I have not made a commitment as of yet but Iam thinking of either running supercat light or supercat. Excluding the cost of the original boat, etc. What is the typical budget for a season that most of you in these catagories are running? I understand there are alot of variables but a range is all that Im looking for. Any help is much appreciated. I have not asked any of the guys I know personally as of yet as I just wnated an idea of whats happenning out there. Thanks.

Email RACEDAD.....Mike S. and his dad have been racing for a long time....they have raced in all Orgs....and have been racing in SCL for a while....he will give you good info....

thanks.It will be nice to compare witha few differnt teams.

The minimum direct race cost for a cat team is approx 6-7 K per race with minimal crew or volunteer crew, this includes diesel for the hauler, a driver, race entry and race gas, hotels food etc. Some Teams spend 20K per race or even more. Of course this does not include other associated costs like insurance, storage, boat maint and repairs upgrades, new props, overwide permits etc. The Mercury engine packages in Cat Lite and Cat 850 are very dependable and will go at least 2 seasons before rebuild, race support from Mercury is excellent. Racers enjoy special pricing and rebates on new equipment. Call Jim Goerlitz at Mercury for details. hope we see you on the race course!

I agree Gorlitz is very good for support. The $6-7K race estimate in my opinion is way, way low. I raced my Super V for 2 years nationally and the costs were significantly higher than that and that does not include scheduled service and unscheduled maintenance and repairs and (hopefully not but to be realistic) likely extream repairs (almost all of the CAT teams have been upside down a time or two). You need at least 2 Guys helping you at the races and its a lot better with 3 (on and off the trailer at the crane, etc) also the most competative teams get a new boat every couple of years so factor in amortizing the equipment over 2 years and your estimated loss for a used, canopied race boat when you decide to give it up. Reality in my opinion you should budget a minimum of $20K per event if you don't eat at Ruth Chris's AND if you don't barrel roll the boat at least once a year.

GR

Your insight has always been accurate and somewhat entertaining. Your onboard video from 1998 on Speed Vision is some of the best I've ever seen.

Greg,,,i think your astimate is a little high.

Guy with the 7 K per race is on the money ,,,if you ask me.
Hell ,,,in P class the whole season is around 30 K if you dont brek anything.

Dave,

There goes the neighborhood

first look at where you live and figure out mileage. a daully gets between 8 to 10 towing a boat. a rv or tow rif going to get less than that.

we were spending over 2 k in diesel fuel to do any race outside of florida. cat and cat lite entry fees are about $2500 a race. that would be 5 k just to show up. $600 to $1000 in race fuel. hopefully you got alot of friends so crew costs would be just hotels and food. plus paying for memberships for the crew.

and like bidpro said, if things do go wrong be prepared to flush alot money down the drain. one of the big things that has been talked about is if you end up on your lid the additional cost of recovering the boat. the race orgs don't seem to have this worked out too well and alot of racers are getting screwed on top of having to do the repair costs they are getting hit with recovery bills.

insurance is 7 to 10 k per year. hopefully you got a 40 x 60 garage for storing the boat. regular maintaince on the boat and tow vehicles.

daredevil when you going to start racing outside the state of florida???

daredevil when you going to start racing outside the state of florida???[/QUOTE]


Dave,,,,,,i did,,,,NY. NC. and Panama City ,which is almost outside. LOL

I think ,,what Guy ment with 7 K and that was the question if im not mistacen ,,,was,,that this is the reg. cost if you dont break and dont live like a high roller.
Also crew was estimated to be almost free ,exept hotel and food.
So if you dothat then i dont see any problem with 7 K a race.
Hell if i was close to that ,,i would not race.
But also i run P-class not SCL or SC.
I think if you figure 7K a race for 12 races a season = 84K.
You have a litle buffer,IF NOTHING GOES WRONG !
Because one race is more and the other is less in travelcost.

Just my $ 0.2 .