What I’ve learned racing MotoAmerica Twins – Part 2 – Help and Expenses

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There are many things that are uncertain in this world and this is not one of them. You are not racing with out money and racing sure is a whole lot less fun and harder with out friends. These two items are an absolute necessity when it comes to competing in MotoAmerica. Sometimes you have awesome friends that give you money to race. Why do they do this? I do not know but if I had to take a guess, it is probably because they are psychotic losers that get off on seeing their money wasted on Dunlop tires and VP fuel. If they wanna hold a rope around their neck, get red in the face for doing such, hell am I thankful for those psychotic losers because my 2020 season just wouldnt have happened the way it did.

First up is our pre-season prep. $8,000 was poured into my Suzuki SV650 to get ready for the season. This included new wheels, spare wheels, spare controls, spare engines, bodywork, suspension work, triple clamps and the list goes on. I am extremely lucky and thankful to have good friends out there to help keep this cost down. Matt at Robem Engineering hooked me up on triple clamps, subframe, fairing stay, lever guard and probably other items. Zoran at TWF Racing has been helping me since the first day I hit the race track. Since the bike and engines are built by me here, that saves gobs of dough. $8,000 sounds like a lot at first, but that could easily be $20,000. Along with the bike a tire cart and generator were purchased which added up to $600.

You can’t race or even sign up for an event with out a License. $250 get you your yearly MotoAmerica license. Which only starts the battle between you and your bank account. Do you want to commit to the whole season or go round by round? My personal journey left me going round by round. I didn’t want to spend $3000 for the season entry, possibly get hurt, and deem that a whole lot of wasted money. So each round entry was $250 plus your crew credentials at $100 a pop. Skipping Road Atlanta, I entered 8 of the 9 rounds which adds up to $2,000 in entry fees. In those 8 rounds, 17 crew credentials were purchased, so there’s another $1,700. Running total to $13,550.

Now comes the fun part… travel expenses. Between the fuel, tolls, hotels/airbnb, flights (just my own tickets), and food we are closing in on $4,000. $3,800 by what I have remember to add up and receipts I have collected. Let’s add another cost, bike transportation to the two west coast rounds which was $1,100. Last on the list is the VP fuel and Dunlop Tires. The spec VP fuel is $180 per 15 gallon drum and yes you have to buy 15 gallons at a time. Five 15 gallon drums were purchased for the whole season, just another $900 tacked onto our running total which is now $19,350. Dunlop tires, those freshies sure a nice to have mounted come race time. Many of the guys out there go through way more tires than I do. I typically use take offs for practice and qualifying. New tires get mounted up for the race. Even with that strategy, 9 front tires and 13 rears were purchased. 9 sets at $405 plus 4 more rears at $240. If there’s something more depressing than adding up your tire bill, please let me know. $4,605 on rubber…and I do this tire thing cheap. Massive thank you to everyone that donated and supported. This isn’t a cheap hobby and those that helped know it. You made it happen.

In closing, you too can race MotoAmerica for the low low price of $23,955. Now, the SV was sold at Laguna Seca so I am going to subtract that from the total. Fifteen thousand nine hundred and fifty five dollars to go around in circles on some race tracks. Why the hell did I write this article? I’m going to get a drink.

This post has already been read 3199 times!