Credits cards and lucky to have my parents help me with the initial investment 
.
Definitely hard on a single income for a club season with maybe one special event in the year. (With competitive ambitions in mind)
10 races @ $80 =$800
$15 gas per race (track pump gas) = $150
Wet/dry tires = $500
$1,450
Bare minimum for just showing up from what Iāve used past few years.
Not including any extra practice or parts you buy throughout the year.
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I always struggle with these kinds of questions because theyāre so ambiguous.
This discussion is why youāll continue to see the 206 class grow. Itās just more affordable, and it gives low budget people/teams a realistic chance to compete (assuming your club uses common sense with their tire rules). The downside is when your 12yo kid hops in his friends KA on a practice day and that speed shoots into his veins like a drug. Then itās time to get out your pocket book!
I know thereās no answer, but I was asking because I feel priced out of my local club (and I make decent money). I was wondering if that was a me thing, or a local thing, or a karting as whole thing.
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Its funny you mention that. When my son started in cadet, he asked when we were getting a micro swift (many kids in our club run both cadet 206 and swift). I told him āYou better get real good at racing 4 cycles because there is no world where I can afford to go 2 cycle racingā
Couldnāt agree more.
If I compare costs of other hobbies that require income to participate they have all gone up in costs.
What are your expectations? If you are racing local only I donāt think costs have gotten too crazy but have gone up. If you are wanting to be a front-runner locally, regionally or nationally then prepare to pay. With that said has that really changed form 10 years ago?
If had to quantify it:
Weekly league 80 bucks.
Rental race every couple weekends: 150-200.
Practice days.
Iād say I spend 1000 per month but then I throw in the big races. Letās say those add 5-6k annually.
So, a very busy rental arrive and drive schedule costs me around 10-20k a year imho. Still not cheap but thatās a lot of seat time.
The other issue was we would have been moving from 206 sportsman to 206 junior, and from a drivers standpoint, thatās pretty boring. The sportsman at most tracks is a faster/more fun package to drive.
Locally, in Southern Indiana, yes. I would say costs have gone up 100% in the last 7 years. Thatās entry fees, engines, karts. Surprisingly, tires have only gone up 40-50% and arguably last just as long (or longer in some instances).
I appreciate everyoneās input. I wasnāt trying to drive any actions or specific conversation but probably just some more of my āback in my dayā old man mentality. I wish this sport was more open to the āaverage joeā and less focused on the catered upper class.
In a similar question, is there something the average joe can do to itch that need for speed?
I had a similar conversation with my son a few years. I told him he could race 2 stroke but we could never afford to be competitive. We are struggling in Briggs to be honest.
Our club ran 14 races last year and almost all our competitors run tires every race. We ran 3 and I can honestly say that there were a few times when new set would have made the difference of finishing 1st. vs 2nd or 3rd. My son understands. I work 2 jobs to be able to do this.
Where we are really seeing the gap is the family with deeper pockets are spending a lot of money on coaching and many of them are racing over the winter in the south. So far we are holding our own but I wonder how long we can sustain this. I would love to see a harder tire for club races at least. I donāt buying a new set for the bigger events but we run about 20 races a year. 20 sets of tires at $300 each is too much.
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thatās the point, but you need to keep it relative to all the rest.
Soā¦in the same 7 years, if avg income is pretty much flat, groceries fuel etc are up 100% and karting up 100%, then karting per se is not the issueā¦
Iāll give you an example. Iāve run the price of tires that I was paying in the '90s in Italy through an inflation calculator andā¦surprise! They cost the same today. But today they also last 2X compared to what I was used toā¦oh the good old days! So itās all relativeā¦the issue is really the cost of everything else, compared to avg income, eating up the budgetā¦so the relative cost of a hobby is becoming unapproachable for most
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Sadly, weāre in agreement. The costs of karting (among other things) is out of reach of the common person.
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Karting tires might not be a good example to use when comparing costs from years ago to now, because tires are one of the few components that hasnāt increased in price as much as other parts on a racing kart. Back when I first got into karting, I looked at kart sales catalogs in the late 1990s-early 2000s, and remember seeing kart tire sets retailing for about US $150-$160. Twenty-five years later, and you will be hard-pressed to find anyone selling karting tire sets for more than US $240.
Now, a kart chassis on the other hand, the price of a brand new roller has roughly more than doubled in the same time frame. Far outpacing the increase in tire prices when comparing the two.
And if the usable life of a set of kart tires have improved compared to years ago, has the longevity of a chassis frame and related components improved over the years too? Several times weāve discussed this topic here on this forum, and going by what has been suggested, the exact opposite may be true.
If a present-day kart tire does last twice as long as a tire from the 1990s, we donāt know if itās a true āapples to applesā comparison, unless we know the tire brand and compound being used as an example. There were some pretty soft tires used in some high-profile events in Europe during the 90s. At the same time in the U.S., many lower horsepower classes, even 80cc shifter, where using hard compound tires like the Dunlop SL3, and the Bridgestone YDS, which might be about as hard a compound as a rental kart tire, and could probably be ran as long too.
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I would say that sometimes āback my day it was betterā is true.
Karting, in many aspects, was undeniably better. I read a lot of old karting magazines, and while some issues raised were eerily similar to today, it was culturally a lot stronger and more open to people. I donāt think people should apologise for recognising this.
Why things change is of course another thing, but it is worth looking back.
Back to pure economics. Iirc itās worth noting male wages have stagnated for decades, whereas female wages havenāt. The latter kind of hiding the impact of the former. As karting is male dominated, if we factor in the above-inflation price increases, and general base costs, we can see how the sport is slipping away from a big demographic.
But as I have said before. Expectations are important. Nowadays I think this is the biggest difference and partly why I think spec-racing has been a problem.
In 1985 if you bought a s/h kart you would be happy if it started and you got 10 laps. Having a competitive engine wasnāt at the forefront. Also, youād be racing in 100 Britian Novice most likely. So expectations of success were low. Long term reward mechanims were in place. My brother started in 86 with an EME engine, which for anyone who knowsā¦ wasnt exactly the best.
(The karts themselves were a lot simpler and easier to lug about too)
What I see in todayās market is totally different expectations. The idea of fair and equal racing is pumped into everyoneās brains 24/7 and in my view breeds a negative psychological outcome. We all know the reality of racing, and when it beclmes apparent things arenāt as fair, then it becomes a difficult sport to sustain.
So while we talk about price increases, and there absolutely has been some significant ones, though to some degree theyvare price rises but additional costs bought on by regulatory interventions (i.e bodykits etcā¦), expectations have changed. What was acceptable 40 years agoā¦ isnt what is expected today.
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Thereās a whole lot to quantify with the āaverage personā here. Google says the Median US income is $37,585ā¦ that person isnāt karting theyāre worried about buying food and paying bills!
The avg income for a tradesman is between $50k-$65k a year. For someone single living cheaply and if itās the most important thing to them, perhaps theyāre breaking off $5k to kart each year. If they have a family forget about it.
Average income for someone with a bachelors degree in the US is $81,500. Again if single then they could prioritize racing and make it work. If theyāre trying to raise a family in the suburbs with all that goes with itā¦they better hope there are 2 of those incomes.
Racing has always been a sport for the well off, and it likely shows that we often forget how well off our lives are to be able to participate it in regularly even if itās one of the most budget friendly forms of racing.
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While to some extent karting has always been for the well-off, kartingās barrier to entry has been rising and a few hundred dollars here or there are significant.
In the UK things like the start karting pack and ARKS test which added a few hundred quid to the start up cost if you were racing Motorsport UK. You then have the extra few hundred for bodywork. Then if you buy s/h you might be spending an extra few hundred if the old kart needs drop back bunper mounts, fully enclosed chain guard etcā¦
You can wipe out thousands of potential karters from the market with these seemingly āsmall mandated additionsā to cost.
I donāt think karting should be sold as cheap, but it should be a piece of piss to get into. I think we have passed the point of no return however.
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@fatboy1dh it is an extremely expensive hobby choice. We have spend anywhere from 10k to 20k the last three years racing anywhere from 24 weekends to only 12 weekends.
Year 1 was a used kart @2500, replacement 206 motor, tools, broke fix parts, and 14 club weekends with 1 regional weekend. Spent around 15k total.
Year 2 was a new kart, backup 206 motor, a replacement frame, lots of broke fix parts, 5 regional weekends, IKF weekend, and about 18-19 club weekends.
Year 3 was a used KA motor, 7 regional race weekends, 5 club weekends, 3 engine rebuilds at 12ish hours each, and running under a regional team tent.
Year 1 and 3 are near identical in cost even though we had 3 years worth of spares stocked up for year 3 and were starting from scratch in year 1. The KA cost per hour just high, even for just practice. With $30 per gallon fuel, $250 tires, and $1000 rebuilds.
This always has me wondering in Motorsport. Thereās bound to be a lot of talent that never gets the opportunity to discover their calling. Big sad.
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