The Cost of Racing

While I know IndyCar teams and drivers have been enormously busy since Texas, to me and other fans it feels like it's been an eternity since we've had a race or even some interesting IndyCar news to talk about. The three-week "break" between Texas and Houston allowed teams to get in some oval testing at Iowa, Milwaukee, and Pocono. But it's been a drag waiting for the next race.

Still, I saw a statement on Racer.com in the comments section underneath Robin Miller's mailbag and it got me thinking. The writer remarked that he took up dirt bike racing because it was much cheaper and more accessible than go-kart racing. I think this is a trend we will continue to see across the U.S., and I think it may lead to two things: one, racing becoming even more of a family affair, and two, a steady decline in the appeal of motorsports in general. I don't like to spell out all doom and gloom for anything, as I'm mostly an optimist, but I think the facts speak for themselves. Motorsports do not have the same appeal they did in the 1980's and 90's, and perhaps one of the biggest reasons can be traced back to the reason this person described: Racing is really damned expensive, and not just anyone can do it.

If you are a parent whose child wants to play a sport, chances are you're going to have to shell out some dough. Few sports these days are inexpensive. You have to buy clothing (which kids grow out of quickly), shoes, and equipment, and you may be faced with hefty medical costs if your child gets injured while playing the sport. Additional costs may arise for participation fees and travel. These rising costs may have, in part, led to the decline of children participating in organized team sports, as noted by the Wall Street Journal. If kids aren't participating in team sports, then they likely aren't karting, either, which is much more expensive. The go-kart alone will cost thousands of dollars, and there are many more costs associated with competitive karting: helmets, suits, repairing and maintaining the kart, fees to participate in events, etc. In his autobiography, Helio Castroneves talked about the financial struggles his family faced while trying to support his interest in racing as a young boy. You have to have a family willing and able to spend lots of dollars, and that limits the amount of kids who can participate in karting. If we continue to allow racing to only be for the elite, I think that also makes the drivers less relatable to the general public. There should be more stories of drivers who fight their way to the top with their own money.

Not only is racing expensive, it's not readily available to anyone who wants to "play." If someone wants to take up soccer, football, or tennis, they can join their school's team, enroll in an after-school program, or participate in a recreational league. I would not even know where to begin if I had a child who mentioned an interest in racing. It's not easy, for sure. Tryouts are often held for kids interested in sports, but I can't say the same is true for those who want to take up go-kart racing. I don't have kids, so I'm purely speculating. I do know that when I was younger, the idea of karting was never brought up by my parents, even though my dad loves cars. I don't even recall seeing any flyers or promotional material encouraging kids to check it out. You also can't just race anywhere. It's not like running, where you can just jog around your neighborhood. To start and to improve as a race car driver, you have to have a track on which to practice, and it may be a challenge trying to find one nearby.

I imagine some parents are also afraid to put their kids into a race car, even one that only goes 50 mph. We've all seen horrific, tragic crashes, and no parent would want that to happen to their child. (Ryan and Nicole Briscoe have already acknowledged they hope Finley chooses a different profession.) Some parents these days are even reluctant to have their kids play football, because of all the recent attention on concussions and the long-term effects of various injuries. And of course, sadly, today's youth is quite content with their smartphones and video games. All of these factors are reasons why participation in racing at a young age may be waning, and by extension, interest in motorsports is also declining. People often whine that there are not enough Americans in IndyCar racing, but this is why. It's not that simple to just grab some people and throw them into a car to race. As with any sport, change has to start at the lowest level.

So how do we reverse this trend? I would like to see some programs like the USTA has set up to make tennis more accessible to at-risk youth. They host charitable matches, with grants going to help children participate in tennis programs. How cool it would be to have a charity race, with drivers from all motorsports, and proceeds donated to buy at-risk kids their first go-kart. I know there are charity karting events, and those are hosted for much more notable causes. I'm just throwing out ideas. Unfortunately I don't think there are many good solutions, short of making karting less expensive.

This is one reason why I believe racing will continue to be a family affair. It helps to have a parent who has participated in racing him/herself, because he/she will know how to get started, and may have the resources or connections available to make it happen. If the parent is also a successful, professional race car driver, he/she may also have the required funds to support a child's involvement in racing. That's why we see so many second- and third-generation drivers now, like Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, Casey Mears, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, and others. So in twenty years will we see Ryden Hunter-Reay, Mikaella Castroneves, and Cruz Carpenter in IndyCar racing? It wouldn't be surprising to see at least one of them (and my money's on Ryden). Let's just hope IndyCar racing is around 20 years from now to see it happen.