Rent It!

by Dave Erb

Grassroots Motorsports recently ran a series of articles entitled "Zero to Hero," which chronicled the adventures of a complete "newbie" as he started down the SCCA Club Racing path. A more candid picture of entry-level road racing would be hard to find. GRM deserves a lot of credit for writing it that way; with all the hard knocks and stupid mistakes (is there such a thing as a smart mistake?); with realistic cost estimates, rather than unrealistic lowballs; and, most admirably, without the usual fantasy nonsense about how to find sponsors. (I have yet to see a "How to Go Racing" article that tells the truth about the four steps to club racing sponsorship: 1. Acquire enough money to go racing. 2. Start a company if that wasn't part of the first step. 3. Use "company" money for your racing. 4. Hope like hell the IRS doesn't audit you too closely.) However, the author missed one really good bet by focusing on building, owning, and driving race cars, with barely a mention of renting them.

An old joke, usually told by the bitterly divorced, says, "If it flies, floats, or f***s, you're better off renting it." Though admittedly harsh, there's at least a grain of truth in such cynicism. If I could think of an appropriate motorsports verb starting with the letter "F," I'd give the joke a little aftermarket upgrade. For a lot of racers, we really are better off renting. The main advantages boil down to flexibility, cost, and time.

In the Beginning ...

It's pretty easy to get sucked into buying a race car. First, reasonably competent IT cars can be had for a couple thousand dollars, with older Formula Fords and Vees not a whole lot higher. Second, it's a material world, and shiny (or potentially shiny) race cars are among the most appealing of material. Finally, racers are nothing if not optimists: "It's a car, for Heaven's sake; a major purchase. Once you've bought it, most of the spending is over, right?"

Wrong. After the car comes the trailer. After you buy the trailer, you trade your 30 mpg road car on a 10 mpg truck with a tow hitch. After the tow vehicle come all the specialized tools. Then the "minor" repairs, current safety equipment, updates brought on by rules changes, and so on. Pretty soon, your "affordable" race car represents a $10,000.00 incremental investment, bare minimum, presuming you don't count the cost of labor. That $10,000.00 could earn you ten percent, or $1,000.00 per year, if you invest well. Or 200 percent per year for two years, followed by total wipeout, if you invest as "the smart money" did recently, but I digress. Oh, by the way; you haven't turned a wheel yet. Depending on how much of a "bargain" your car was, it may be quite a while before you do.

On the other hand, you could take $2,500.00 and go to Sears Point for a Jim Russell School. You could go see "Skippy" or "Bob" or Bertil, too, but I still owe Ron Landthorn at Russell a ton of favors for all the nice things he did for Ohio State when I worked there. So, go to Russell, and tell Ron I sent you! You'll get excellent instruction in how to actually race a car, something that's unfortunately not a given in our own SCCA schools. You'll have minimal liability if you crash, which is not nearly as remote a possibility as your hyperactive racer's ego would have you believe. You'll still finish the school and get your Regional license if there's a mechanical problem with the car. Possibly most important of all, your significant other will be happy about your new hobby, since s/he got a California wine country vacation out of it.

Let's presume that the racer who bought a car didn't wreck, and that the car ran well enough to finish both required SCCA schools. Counting $500 in entry fees for the owner, the renter is ahead by $8,000.00 at the point where they both get their licenses. For some people, the main lesson of drivers' school is that racing is a lot harder than it looks from the stands, and not nearly as much fun. If the renter is one of those few, add the cost of safety gear to that $8,000.00 advantage, now made somewhat permanent.

Into the Fray

Time to go racing! But what kind of car to choose? The owner chiseled that decision in granite some time earlier. The renter may think he did, too. Regardless of his long-range plans, though, the renter drove a formula car in the Russell school. It was razor sharp in every aspect of performance, especially the incredible brakes and handling. He got an adrenaline rush every time he opened the throttle, just from the new experience of having a screaming engine a foot behind his head. And, even though the school didn't really let him go wheel-to-wheel with anybody, he probably became aware of just how scary contact would be in a formula car race. Maybe that awareness made the game more appealing, or maybe it convinced him of the value of fenders, NASCAR door bars, and a little more "road-hugging weight."

The renter has the flexibility to make a mid-course correction. He calls a Formula Mazda shop if open wheels appeal. Maybe he calls Phil Keirn about a Spec Racer, or Juergen Baumann (www.baumannmotorsports.com) about a Showroom Stocker. Maybe his budget looks like mine, and he calls Jim Berry at Dynamic Racing Services about an ITS Mazda RX7. Jim charges $750 for a double race weekend. The car is well-prepared and a lot faster than I am. In fact, I'd bet it's competitive with any legal ITS car out there. Jim takes care of all prep in a true "arrive and drive" package, leaving Beth and me free, for example, to tour the Finger Lakes area on our Watkins Glen trip. Unlike some racers' wives, Beth encourages me to race. Unlike some racers, I don't lie to her (or to myself) about how much I'm spending on racing. There are numerous correlated factors in this paragraph, for those who are paying attention.

Even if the original car of choice still appeals, there are other benefits to renting. Early in your driving career, getting car and driver to all the right places at all the right times on a race weekend can be challenging. Chalk it up to adrenaline saturation and the learning curve. Rentals usually include the calm voice of experience as part of the package.

I met Danny Lewis shortly after moving to Columbus, when I went to my first OVR Socializer looking for a rent-a-ride. To this day, I'm convinced that Danny rents me his ITA Mazda more as a continuing act of welcome than as any sort of business arrangement. Whatever his motivations, though, I know his quiet guidance has saved me from countless acts of stupidity, especially during the first few seasons. Had I been responsible for car care, too, I'm sure it would have been a lot crazier, and I'd have a lot more DNFs than my present total of one.

Rentals also provide something even more valuable to a rookie than advice: a benchmark. We've all heard newly-licensed racers get out of their cars complaining about the low power of their engines. They're getting passed on the straights, and they close up in the corners, so it must be the engine, right? It's a rude shock, but that little fallacy disappears in a heartbeat after another driver goes ten seconds quicker in the same car. There's a reason why Michael Schumacher makes as much money as Michael Jordan. Read Carroll Smith for the full explanation.

Let's suppose our "newbie" decides to run four double weekends the first season. Rentals from Dynamic Racing Services total $3,000.00. Presuming that the owner has no unforeseen expenses (In racing? Give me a break!) and that we ignore the cost of transporting the car to the track, the renter is still ahead to the tune of $5,000.00 after eight races, plus school.

Settling in for the Long Haul

Time passes. Racing seasons come and go. Maybe racing's appeal has grown, or maybe it's less compelling, though still fun. In either case, the renter got almost seven more doubles (14 races) before the ledgers were even. Wait a minute! We haven't counted the ten percent annual investment income, have we? Or the fact that the owner certainly bought tires, oil, and other consumables in eleven double race weekends. Or the fact that race cars themselves are consumable, with mechanical parts and even unibodies fatiguing rather quickly from the pummeling even the gentlest driver dishes out. Then there are the jam-packed garage, the busted knuckles, and the multiple nights of midnight oil and take-out food before and after every race. (My favorite garage quote: "I don't know what you're worried about; if it didn't come off with Go-Jo, it's not going to come off on the pizza!") Some people enjoy that stuff. Some people have pierced tongues. More power to all of them.

Maybe racing loses its appeal altogether, or another category of cars catches the racer's roving eye. The renter walks away, while the owner is stuck with a worthless race car and a garage full of junk. You don't believe the car is worthless? Then ask yourself why a top-flight car like Bruce Wright's CenDiv ITC championship winner languished so long in The Observer's Stand classifieds at a fire sale price. Until it clutters up someone's life long enough to achieve collectible status, the only thing less valuable than a used race car is the "extensive spares inventory" that accompanies it.

Maybe greener pastures call. Mid-Ohio becomes old hat, but you've never been to Laguna Seca or Sebring. Hey, there are Spec Racer and Formula Mazda rental shops all over the country. Enduros require two to four drivers per car, so even owner-drivers have IT and SS seats for rent. There's nothing like a new track or race format to spice up the old routine. Roland Hahn, who rents rides as a sideline, let me join his team at the 12 Hour Enduro at Summit Point in 2000. Without question, it was the most enjoyable SCCA race I've run to date, the perfect venue for a slow old cuss. I can hardly wait to go back this year.

Other Voices

I'm sure that renting isn't for everyone. OVR Competition Chair Dave Brown tells me that, though it served a legitimate purpose when he needed a couple races to maintain his license, renting is definitely not his cup of tea. He doesn't feel comfortable pushing someone else's car as hard as he would his own, and he likes to race hard. To me, paying for damage, whether from a crash or a mechanical failure, is never a good thing, but it's always better if the damage is sitting in someone else's garage. Still, I've got to respect Dave's dissenting vote. As with those who simply enjoy working on race cars, there's no arguing against such a subjective personal preference.

There's also probably an objective point at which the financial benefit of shared overhead (the primary factor in keeping rental prices so low) pretty much dwindles to nothing. The rule of thumb for aircraft is 100 hours per year: rent if you fly less, buy if you fly more. The racer who runs twelve weekends a year undoubtedly makes a different calculation than someone just racing enough to keep a license current.

Some people want the consistency that comes with always driving the same car, admittedly a challenge when renting. Though I've enjoyed the learning experience of racing an extremely diverse assortment of cars, I know car-hopping hurts my ability to be competitive in the short term. However, race shops like Dynamic Racing Services will usually work out season-long deals which guarantee you a higher level of access to the car of your choice. Some offer leaseback arrangements, in which they prep a car for the owner, who also makes it available for some amount of rental to others.

The Bottom Line

This article is not intended to settle (or cause) any arguments, or to tell anyone how to run his affairs. Attitudes about money, even more so than preferences in cars, are a matter of personal style. For me, the bottom line is the bottom line, and I assign a high cost to time spent doing mechanical work. For someone else, the bottom line may be the creative joy of building a unique toy, and garage time may be as calming as yoga class. Frankly, this article's main purpose is to make more people aware of OVR's rental shops, in the hope that those businesses will live long and prosper. They provide a service that greatly enhances our sport. I wish them a steady stream of customers to ensure their success, however they choose to define it. See you at the track!