| | | | | | | | |  | | | | Heading into the Homestead finale, everyone's talking about the economy and cost-cutting (No, disrespect intended to Jimmie Johnson's domimance).
Good food for thought, but let's be serious. There are some things going on right now that defy any logic. As race teams, we are our own worst enemies. This cost thing is spiraling out of control no doubt. But let's examine a couple things.
First and foremost, do we really need imported $10,000 radiators? That is right, TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for a radiator. One radiator. That cost is just ridiculous.
The radiator is a necessary evil of course, but there are some real nice products out there for a third of that price or less.
What needs to be done there is simple. NASCAR needs to pick out a radiator and a radiator manufacturer, just like they have in place with the roof flaps, carburetors and so on. Give the teams a part number that they have to run that is the same for everyone and far less expensive.
It can be done, it is a simple fix. The complaints would be about the all-important air flow into the radiator (or lack there of with tons of tape on the front). It would be the same for everyone. Less expensive radiator, same for everyone. Bigger hole in the front of the car, same for everyone. That would be a good start.
Now the motor guys would be up in arms right off the bat. But come on, ten thousand bucks for a radiator? This pressurized cooling system thing that we have all gone to is hard to comprehend. Water boils at 212 degrees. A standard 15 pound radiator cap on a street car raises the boiling point of the water to 249 degrees.
Now, we are running pressurized cooling systems in race cars with the water under pressure at over 30 pounds. This raises the boiling point to over 300 degrees. The fact is though, that the water is still getting to over 300 degrees, although it does so without pushing water onto the track.
But running the water that hot heats the metals in the engine block to whatever the temperature is. That is why we have to have high nickel content and other expensive alloys in the custom-made cylinder blocks, to withstand all of these boundaries that are pushed and pushed. This is a domino effect on everything. One piece connects to the next piece and so on. It drives the price up and up.
The next thing is the body deal. Right now the rules are so restrictive on the body templates, that we have seen the cars become a high end IROC (International Race of Champions) type concept. The cars are all exactly the same, with the exception of the front and rear bumper character lines and headlight and tail light decals.
Again, this is a simple fix. Go to a manufactured spec body. This is not a new concept and they are out there. The Camping World East and West series have been running a spec body for a few years now. The Richard Petty Driving Experience and the Andretti Gordon Driving Schools have been running them for a while now as well. They are far less expensive than a custom hand built body that all the teams run at the moment. They are simple to put on, simple to fix and they cost at least a third of the cost of labor to produce of that which is being run right now.
This isn’t complicated. Again, choose a manufacturer. Choose the part number. Choose who sells or distributes them and let's get on with it.
This would lower several costs such as:
A.) Wind tunnel time. Just how much wind tunnel time would you need to be buying at $3,000 an hour or whatever, if everyone had the same piece?
B.) How many less people would need to be employed to fit a fleet of prefab race car bodies? Significantly less labor would lower the operation costs.
C.) Simplicity and control. This is so simple, that it hurts. NASCAR can control such a move far easier than the way it is done right now. They can be the parts supplier. Go to NASCAR to purchase the spec body. Get a serial number. Mount it on the car in less than three days and take it in for inspection. Since the bodies would be all the same, then the crush panels which seal the body to the roll cage can be mass produced, too. They can be laser cut and be assembled like an erector set. Simple, efficient and far less expensive.
Next topic is tires. Why for gosh sakes can't we just see a tire rule that says "OK boys, you get 10 sets for the entire weekend, period. Use them as you see fit."
This would stop the multiples of mocked up qualifying runs. It would make for conservation of the tires throughout the weekend and it would make the racing better. It is done in the truck series, it is done in the Nationwide series. It works.
It is fairly simple to regulate. Most importantly, it would stop people from buying 20 sets of tires in a given weekend at a given race track. And, it makes the crew chiefs work to make the cars better so as not to use up the tires so quickly. The racing in the other series seem to be doing fine with this type of rule structure in place.
Let’s shorten up the weekends. The Friday fan count is way off of what it used to be. By shortening up the weekend, there would be less hotel rooms to purchase, less meals on the road to buy. Run the Trucks and the Nationwide cars as a double header on Saturday before the big show. Give the fans a big bang for the buck! It would shorten up the number of labor hours that the race tracks have to pay for security and all the other operational expenses by a day.
It can be done, but will it be given consideration? There are an awful lot of quality racing organizations out there who have shortened up their weekend, running just one or two day events, and they are doing just fine. The promoters wont sell any less hot dogs or beer. It's worth a try!
Compensation for the lower teams was mentioned this week. We now live in a different era than when this happened before. Not a good idea. How would you make it fair for everyone? That whole subject is difficult. But there are some solutions.
This is simple math: 100,000 fans at $125 a ticket is $12,500,000. When a race track takes in $12 million dollars and only pays out $3 million, would you think they are making enough money? Could the purse be raised just a tick and passed on to the back end of the field?
This doesn’t count how many $4 or $5 cokes and $3 hot dogs they are selling (I did see 7 bucks for a cheeseburger somewhere this year), or vendor space at thousands per trailer to sit there, this is just the ticket price. It would seem that there is some sort of something just a little off there. Everyone is entitled to make a profit, but the "big oil greed" thought process just doesn’t seem right. There are workable solutions to most all of this.
These are just a couple of ideas to throw out there. Racegear.com would be interested in hearing some of your solutions!
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