I am finding myself living close to a major city and garage/storage space for my trailer and kart is scarce. I figured it may be easier to sell the trailer and kart and just do arrive and drive for major events (USPKS and Stars). What are the typical going rates that you’ve seen for these events? Not including tires, entry or fuel. I am not looking for this year, but next. Thanks!
I imagine that the teams doing arrive-and-drives for KZ are going to be the pretty expensive ones. Smaller, cheaper teams probably won’t be that invested in KZ to start.
Going rates on full arrive-and-drive for the good teams at a national event is in the $5k-10k range.
Bummer, would be cheaper to rent a ride endurance racing for that price. I was hoping for the $3k range
What about renting storage in the outskirts or something? Probably cost in the few hundreds per month. Really, it comes down to economics. SIMA track up here in PNW has novel on-site mini garages to rent for storing karts/tools/gear in lieu of hauling. Track is on the CDN border, so & a lot of drivers from the other side of the border utilize it. If you can fined something akin to that, might be your ticket.
For $3k you could run with one of the Pro BMW teams that run in AER or WRL.
My thoughts exactly (20char)
Im currently storing my kart and trailer about an hour-ish from my apartment. Its just frustrating if I want to do something simple before a race weekend and it turns in to just a 3hr round trip alone if theres the tiniest bit of traffic. I am in the Washington DC area so no tracks around to store equipment at.
Call around to some teams and ask what they would charge. I know that’s a going rate for big teams, but maybe a smaller team has something available for KZ and would be cheaper.
If you just want storage and transport, someone’s gotta have appetite for that only, no day rate.
I got a quote from a prominent shifter team last year for a full arrive and drive program for the SKUSA Summernats and it was $7,500. Salty, lol.
Smaller teams will absolutely be less expensive. I’ll be racing the Stars series (on my own equipment) with Harden Motorsports Group, and would recommend you reach out to Darren Harden if you’re interested in renting a shifter ride for Stars. I’m sure he’s got equipment he could put you on that would be competitive, and as a fellow shifter driver you would have access to my data and coaching.
Other good options to consider would be:
- Trinity Karting Group
- Magik Kart/Checkered Motorsports
- Carblos Racing
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7.5k$??? is that for 1 weekend? does that include registration at the event and full hospitality including days of practice and coaching? Sounds like inflation hit harder than I can imagine.
Years ago our local track had arrive and drive and it was 500$ with everything you needed for the weekend in a 206lo senior.
I started doing SCCA road racing in a spec racer and Sat/ Sun was 2k$ w/o scca fees of about 500$. Meals were included and small repairs. That cost is now at about 3k$ for a gen3 srf. They also do FE cars.
Quite a difference comparing a local 206 arrive-and-drive to a national-level KZ arrive-and-drive. About as far apart on the spectrum as you could go.
Local arrive-and-drive stuff is still in that $500-1000 range depending on class and what’s included.
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Im planning on running my own equipment for stars this year. Good to know for next year though. Not sure which would be easier for arrive and drive: My own equipment but they prep and transport or just rent out their equipment all together?
This type of arrangement is for one national race weekend, and would include 1 chassis, 1 engine, access to all tuning parts, and all the usual tent services (coaching, data, food/drink, chassis table, etc.).
These deals never include registration fees, tires, practice fees, and whatnot.
The performance and thrill of a KZ is going to exceed that of full race cars for the same price, so to me it’s not worth making the comparison to cars. Anything below mid-level formula cars is a downgrade from KZ in my opinion.
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They have customers that do either option. Pros and cons to each, but I would say the full rental route is “easier” overall, though also more costly.
Sven, I think the supernats packages are pretty expensive because it’s the “biggest” race of the year in the USA. If I’m not mistaken it’s 3-4 day event.
To clarify, the quote I received was for Summernats, not Supernats. The latter is probably 1.5-2x the cost, depending on the team.
Those prices seem to have shot up, too. Chris’s enduros were were around 1200 pre pandemic. Now 1700.
Should have clarified, I was referencing enduro such as WRL, AER, ChampCar etc…