Budgets?

[lawson17]

Hi Guys and Gals,

I would love to start racing in the minitwins sometime soon, I have done a few trackdays before and I'm hooked! (Big Grin Factor!)

What I want to ask is, what sort of cost is involved in participating in a season?

I have been to a few BEMSEE meets this year to come and watch, this made me want to do it even more!

Any information would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance! :D

[G]

Not sure about minitwins, I asked a racer in a series I was watching whilst pickying up his bike from the gravel and he budgets £5k a year, not including buying the race bike in the first place

[tranx]

I'm starting racing Minitwins next March and already I've spent £2.5K. That's just buying the bike and a few other bits and pieces. Once you factor in around £1700 entry fees, £1500 petrol, £1000 for tyres, £600 for protective equipment and £1000 for practise days a conservative estimate puts a years racing at £5-6K not including buying the bike.

[G]

I'm starting racing Minitwins next March and already I've spent £2.5K. That's just buying the bike and a few other bits and pieces. Once you factor in around £1700 entry fees, £1500 petrol, £1000 for tyres, £600 for protective equipment and £1000 for practise days a conservative estimate puts a years racing at £5-6K not including buying the bike.

Then the potentialy/likely mechanical repairs expected when a bike is on its limits.....then if you drop it during a race you have a whole new level of cost.

[tranx]

Then the potentialy/likely mechanical repairs expected when a bike is on its limits.....then if you drop it during a race you have a whole new level of cost.

Shhhhhh! You'l wake the gremlins up. :smt103

[Blue_SV650S]

I'm starting racing Minitwins next March and already I've spent £2.5K. That's just buying the bike and a few other bits and pieces. Once you factor in around £1700 entry fees, £1500 petrol, £1000 for tyres, £600 for protective equipment and £1000 for practise days a conservative estimate puts a years racing at £5-6K not including buying the bike.

I think your tyre budget is unrealistic ... you need to at least double that if you want to be in any way competitive I reckon ...

You have nothing in the 'maintenance' field (chains, sprockets, oil, filters, pads, dyno time etc etc) .. a set of race pads are £80ea and you will need a few sets of them during the year ...

You haven’t stated a ‘crash kitty’ either … (this can get very big very quickly ... it doesn't even have to be 'your fault'!!)

I think being realistic you could double your estimate quite easily … without doing anything special :study:

Oh and if you don't have transport and a genny already, you need to factor them in too ..

[DoubleD]

I can't help with the budget question but I do know than when ever you work out a budget you should just DOUBLE your final figure as it will always be closure to that than your original figure.

[rigor]

Reminds me of the old racing quote:

How do you make a million from racing? Start with 2

[Davies]

A friend of mine raced a few rounds in the minitwins last year and he has now had to give it up because he's getting married next year (poor chap ;) ). He's got a converted Mercedes Sprinter van/bike (SV650)/spares all up for grabs, so if you're interested I can find out how much he wants to let it go for. His name is "Bully" incase some of you racers may know him.

[chunkytfg]

I know i didnt do minitwins but i did a season with bemsee regardless and straigh up costs were £200 entry fees plus £100 for the test day time 10 which is 3k. Then i did 10 sets of tyres at £185 a pop plus a set of wets so thats another 2k. Somwhere in the region of 60 litres of fuel a meeting another £600. sundries such as oil, brake fluid etc at £75 a meeting another £750.

There you have a budget of
£5250 without factoring in the cost of getting to each meeting which i put at about £80 a time plus crash funds and you are at around 8k allready.

Then you have set up costs as a rookie for things you need but might not have yet.

Genny 200-400
warmers 150 250
transponder 160 SH or 250 new
basic spares for the bike which should include forks for a minitwin imo 1k
ACU training day 250


Do you see how it soon adds up to quite a monumental amount of money? This isnt meant to scare you off it as imo there is nothing better but dont go into things with your eyes shut.

Budget 10k and if you come out with change then you have more to spend next year
.

This of course assumes you all ready have a bike ready to race if not assume 2k to race prep a road bike to what I would call acceptable.

For the record i rekon on spending close to 13k this year not takingt into account the 4k i spent on a caravan or the 2.5k i spent on another engine rebuild

[Sideshow#36]

Just finished prepping mine. Prepped it on my own and with a lot of help from some mates. So no labour charges.
Its a K4 which ive owned since new but value before was probaly £2500
Then another £3500 on bits to make it "race prepped"
And ontop of that ive had to buy a Van, Caravan, Genny, Paddock Equipment (tyrewarmers, tools, etc)
For evry weekend ive budgeted about £600. Thats to cover entry fees, tyres, fuel, oils living, eg food, practice day before the weekend. I also have a bit in reserve for repairs which i hopefully wont have to dip into. I'm quite lucky too as I get a bit of help from Hein Gericke Reading and the RAF.

[Sideshow#36]

By the way, next years provisional BEMSEE fixtures have just been released. www.bemsee.net (http://www.bemsee.net) :-)

[Demonz]

Circa 10k PA - Wow thats a big investment for a bit of fun in the weekends. You really have to love it to do it or in the industry to offset it in someway.

[chunkytfg]

Circa 10k PA - Wow thats a big investment for a bit of fun in the weekends. You really have to love it to do it or in the industry to offset it in someway.


There are very few who actually do it anyother way than paying for it thewmselves and until you try it yourself you have no concept as to just how much fun it really is.

[Blue_SV650S]

There are very few who actually do it anyother way than paying for it thewmselves and until you try it yourself you have no concept as to just how much fun it really is.

Again I disagree that racing is 'fun', but hey, that is just the way I approached it!!! :-s

Oh and yes, I think £10k is a more realistic ballpark figure for a first season! (even then you are not doing it ‘all signing-all dancing!! - buy a NEW bike and top-spec it, with a spare bike too ... a nice winabago (SP) like some people seem to do and you are over £100k!! :shock:)

[Massive Action]

Lucky - I might be interested in your mates setup. Whats he looking for and whats the spec/detail of his set-up?

PM me.

[MG#43]

After my 600 race bike shat it's gearbox to bits at the start of this season (attempts to repair this are still errrr, ongoing :rolleyes:), I decided i could use my sv road bike to enter into the minitwins. So, I put the ohlins rear shock from the gsxr got the front forks sorted (steve jordan - top job too!!), got some scrubs, braided lines, shark fin, catchtray, few other bits and i was out there again!!

Though i was obviously p*ssing in the wind compared to some, as I said i was out there, and it didn't cost the earth either, heres my breakdown for the 3 rounds i did. Bare in mind i already had a trailer, tyre warmers, stands, generator etc etc from the previous year.

rear shock (taken from my gsxr)
sharkfin (off the gsxr)
£300 front forks - though would be cheaper if i didn't knacker the mudguard bolts and need to get the threads re-tapped.
£70 - hel braided lines
£35 - ebc hh brake pads, more than good enough for me (still got life left)
£25 - crash bungs, ebay jobs though were proper crap (r&g the only way to go).
£120 - race chain/sprockets (needed to be replaced anyway)
£60 - supercorsa scrubs
£85 - gsxr seat unit (did buy a full fairing but never fitted it)
£60 - catchtray (acu requirement)

Took the lights out, gaffered up the holes, lockwired the sump plug and oil filer cap, put my numbers on and i was ready for scrutineeting (well sort of), and it passed without too much fuss :cool:.

Cadwell was the first round:

£195 - entry fee
£90 - trackday on the thursday (bad idea, should have done the proper test day on the friday instead, same cost though i think)
£20 - transponder hire (bad idea, need to buy one for next season)
£100 - est fuel cost for travel from kent and bike
£50 - est food/beer
£25 - oil/filter

Brands Indy:

£225 - entry fee
£95 - testday
£20 - transponder
£50 - est fuel (i live 15 mins from brands)
£50 - est food/beer

Brands GP:

£250 - entry, couldn't get on the test day though :-s
£20 - transponder
£110 - new rear tyre, also used a newer scrub for the front from my shed
£30 - est fuel
£50 - est food/beer
£25 - oil/filter

This has to be pretty much rock bottom in terms of budget, and though i crashed at the cadwell round there wasn't any costly damage involved, though there could have been. Stupidly, I was armed with no spares at all.

However, even though this was as low as i could have done it, looking at the costs it's still not an insignificant amount, remember if you do a full season at times you'll be racing every other week.

If you want to do well, you need to put in a lot more, but this does goes to show you can get out there on a lot less than you might expect. :D

[Torpedo]

A friend of mine raced a few rounds in the minitwins last year and he has now had to give it up because he's getting married next year (poor chap ;) ). He's got a converted Mercedes Sprinter van/bike (SV650)/spares all up for grabs, so if you're interested I can find out how much he wants to let it go for. His name is "Bully" incase some of you racers may know him.

hello, im a new member but im curious what price hes asking for?

though i wasnt necessarily after a van lol, just the bike mainly.

im intent on joining some kind of racing this year or starting to do trackdays on a regular basis, so either way i need a new track/race bike anyway, and then theres trackday entry fees. i did have a look last year and bugeted myself at a bit over 3k but well aware that figures far too low now lol. i didnt include travel costs in there as i was hoping id get a lift with a mate, though i guess i should factor that, and i only factored about £300 repair, which is too low as well. once again i imagine the case is, "double it"

i'll work on it later tonight i think.