series without notice, and who seem to have a less
than stellar repuation for securing series sponsorship. Will the series last? I
hope so, but who knows. Third, the cars aren’t ready yet, because of technical
problems. This whole thing strikes me as not well planned, but maybe they’ll
surprise me. Total season cost – $50,000 range, plus damage.

 

We’re working on
putting together a sponsorship package right now, and I think we have a pretty
good case to make. However, for the first two series I mentioned, I would
need sponsorship to run them. And to do well in the series, I need
testing time before next year’s season. Which potentially puts me in the
uncomfortable position of needing to buy a car now, without knowing for sure if
we’ll be able to raise the required funding to race it. The third series isn’t
quite so bad, but the rewards are far less in terms of payout and
exposure.

 

I’m a little
torn…the Fran-Am car for sale suddenly came up, but I’m having trouble pulling
the trigger on that deal. It’s an uncomfortable financial situation, before I
know if we’ll be able to secure sponsorship.

 

Sigh.

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