You are correct, racing is expensive. Mostly because someone is always willing to spend more money to gain an advantage. I think LeMons probably has rules that are aimed at keeping costs in line, but I think that there are ways to spend more money to gain an advantage, even in LeMons.
I'm not trying to dis LeMons, I'm sure you have fun, and that's the best reason to race, but you really need someone to compete with to be racing. And I'll bet you can find someone to dice with on the track. But there are so many subjective rules, and very little effort to make sure things are equalized in terms of performance potential, that is seems to be more like a track day. And don't get me wrong, track days are great. How do you know if you won?
And you are correct, while I've watched a LeMons type event or two, I have no desire to do endurance type events.
Some perspective on 24 Hours of LeMons racing after doing LeMons for over a decade...
It is Extremely competitive racing in ways un-appreciated. The field is divided into essentially two groups, the fun-run seekers that are "hobbyist" never been racing before that want to try this road racing stuff. Many cobble up what ever racer they can as they believe will be a good low buck race car, take it to LeMons to discover what racing and endurance racing is all about. They have fun, enjoyable safe time if they are seeking a taste of racing..
The other group is hard core, hard bitten serious racer folks many times doing motor sport as their day job. These folks put together a serious endurance race car based on their day job as motor sport folks along with all their race shop resources and more. These teams have highly experienced drivers and the team fully understands the all the related logistics to run a proper race team and the resources needed to go racing to win. There have been pro drivers at LeMons that have raced at the 24 Hours of LeMans to entire NASCAR teams with drivers, transporter and all fielding a car at LeMons for fun. Gotta ponder why these folks that race as their day job would go LeMons racing...
There have been factory cars from Toyota, GM and others that have used LeMons as a way of testing their wares (notable was the team from Toyota.. believed LeMons would be easy... only to discover how easily their Toyota oily bits exploded under the realties of LeMons racing).. Essentially, LeMons racing can be a silly to as hard core serious as ya want.. with Jay & company ok with all this. Safety requirements are more serious at LeMons than SCCA or similar club racing, this is due to the track time exposure and the fact stuff including farming happens plenty and the speeds involved are no slow.
Once the track is cold, is when the real fun begins..
Highly recommended to do a LeMons event/race then decide.. watching is not the same as being deeply involved.
As for SCCA, IMO, their time has passed. There was a time when John Bishop altered SCCA to be a promo race series ala Trans-AM and more, SCCA events were well attended and their promo-marketing value was notable. That era has passed and long gone.
Spec Miata was intended to be low cost racing, yet the cost to make a Nationally competitive Spec Miata is well over $50,000 U$D due to how the rules are written. Most notable example of this was the Spec Miata nationals at Laguna Seca 2014 where the first six finishers were "dis-qualified"? for "tech"... Meh... and example of SCCA rules/politics.
Rules of racing are specifically written to benefit a specific sponsor (follow the $) and how the rules are interpreted. Notable recent film drama example was the Lancia -vs- Audi movie...
As for winning, why bother.. Unless you're paid by the manufacture with full tech and more support there is little if any reasons to run a production based car. All of production based racing is much about brand identity creation and marketing.. "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" applies here.
As previously mentioned and posted, what if Fiat was hard core serious about racing the exxe and put all of Abarth's resources with world class drivers driven to win at any cost.. It is highly likely wining the world championships and not squashing the development of the exxe would have alter the market identity and value of the exxe today..
Essentially, go racing. Sensible would be Spec Racer Ford or vintage racing.
Racing no longer "improves the breed"... much of modern motorsports specific cars are so specialized and removed from any production based oily bits.. they are only body shape and dimensions at best.. There is an entire tech and supplier base specific to the needs of motor sports completely removed from vast production passenger cars..
Add to this, most folks today are interested in EVs, data connectivity, and little about "performance" except for straight line acceleration, oh the moto cannot fail and be totally reliable with the running bits cover welded shut.
Bernice
