Rental Costs

[Bob Roth]

Having done the enduro owner thing since the early '90's, here's a couple of comments. I don't think there is a problem using your sprint car for enduro's as long as you are willing to accept the compromizes needed to make it a capable enduro car such as a heavy large fuel cell. My enduro car has always been my sprint car, in fact I always run a sprint race in my car before the enduro just to make sure its a reliable car and ready to go. Something that you will have to commit to though if you are going to enduro race your car is an aggressive package of maintenance and spares. Something like an engine and transmission rebuild every season, to keep ahead of the gremlins. The point is, if you are going to be asking people to commit money and time to run in your car, you need to accept the responsibility of doing everything you can to assure that the car will be reliable. Its no fun for anybody to go to the effort, then break a hub, clutch, axle, header etc. An endurance race is like planning to run a race season with no repairs and maintenance. If you don't prep needed to make that happen, you don't have fun.

On the money thing, I must be hanging with the wrong crowd but its really hard to find IT racers with the money to do their own racing, much less drop $2k for an enduro weekend. Be prepared to underwrite the cost of your friends. At the same time, I figure that most of my drivers cannot afford to write a check for $6k if they wadd your car up so I don't worry about insurance anyway, what I do worry about is how long they havebeen racing and what's their record. If the driver has 30 races under their belt, few or no DNF's with no major hits, they will probably be fine. Beware of the rental driver who is a 2 year wonder who divebombs every corner, no amount of insurance protects you from someone that doesn't get the maxim "to finish first, first you have to finish". I think picking co drivers who have demonstrated ability to always bring the car back is the biggest success factor in endurance racing. I'd far prefer having a driver in my car who pays $1200 and always brings it back straight than a driver who writes a $2500 check and who's hard on equipment.

The last thing, unless you are looking at this as a business, select co drivers that you like and are pleasent to be around. Its a team thing, figure out how to find drivers who will all be smiling at the end of the weekend regardless where you place. It tough to win these races, if you can't win every one, you might as well have fun.

I guess my point is, the only reason to run your own car is if you truly believe you can do better organization, prep and development than the guy you would rent from. Unless you own a race prep shop, its almost impossible to make money renting rides out. If the idea of running your own car is that it will be cheap racing for you, I don't think its possible. If you want to save money, my suggestion you will be money ahead renting a ride.