A cost analysis of getting into karting

Getting Started in Karting
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I’m in the same boat as Chris at the local club level,

Used kart with new Briggs - $1600
2 sets of tires for the season - $400
Club dues - $100
Race fees - $35 x 15= $525
Gas - pump, live 5 miles from track hoping $100 for kart and truck for the season

I’m in at $2725 as a brand new racer, I already owned an acceptable helmet and race suit. It would probably be wise to budget an extra $500 for unforeseen things. It will be interesting to see how far above that I go this season. I will try to keep track and report back in a year

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Racing is expensive I raced 71-84 Karts was 500. Then komet engine 250 new then 250get set up so a comparison now days racing has change more expensive. I made less money then but Kart racing is goin to get higher with track insurance fees. & tire mfg gettin in the race. Spend yur money racing Hav fun yur friends are probably spending more tryin Hav fun :grin:

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Track rental and so on have gone up a bit as competition with other sports for dates increased.
But in terms of the karts and parts etc, I know it feels more expensive these days, but when you account for inflation it hasn’t drifted as much

$500 in 1971 works out at about $3200 in 2018 money…
You can just about get a new complete ready to race kart for that these days.

VLR is a decent kart too.

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It is very reasonable. We have a nice track but there are no facilities. It’s a concrete/asphalt track in a field behind some business.

The club leases the track for 3,000 a year from the land owner and is able to pass the savings on to the members.

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It depends… on how good new equipment you want, and what engine.

Myself - I went cheap since it was my first year in karting and I just wanted to get a feel for it and have fun doing it without killing the bank. Here are most of my costs though the year. Note that the place I race is a 1.5 hour drive each way, and the mode of transport is an old small block C1500 pickup, so fuel ads up.

Kart - '08 GP Racing frame with 80cc Honda shifter engine with fresh top end - $1750
2 spare coils (after 1 failure) - $67
Spare clutch kit - $39
2 sets of metric front hubs - $110
4 alternate rear split hub gears - $110
1 new set of tires - $200
4 sets of takeoff tires (1 race with team from ebay) - $200
1 new set of wheels + 2 new wheels to convert from CRG to metric $230
AMB TranX 160 Transponder - modified to take 9V batteries - $125
Mychron 5 - $485
Fly360 4K camera - $200
Kart suit - $200
Helmet - $95
Misc nuts, nylon ties, etc - $20

Yearly club dues - includes unlimited practice time - $200
Race entry fees - $40 x 9 = $360
Race helper pit fees - $8 x 4 = $32
Gas (races plus a few practices, avg) - 13 gal x $2.40 x 13 = $405
Highway tolls - $2.55 each way x 2 x 13 = $66.30

That should be about it. So all-in about $4900. Certainly not cheap, but not horrible. The 1-1/2 hour drive each way with tolls does not help any.

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komet engine 250 new and 250get set up so a comparison now days racing has change more expensive.

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I’ve always tried to look at karting as a vacation\trip, then the numbers don’t seem so high… Travel and accommodation is a big part of your budget if it’s part of your program.

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I know the best driver at my local track averages $200 total per race - but he is also by far the best driver here, has been racing for thirty years, and is completely satisfied with his equipment, a lot of which he built himself. He runs a Rotax in TaG Masters.

Last year I tried racing on his budget and it didn’t work at all. It meant no capital expenditure, really careful choices of when to put new tires on, and no way to get around major problems - and I’m harder on equipment and not as good as he is. Once I realized I couldn’t fix the weight distribution issue with my Rotax in Senior, I was stuck running a 15-year-old EasyKart engine against the X30s.

This year, my goal is to win at my local track, and get on the podium at other tracks. While a $14000 budget might seem high, $8000 of it is capital expenditure right at the start of the year, and if I spent it well will allow me to keep the kart without any major changes for next year. Most of the rest is new tires, required by different tracks, and a plan to drive at least 30 days this season.

To get into karting, you should run LO206. I won a track championship in it with a $1500 Craigslist chassis and a total expenditure of $1500 for the season. If I had gone for a new chassis, it would’ve cost me $3500 but it would’ve saved $500 in parts, for an additional cost of $1500.

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I could probably do a full club championship for less than $200/race now. When I originally made this I was very generous with spending money to show how much you actually have to spend in order to reach $10,000/year in racing, which someone was claiming was the standard amount people spend for a season of only club races.

The things I’m noticing looking back at this that are way overestimated are 4 gallons of race gas for a day and a new set of tires every other raceday.

(EDIT: Also, I wouldn’t be recommending an X30 for a driver’s first kart. KA100 at the fastest, probably a 206. That’ll reduce a lot of the buy-in costs and maintenance fees that are huge in X30)

I actually really liked the discussion that came from this topic though, people comparing how much they’re spending and what they do with their money when they race.

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Wanted to take a moment on here to let all of you know about this convo…

This is actually one of the top search engine referred topics on the forums. It gets read about 400 times a month. In internet terms it might not seem like much but its a real impact to the sport IMO…

What I’m about to say is a bit of a stretch because we have to make some assumptions… but…
That’s potentially 400 racers (or would-bes) that got a reasonable idea of what it costs to go racing…
If 1% of those get started, that’s 4 new racers a month for the sport.

No matter how you look at this, it’s fair to say it’s had a real impact.

Kudos!

p.s. A smart, enterprising and forward thinking business or karting org should probably sponsor something like this.

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I wanted to do a YouTube series actually documenting how much it cost for me to run at various levels of karting competition, but never pulled the trigger on it. I didn’t realize there was that much of a viewing for this topic.

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Also, literally in my newsfeed… While they’re not necessarily talking about “racing karts” and going racing, there’s HUGE untapped potential for karting in this backyard approach as a entry point to “having fun with gokarts”

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I wonder if any of these fine organizations read our forums? Every day I am approving new members.

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People say that karting is not expensive but it really depends what you make out of it. It is definitely the cheapest form of racing that you can find, but for a lot of people it can still be expensive. It depends on the class you race in too. If you’re going to race under budget, LO206 all the way. You can race in LO206 for just a couple thousand if you want with little worries about maintenance. If you have a more flexible budget, then you have more options, but it really all comes down to what class you want to run in and how competitive you want to be. Before you go karting and go all in, I suggest you really analyze well your budget, research the tracks around you and figure out which class has the most support in your area cause you don’t want to get a shifter kart and then be with two other guys in a race, and expect to pay more than what you originally anticipate because it happens

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I’ll share my LO206 costs this winter just getting into the sport in Ontario Canada. These are the costs and fees I just paid or will pay coming up.
Kart and Stand $2500
Head flowbenched, leak down and service $200
Sniper aligners $400
New tires, chain, gaurd, pushback bumper kit, gears and clutch $700
Safety equipment I’ll mark down as $500 I got a used suit but new helmet, gloves and rib vest.
$4300

Race day costs about $200 including travel for local, likely higher with Regional and national events I plan to take part in because it’s my local track. $80 a day practice session, $65 a race day.

We have 21 dates circled on the calendar but we’re in another lockdown so I’m going to peg 15 as a solid number. About $5000 is going to get me through the season, between tires, broken parts and entry fees as I plan on long distance travel for 2 events with two friends I race with bringing travel costs down substantially.

I think $5000 year over year is a good spot to hold firm at for myself in 206. I wouldn’t call it cheap, but I wouldn’t consider it inaccessible either.

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One of the best video’s I saw regarding this subject came from Jorge at JaM Racing. Fast foward a few weeks after I saw this video, which was a year or so old when I discovered it, and he ended up being the person who sold me his old chassis and got me into the sport. I didn’t even know it was him at that time, just some random ad I responded too.

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Back in the late 90s, I dumped $20-25K a year to run the regional series, some supporting club races, and 2 classes at the GNs which were out west a few times in that era. I did a lot of testing and should have done more racing, but my equipment was well developed and fast.

Top juniors had budgets 4x that, but they were at the track EVERY day they were not in school.

I think the same program would be about $30-35K/year today. Tires and chassis are more…but engines are much better and cheaper to run if you know what you are doing. KT-100 Pipe was expensive to be fast in because after 60-90 minutes of run time…the edge was off the motor. LOTS of rebuilds.

To run a serious program, you need two of everything chassis related and three of everything motor related. I took 14 sets of tires and 4 motors to GNs to run two classes. When it was over, everything was used up, and I had one 5th place finish. That was the end of my first stint in racing. It burned me out.

I remember one of the junior dads lamenting that he wanted to take up a cheaper hobby, like gambling.

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I’d say if someone wanted to do a tent progress you could probably do 10 races a year for $4k at a club level

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Ok thank you for that comment cause I’m moving to Ontario and needed to know how much it would cost me for entry fees

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My cost to get into karting ….

This plan works better if you’ve got decent mechanical skills, and are already familiar with the karting scene.

I picked up a kinda busted up chassis, it was complete, but had a crack in the frame. Components were still good to go. $500
Got a used motor, LO206, and got it refreshed. $600
Case of oil, around $200
Frame straightened and welded, $200
2 sets 1 race Hoosiers, $200
Clutch and spare clutch parts, $125
Miscellaneous spare parts, $400-$600
2 Sets if Douglas Mags, $360
Mychron 5, $470
Helmet, $200
Jacket and gloves, $75
Total: $3530

Midway through the season, I’m realizing that if I want to do a little better, I should budget more in tires. I should be able to do that next year, because I won’t have the initial investment expenses.

Expect to get nickel and dimed, though. Club race days, I’ll expect to spend $100, to include fees, gas to and from track. Transponder fees aren’t listed, most tracks have a transponder rental, but the price is all over the place, from $10 up to $30 an event. I got creative, found team that had some idle transponders, and rented one off them for the season.

I already owned a pickup, but I am able to get the kart stuffed in an SUV, also. Already had a bunch of tools

To fund the majority of this, I swapped out and downsized other hobbies. For me, I was able to sell off a few of my extra bicycles and electric guitars.

The main vibe I’ve noticed, is that people will want you to race. If you show an interest, you’ll get offered help. There will always be racers at the track who have been in the scene their entire life, who have a garage full of karts, and will jump at the chance to help someone new get into it.

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