Thread: pro stock ?

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This is just a theoretical question, but say i came into a couple million bucks, and i wanted to start in a career as a pro stock racer how would i go about it? could i come in off the street and just start racing? or is there steps i would have to take to get there? and how much does it cost to run a car for a season? i would like someday to run pro stock ,but i have no idea how i would go about it, in case i do happen to get a couple million in the bank

Might want to start with a couple season in Super Comp or at least a 8.00 or faster car with a five speed.... I would imagine to run the entire pro season and all the national events would kill a million or so.

You would also have to have a comp license, Super Gas would be a good place to start and get your license. I would doubt you could come off the street and climb in a Pro Stock car and be competitive. You're looking at the best 16 shift bangers in the world when you observe a Pro Stock race at a National event. Check out Indy this year, you'll see how many cars can't even make the field.....

A pro stocker costs more than any other car to build and run. probably because of the cost of the engineering of the car.

Originally Posted by bigdude

A pro stocker costs more than any other car to build and run. probably because of the cost of the engineering of the car.

Quite sure the Nitro cars still cost a whole bunch more to run.... For me, it was cheaper (operating expense) to run a rear engined dragster in Super Comp then it was to run a door slammer in Super Gas!!!

Anyway, doubt a mil would even began to cover the cost of a car, transporter, crew, and parts for a year.....

I ran Pro Stock for 3 years, ('86,'87,'88). Now remember this was a long time ago. I had a car I built myself, a used Gordie Rivera engine, and a new engine we built our selfs, and a cigar box of spare parts. With my truck trailer and car I spent a little aver $200,000. Now that was just enough stuff to get to the race track for the first time. The first year we went to 6 events and went threw another $150,000. So you can imagine what it cost now. We were running 7.70's then.

its probably well over a million for the season. to be competitive in a 16 car field that is in most cases within 8 to 10 thousands of a second seperating the field. there is a ton or research and development work to be done before hand just to be able to qualify in a field that tight. and if you ask the other teams for pointers they will more than likely throw up a tarp on thier equipment everytime they see you.

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Quite sure the Nitro cars still cost a whole bunch more to run.... For me, it was cheaper (operating expense) to run a rear engined dragster in Super Comp then it was to run a door slammer in Super Gas!!!

Anyway, doubt a mil would even began to cover the cost of a car, transporter, crew, and parts for a year.....

The nhra did a show a while back that said the costs of building a prostock car was more than a nitro car, That was @15-17 years ago I beleive

howdy !

in my national dragster magazine last year they had a section called "expenses of racing pro stock " WOW ! the money it takes to have fun ! a state of the art 500" motor is $87,000.00 ......one motor !
some of the minnor parts like valve springs , cost $ 23,000.00 per season !
they had an estimate of well over a million and a half to just get a car to the track first time , that didn`t cover the cost of a motel
I had considered once , parking my supergas car ....only once !
I`ll stay running 9.90`s and spend $ 10,000.00 per year , and have just as much fun !
there are several driving schools out there , you have to go thru these first , to learn how to drive one of these monsters .... as far as I know there is only one team left in competative pro stock that is funded out of there own pockets .... those are deeeeep pockets !
................ ratso

Originally Posted by bigdude

The nhra did a show a while back that said the costs of building a prostock car was more than a nitro car, That was @15-17 years ago I beleive

In today's world I don't think that will stack up, especially at 5 to 7 grand a pass just for fuel.

A pro stock car is considerably more to BUILD than a funny car.

A funny car is considerably more to RUN than a pro stocker.

RUN vs BUILD for these two are like comparing oranges and apples.

Just to add to Ken's input.........back in the late 80's I was in the mix of a door slammer S/G car........a set of used pro stock heads from EPD cost me $10,000.00 - USED I said. I can't even fathom what they get now for a set. Then add the custom intake & exhaust headers & presto......more bling!

My clutch set up for my Liberty transmission was $1200.00.

Any of the "Pro" classes are going to whip the snot out of your wallet.

REGS

A couple of mills in pro stock will get you started and a handfull of DNQ's.

I don't follow drag racing anymore, so I don't know if local tracks do this anymore, but we used to get booked in for match races. The track would pay us some and then there would be a purse for the winner. Usually it was a 8 car field no weigh ins just heads up Pro Stock style racing. It was really fun. My car was extremely light, with me in it with fuel it weight a Little over 2100 pounds. So with the weight out (had to weigh 2300 to be legal NHRA) I could run high 7.40's low 50's.
So that could be a way of getting your feet wet. Again there is so much more to this than having enough money. I ate, slept and worked at it 7 days a week for years.
This was a topical week. Mon.- pull the motor and freshen everything up, clutch, Lenco, motor, and check 3rd member.
Tuesday- rent a local dyno making sure the power was still there and any changes we made helped. Always trying to make more power.
Wednesday- rent the local track and test clutch and chassis changes and motor combinations. Get new tires mounted, change valve springs,get the trailer ready. Try to leave before 12o pm to get to Denver by Thursday early pm. Go threw tech and make one qualifying pass, have dinner and get to bed. We drove all night so we were beat. If anything went wrong on the qualifying pass then we were up until it was fixed.
Fri- 2 qualifying runs, we were usually still trying to adjust for the altitude change.
Sat- 2 more runs and hope we made it in. If we didn't, we packed up and headed home to get a jump on the next race.
Sound like fun?

Now that my hypothetical bubble is completely popped, maybe i will daydream about something else. Thanks for the insight guys, i knew it was not cheap, but i thought i would check. How do these teams make any money? is it all just from sponsors?

sponsers, sponsers, sponsers, i bet most of the teams that are always lying in the shadows and just getting by and never winning are on the brink of foreclosure. luckily for alot of teams thier drivers are related to a now famous or previously famous race car driver, and they get help all across the board. 2 years ago they stated that it cost 7000.00 to make one single pass in a top fuel car. how insane is that? ya another dream might be better and more realistic to achieve.