Dirt Track and Karting

[BryanL]

I know little about the dirt world but loved a trip to Devil's Bowl for I think World of Outlaws or Sprints but they also had other classes waiting to come on track before the other cars were off-non stop racing for spectators.
From the looks the sprint cars are heavily supported operations with 18 wheelers, teams, $50-100k motors so budgets appear to be $100-1 myn I'm guessing.

My exposure to dirt was around 2000 when a neighbor bankrolled his son in IMCA Modified and it sounded like a circus. I was over there enough and heard enough stories to stay away. But here are the bullet points

-Worked on the car every night during the week with several guys working. Fixing wreck/broken, checking everything, and generally a motor pull/change, etc. It was crazy the time they spent but all single guys with a some drugs and alcohol mixed in.
-The rules and enforcement were ludicrous. They may go to a big money race and put in a $15k motor only to get their motor claimed. Then they were running a two barrel class and lost to a car with a 4 barrel but the track didn't enforce it.
-Of course that resulted in a fight. Common for a member of their team to get banned from a track. Lots of feuds between teams/drivers, etc. They all sounded willing to sacrifice their car to takeout someone else and nothing illegal it seemed.
-My understanding is when their car was on track they had to leave someone at the trailer to make sure tools/parts didn't get stolen.

Needless to say when I started looking at racing dirt didn't hit my radar. I was brought up going to the dragstrip and went there first as some of the newer heads up classes really appealed to me. I went to the track, met some guys, looked at the rules, and it was clear that every class became a wallet class. Meaning even in the lower classes that was an iron head nitrous class it was still who spent the most money and generally on the motor. I think it's why you see so many engine builders as drag racers.

I hear you James on CMC but I still think it's the most budget friendly to have a competitive car on the podium. The brakes aren't bad in the long run it's the tire program that is killing it now. Spec Vette looks cool but the buy in is many times that of CMC as they have some high dollar spec parts and I don't know enough about the torque tube issue and the drivetrain. They do have a tire program that probably makes up for the initial buy in after 3-5 years.

[mach1]

Good info guys! Looks fun but very demanding and scandalous.

[BryanL]

Good info guys! Looks fun but very demanding and scandalous.

Well my relayed info. was from a long time ago and the stories also sounded like the people I knew were crazy as well. Maybe the big money races weren't claims. Like we would tell someone looking at CMC or whatever. Go to a few races, look around, talk to some people and your going to have a feel for what kind of fun and costs to expect. Look at the cars before/after and ask them how much time they spent on the car since the last race.

I have seen a groupon for a dirt track driving experience with a few different cars-thinking it was Kenny Wallace.

Interesting info about claims james. I would like to think that spending more money on the motor would help them last longer but I don't know. I can only guess why they don't last is in the dirt and spinning your sitting on the rev limiter most of the race?