Hello,

I've been karting and autocrossing for awhile now but I finally feel that is time to move on to something new. I've always wanted to race in an open wheeler but I am unsure of the costs.

In the U.S I'm limited to (as far as I know)
Formula Mazda
Formula BMW
Formula Ford
Skip Barber


If anyone has any info could you please let me know? Like how much do you travel? how much are spare parts on average? if you race for a team who owns the car instead of you, how did you get on the team? How did you obtain your sponsors?

That's all the questions I can think up of at the moment, I appreciate any info that you guys can give me.

With the exception of Skip Barber and Formula Ford (non-2000, non-professional) all of those series will have huge budgets and are aimed at the up and coming/semi-professional driver. Assuming that isn't you these aren't what you want to be looking at, there will be plenty of local single seater series for you to race very similar cars for a fraction of the cost.

You need to choose your budget and decide what you want to race in, preparing your own car/a professionally prepared car/running in a centrally run formula (Skip Barber/FPA).

it's pretty expencive. i had the invites to race 250cc superkarts, formula ford and formula renault 2.0

The best thing to do ( also the most expencive ) is to get yourselve in to a team by paying them.

250cc superkarts costs:

2nd hand kart € 6000,00 to € 10.000,00
raceweekend around € 1000,00 to € 1500,00

Formula ford costs:

for a whole season around € 30.000 and more. i had a test Invite at Zolder ( belgium ) that would cost me 3,500 euro's

Formula renault 2.0 starts from € 50.000/60.000 and up for a season



this is just a basic costs list. you also need to count if you try it on yrselve: tools, transport, spare parts, mechanics, hotels, food, if you have sponsors they need some food and exitement to.

i don't know what formula mazda, bmw or skip barber costs. i think close to formula ford.


i hope my info was a bit usefull.

Quote from thatguy :

Hello,

I've been karting and autocrossing for awhile now but I finally feel that is time to move on to something new. I've always wanted to race in an open wheeler but I am unsure of the costs.

In the U.S I'm limited to (as far as I know)
Formula Mazda
Formula BMW
Formula Ford
Skip Barber


If anyone has any info could you please let me know? Like how much do you travel? how much are spare parts on average? if you race for a team who owns the car instead of you, how did you get on the team? How did you obtain your sponsors?

That's all the questions I can think up of at the moment, I appreciate any info that you guys can give me.

I think you have the question slightly the wrong way round. What you should ask is this

I have (or could realistically get) £xxxxxxx. What would be the most effective way to spend this money to achieve my goals?

The reason you should ask that is because in every race series I have ever seen or been involved with the costs vary wildly from competitor to competitor. If you state how much money you have to spend you will get a more detailed answer.

Quote from henrico-20- :

i don't know what formula mazda, bmw or skip barber costs. i think close to formula ford.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Skip Barber is reasonably priced arrive and drive centrally organised club racing featuring a very crude car that is reliable and cheap to run, given the level playing field the fact your driving something simple doesn't matter so much. Formula BMW (and I think Mazda) are almost exclusively run by professional teams, whilst there may not be any bar to entry for club racers (though there is an upper age or license limit on some of them) they will have prohibitively high entry fees and car costs (carbon tubs, expensive gearboxes and often limited availability of second hand cars).

I don't think the OP really wants to race in Formula BMW/Mazda and doesn't seem to have any aspiration of making it as a racing driver. I certainly don't believe that US single seater racing is so limited.

Don't forget they still race Formula Ford 2000 cars (LD200, tubular tub, wings and slicks), these chassis run in the UK with 1.8 Zetecs in F4, circa £35000 for a turn key car in UK spec, decent cars with potential and spares (and even a truck if your lucky) can be had for £10-15000. I would have thought cars in the US would go for similar amounts and there would be plenty of second hand ones on the market and lots of places to race them, they are a much better car for starting out in race car preparation.

After looking into the costs, the skip barber series seems more affordable and they provide the car while also making it a learning experience. There was only 6 events for the 2008 season meaning I won't have to travel too much. I don't need to transport a car everywhere and if I didn't have a suit and helmet already, they provide that. If I somehow surprise myself (though I doubt it) there is a fully paid season of Formula Mazda as a prize (read the fine print though, you have to be a teacher and motivational speaker to other drivers afterwards).

It's not like I'm doing this now either, I'm going to wait awhile.

Some helpful info if anyone has sponsors could you let me know what you do for that. For autocrossing now I just get contingincies for just posting a decal on my car, im pretty sure thats not the case for a real sponsor.

If im correct, the car of FBMW is around 70k dollars.

Maximum age limit too, though.

Formula BMW the max age is 25 (i think) Skip barber there is no limit, except you get put in a seperate class if you are 40 or over.

All depends I suppose on where you are in the States and how much $$$ you have, Skip Barber is a good progression from karting (theres a scholarship that gets you on the ladder), have a test first obviously, but I'm sure theres other local SS series out there.

Star Mazda is about $900K, I think (don't quote me on that, if you really want to know I can find out)

Formula Star Mazda the new ones with carbon tubs that look normal or the old tube-frame cars that look a bit funky?

I very much doubt you are limited to the mentioned series/championships in total, but it depends what level of racing and investment you are after. There will be various 'club level' single seater championships throughout the country catering for many older and even contemporary chassis that will require budgets at a fraction of the level of Skip Barber et al.

The thing to do is either a) find a series that suits your budget or b) find a series that really interests you and try to release the funds required to partake. It's likely you'll end up somewhere between the two with a happy medium.

Doesn't Skip Barber look after the cars and so-on like Formula Palmer Audi though?

I think so, which just makes it even more expensive.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I think so, which just makes it even more expensive.

Skip Barber is incredibly good value for money, $3000 for a two race weekend. You definitely won't find a competitive hire drive single seater in any series (and definitely not wings and slicks) for that over here. That also includes (limited) insurance. Preparing a car yourself will still be the cheaper option and if you go to an open series then you will be racing a considerably more advanced car but I think centrally run series have their place in the market.

Of course they do, but if the OP is worried about cost then a hire-drive series of any sort isn't really the right way to go.

Yeh But If you do get Highered, And Say a Team Manager is watching for upcoming stars, And you Go and do a fantastic Performance!, uv got a chance of being in a team..

Small and hard chance to risk!

Quote from Jordan2007 :

Yeah, but if you do get hired, and say a team manager is watching for up and coming stars, and you go and do a fantastic performance!, you've got a chance of being in a team...

Err, yes. Thanks for that.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Of course they do, but if the OP is worried about cost then a hire-drive series of any sort isn't really the right way to go.

I don't think you could really beat Skip Barber on price doing the work yourself if you wanted to be competitive in a competitive winged single seater series. Of course it can be done, in the past people have won Club F3 with considerably less than the average front running Formula Vee competitor's budget. It takes an all rounder though to do it, plenty of experience and connections, good engineering (thinking outside the box and never wasting anything), and good driving (both undeserved speed for the machinery and never making mistakes). Assuming the OP is human, incapable and/or unwilling at engineering and wants to be competitive then a hire drive centrally run series makes sense. Of course there are other aspects to club racing than just literally the racing, many of the figures in all the club racing scenes I've been involved with have never been behind the wheel in anger and have no intention to do so. Likewise there are always the edgey figures on the side who only seem to be there to take home pots, they may fit into centrally run racing much better than the club series they seem to have a rather miserable time with.

Quote from Jordan2007 :

Yeh But If you do get Highered, And Say a Team Manager is watching for upcoming stars, And you Go and do a fantastic Performance!, uv got a chance of being in a team..

Small and hard chance to risk!

Start here and radically increase the chance of you getting 'highered' (into a job of some description).

Thanks, I Never knew how to Spell Banana.

My English isnt Good.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I very much doubt you are limited to the mentioned series/championships in total, but it depends what level of racing and investment you are after. There will be various 'club level' single seater championships throughout the country catering for many older and even contemporary chassis that will require budgets at a fraction of the level of Skip Barber et al.

You mustn't forget that England cannot be compared to any other country in the world when it comes to club racing. In most countries there's really only a handful of club series and it's quite unlikely that any of them are single seaters.

Quote from J.B. :

You mustn't forget that England cannot be compared to any other country in the world when it comes to club racing. In most countries there's really only a handful of club series and it's quite unlikely that any of them are single seaters.

In Mondello Park in Ireland there is: Formula Ford 1600, Formula Vee, Formula Libre (open class) and Formula Sheane(probably more too that i cant think of). Thats the SS's alone.

Sorry, should have said UK or GB.

In Germany there is exactly one SS club racing series. It has 3 races in Germany and you have to be happy with the safety standards from the '60s and 70's (historic Formula Vee).

The US has a big club racing scene, lots of superb club circuits and plenty of different club level single seaters though. Given that the front running cars in F4 are built new for the American market there must be somewhere to race them. A very quick search reveals that SCCA have a series which FF2000 cars are eligible for.

Quote from ajp71 :

The US has a big club racing scene, lots of superb club circuits and plenty of different club level single seaters though. Given that the front running cars in F4 are built new for the American market there must be somewhere to race them. A very quick search reveals that SCCA have a series which FF2000 cars are eligible for.

LoL so basically Overal Tracks....

basic start out cost for shall we say BTCC (Touring Cars) is at least £200,000 (and thats in the low class)
thats before running costs, team, sponsership and all the other lil bits n bobs main thing i think you really need is to get "Spotted" by a Sponsership you get spotted at some of these events then you have very very good luck on ur side but alot of things come in to play trying to get into these types of things and the 1st thing is money...