This is not pro racing. There is no television contract, few spectators, no autograph signing and minimal glory.
The expenses are typically low enough that you don’t need sponsors to fund it–just three or four buddies who all want to split the costs and wrench, drive and compete together in the same car.
Team Up First
Photography Credit: Chris Tropea
Most people get this process backward: They stumble upon a car and buy it before settling on a class, series and teammates. That rarely works perfectly and can leave you with a project that never gets completed.
The ultimate in frustration: You have a partially completed “race car” that is hopelessly outclassed, stripped of its interior (the first thing most people do) and often worth less than the donor street car. Sometimes it doesn’t even run, so it could only be sold at a huge loss.
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So first find the team. Let’s assume you have two or three like-minded friends who want to team up. Hopefully they’re folks with some motorsports experience and more than two pennies to rub together.
Even if nobody on the team is in the top tax bracket, as long as you’re all willing to put in similar amounts of money and commit to a regular schedule of build nights, it can work.
Speaking of money, a related discussion: How many events per year will you run? The capital and time needed for one event is not insignificant, so don’t overshoot and bite off more than you can chew. Some teams never do more than two events a year–and that alone can make for a fulfilling season.
Hopefully at the beginning of the planning phase, you’ll find an endurance series you like, can afford and that hopefully has some racing events within a reasonable towing distance. Maybe it even has events at a race track that you know well.
Some series are very regional, and others cover a lot of ground. Within these series, you should be able to find a compatible schedule with races near your team’s home base. (Again, two or three events per year is a very fair goal for a new team.)
The GRM staff has learned a lot–and had a lot of fun–during our endurance racing forays. One big lesson: Be a bit more methodical when choosing and building your car. Photography Credit: Chris Tropea
Once you’ve picked a primary series to build around, look at a secondary one that has races you also want to visit. Your car might not be the most competitive in the second series’ rule set, but it’s good to have options, especially if the first group’s schedule changes.
Now look closely at the rules and classes within each group. Is one person on your team a spreadsheet nerd? Great, have them put together a shared Google Sheet for the build list, something that can be read and modified by all team members.
Break up the build into sections, put in proposed modifications, and note the associated rule number that governs each change. This method can also be used to track build costs, but also track each event’s costs in another spreadsheet.
Some series use points to limit budgets and yet allow some changes, so there needs to be some give and take within the team to plan out the best build. Don’t worry about this plan being locked down solid, as things change, different cars have differing needs, and rules also change over time (normally very slowly). This is where some build expediency comes into play: Dragging out a build over two or three years–or even more–likely means that your finally finished car might not fit the latest rules.
Case Study: Pontini Racing
Meet Pontini Racing. Their endurance racing escapades started with a V6-powered Firebird. It was fast enough for Lemons, but after a big crash, the team figured it was time to modernize. Photography Credit: Terry Fair
Have teammates? A series in mind? A class and a budget? Now it’s time to pick a car. That’s what the Pontini Racing team did, starting with a V6-powered 1999 Pontiac Firebird purchased from a salvage yard for $700–this was back in 2012.
The initial goal? 24 Hours of Lemons: The $500 format fit the team’s budget, while the schedule fit their location.
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The car was purchased that September, cleaned up, fitted with a few upgrades, and entered in its first test day in December. This quickly put all of the teammates behind the wheel.
After that test, the car went back to the garage–where the build lost momentum. Team members were busy. Some drifted away. The remaining team members eventually got the cage installed and, finally, more than two years later, added the necessary safety gear so they could enter endurance events in 2014.
That’s something you need to be ready for: changes in the team members and/or ownership, or even dissolution of a team. Depressing things, but just write down what everyone has invested at every stage. There should be a designated treasurer, too, so that if things have to change or someone has to back out, there are no grudges.
After initially starting as a Lemons series build, this car competed in numerous ChampCar and World Racing League events with additional volunteers (you want to have more than just the drivers trackside to help during a race weekend) and racked up some proper podiums and wins.
They ran this car at 19 events, with three or four per season. Then, late in 2022, at a race in New Orleans, a heavy downpour led to standing water and hydroplaning. That turned this once straight car into an octagon. The driver wasn’t hurt as the safety gear did its job, but this multiple-impact shunt put a stop to the car’s racing career, and that’s an end you need to be okay with.
Photography Credit: Terry Fair
Why should you be ready to write off a race car? Every racer should be financially and emotionally ready to push their car off a 200-foot cliff, while it’s on fire, on any given weekend. You don’t go wheel to wheel in a car that you’re making payments on, or that you need to drive to work, or that would otherwise wipe you out if it ended up crashed and totaled. That’s racing in a nutshell.
After the hydroplaning incident, this team committed to keeping a full-tread/narrower set of dedicated rain tires in the trailer for weather extremes. But they needed a new car, too.
They could find another fourth-gen F-body chassis, build a new cage from scratch (cages never come out and get reused once they’re welded in), move over some gear and electronics, salvage most of the suspension and brakes, and replace the broken bits.
But the Firebird’s factory ABS also had known issues, the rear suspension was extremely dated, the BorgWarner T-5 transmission kept eating itself, and the car’s high weight (3050 pounds without driver) made it a little hefty for the 200-horsepower V6, an engine first released back in 1961.
But in the decade-plus since this Firebird project began, all of the endurance series have allowed in newer and more competitive cars. Could a newer chassis increase reliability while decreasing consumable expenses? Other benefits: modern ABS, modern suspension and modern ergonomics. An obvious possible choice popped up: a first-generation Subaru BRZ or Scion FR-S.
A few laps in a nearly stock 2020 Toyota GR86–just Hankook tires, Vorshlag camber plates and some PFC brake pads–showed the team that this model could be the answer. It posted faster lap times than their race-prepared and well-developed Firebird, and it did so with an automatic transmission.
This team really liked ChampCar for the overall seat time, enjoyment, costs and competitiveness, and the series had just classed the 2013-’17 Subaru BRZ chassis: fairly lower overall weight, enough room for a 255mm tire, strong, decent brakes and very neutral handling. These cars also respond well to the normal suspension tricks, like negative camber, improved dampers and stiffer spring rates. Between a race weight of less than 2550 pounds and about 165 wheel horsepower, the GR86 could make for a spicy entry in ChampCar’s Group B class.
The team’s plan: Sell the wrecked Firebird and move as much as possible to an 86 chassis.
Their modern upgrade: a 10-year-old Subaru BRZ fitted with, yes, an automatic. Before any big upgrades, the Subaru already outpaced the Firebird–and did so more comfortably, too. Photography Credit: Terry Fair
Now, the points game. When ChampCar classes each car, organizers give it an initial base points total, with all cars limited to 500 points–the goal being to limit modifications and level the playing field. The BRZ was classed with 500 base points, meaning no room for mods–unless it had an automatic transmission. This nets the team 75 points for their build upgrades, which, if they’re careful, could get them into non-adjustable coil-overs, some camber and maybe some light aero.
[Toyota GR86 track test: Is the automatic the secret hack?]
Then add in the “free” upgrades that don’t count against the points, like an upgraded radiator, bigger brakes, wider wheels and 200tw tires. This car, on paper, could also work well in a secondary series: World Racing League’s GP3 class.
Earlier this year, a search produced a car deemed acceptable: a 2014 Subaru BRZ fitted with an automatic. It had 122,000 miles and cost the team $9000. It had some deferred maintenance, one of the tires was corded, and the interior was worn some–but for a race car, this was a jackpot. It ran, it drove and, with a little help, it could get on track quickly with minor repairs and the fewest of modifications.
First time on track with the automatic BRZ? With just some brake pads, Vorshlag camber plates and borrowed 18×7.5-inch Subaru wheels fitted with Falken RT660 tires, it outpaced the old Firebird–and that’s with track conditions favoring the old car.
Photography Credit: Terry Fair
There’s more work to be done, of course, so we’ll have reports on the car’s development later on. The goal this time is to keep the team momentum alive in any long-term build by starting with a running car. They’re going to build it in phases and keep going to the track after each key round of work. This way it never becomes the dreaded non-running project that sits in a million pieces and is worth nothing.
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At any phase of this build, if something crucial happens–a weirdly detrimental change in the rules or car reclassification, a major life event for one or more team members–the car will remain just hours away from being a running, complete car that is easy to sell.
This build/test/repeat plan doesn’t always work for every build, but it does keep the car together and the team engaged.