sothpaw2

Will HPDE event fees decrease next year--opinions? Obviously gas cost went down already but with so many reducing spending, I would think hobbies would be the first things to go. Event fees have been going up with demand.

Fees are pretty high now I think--$175-250/day. A friend at work says you can fly enough hours to maintain your pilot's license for $200 /month--and that's renting the plane & gas is included. Getting the license to begin with is not much more.

Sidney004

I think we are seeing it here in Northern California. NCRC has an upcoming event at Thunderhill for $99, I received an Email from them today that they will put up more events next year at Thunderhill in the $100-$125 range. The race tracks really rape you on gas though, Thunderhill charges $2 gallon over the going rate(although it is for a good cause.)

johninar

I know that some fees are going up for 2009 at Hallett.
I know that I will be doing less events next year. I have to put more into my already decimated retirement accounts.

The crash will delay my retirement, as it has for many others.
I still hope the Lottery comes through for me.

Aardwolf

Road America seems to be slightly higher in cost then other tracks that I've read prices posted on, so I hope the cost does go down! I could squeeze in one more event per year, which would make me happy.

rustyguns

hope they go down a lot! what does he fly a 152? put, put, put, take off and landing is fun, but just hanging there cruising 110 mph is a bit boring and the radar radio control areas suck!

sothpaw2

$200 per month or $2400/yr is the bare minimum to keep the pilot's license according to my co-worker. He built his own plane now so he doesn't pay even that--I think he will have to get re-certified as he hasn't kept his hours up as required.

The flying is what I always thought of as an expensive hobby, so this really puts HPDE in perspective.

RUN4CVR

They won't go down....all the clubs know what an addiction this sport is and are counting on guys like me selling off the other cars, the tools, the dog and the house before giving up on track days.

The season has been over for about 2 weeks, and I feel like its been a year already!

CHJ In Virginia

I am hoping that the fees will drop some over what they were this year. Groups that run HPDE in this area have cancelled late season events due to light registration, when last year they had waiting lists. Gas costs will help, at least till the arabs cut production enough to get the prices back up. The crappy economy is having a huge effect on our hobby, my schedule was cut in half this year from previous years.

dvandentop

TELL ME ABOUT IT!

went to the road track on the 25th of october and still have 4 months atleast to go :

BEZ06

Less than a month now until the Dec 12-14 Daytona event!!


It cost the same as last year. I heard it costs $35,000 per day to rent the Speedway, $10,000 more if you want to run at night!!!

I doubt that will go down. Butt....maybe. They just cancelled 2 weeks of NASCAR testing in Jan.

johns68

NCRC (Northern California Racing Cub) has posted their entire 2009 schedule with prices cut in half or more ... they're catching flak for it from competing clubs, but the reality is they're filling the events, where other clubs are running at half full or less and feeling the price crunch. And NCRC runs open track, time trial competition, and ARC wheel to wheel racing at most events ... as reluctant as most will be, I think a lot of clubs will have to follow this model to survive.

AU N EGL

Much of the pricing for an event depends on what tracks charge the clubs for rent. The more popular the track the more the track charges for week day or week end rental.

Track demand is still high. Most clubs are still selling out or almost selling out. Clubs are finding that registration does take longer to fill the event. Several Marque only clubs are allowing other makes to come play as well and fill the numbers up.

Some of the smaller clubs are hit hardest with fewer sign ups and have had to cancel events. But that is not that many yet.

The other orgainzations that are seeing lower registration numbers are the for profit organizations. These group normally see higher per day rates to participants.

One popular for profit group was recently sold to a group of investors / participants. An other group had such poor registration system their numbers were down too.

On the other hand, look at NASA events. Their event registration numbers are climbing.

I dont see prices going down until track fees go down. Which has not happened. Track fees on the other hand are not going up either.

Wicked Weasel

I know TT4Cars is working on keeping track fees low and still providing alot of track time. Plus next year they are working on weekend dates.

I dont mind paying even a premium if I get the track time, but some of these groups still have high costs, pack in the cars and limited track time. Next year I am branching out to other clubs like Ferrari, BMW and Porsche to see what they offer.

95jersey

Yeah, there are too many players out there today and a ton more clubs for people to be demanding $275+ for track days. There are definately clubs that are less expensive. BMW for example are usually much cheaper than most "for profit" organizations. I paid $450 for a 3 day weekend (yes a weekend event) at NJMP with BMW CCA NJ. That is $150 per day, you can't beat that with a stick!! We got plenty of track time and they are probably some of the best run events out there, but the downside is many of the cars are slow, so you are just passing everything left and right with a Corvette, but at least they are some of the most curtious folks on the track with regard to point bye's.

Also, CART is something like $195 per day, but you are limited to Lime Rock and Pocono, but they do time trials, which if you haven't done one, you MUST at least try it out.

TT4Cars great deal for the track time. The price is about what others charge $245, but you get more track time than you know what to do with, so the value is there for sure and they go to some good tracks, now if they went to Watkins Glen, they would be perfect (thanks Matt for finding them)

For me it's not that I am not willing to pay the $250, I just get very fustrated when you get there and there are like 2 races planned the same day, several different run groups which are ALL packed, and if your lucky 4 sessions tops, that are all cut short because the club is running behind schedule so they can make the scheduled race....sound familiar? I won't mention names, but I have been to events where I got maybe 3 (15) minute sessions and the day was done....no sorry, no partial refund, nothing. I invest too much time traveling, preparing and paying for these events to waste my time like that.

Wicked Weasel

Matt I am going to look into that BMW club. For the most I have found that the true Porsche, Ferrari and BMW guys that love to be on the track are very cool. It is the ones that think they bought a car so they should be faster than every other car are the ones that are dicks.

I talked to TT4Cars and they plan on building a track in PA with very attractive pricing. I am looking to find out more about this as the completion date gets closer.

Last year we stayed away from any event that had a race date attached to it. that they cut the regular HPDE driver's time to make up for the race. If they do that then they should give a discount to the HPDE drivers. I also have been with various groups now that seem to care a lot more about the customer and the customer getting plenty of track time. If your session is cut short do to an incident they try to make the time back up for you. It is not always possible, but the effort is there.