If you race for MONEY and feel you need to win some every now and then to justify what you spend.........you should bail now. A race car is exactly the same as a boat. Just an endless hole you throw money into just for the enjoyment of it. Now some guys DO make some money racing, but unless you are a touring pro who wins a LOT, the money that you do win, will never recoup your overall investment. You have to do it because you love it and just like ANY relationship, there will be highs and lows. Most guys who sell out totally, miss it in a couple years, come back and spend MORE money. So best advice........it ain't eating nothing, so push it in a corner, cover it up and forget about it a while. You don't miss it after a bit, sell it.

Monte

I have it all figured out. I will race at 5 tracks a year. Darlington and whatever 4 Drag Week is. The rest of the year its usually so hot, I go to the beach, on cool nights I ride

I used to be a machinist for a very successful speed shop. I can give you the same advice I gave to friends back then.

Don't pay for anything in full up front. Only pay the minimum to get the work going and be sure to make it clear that you will pay the rest of the money when the job is done and you pick up the work and or parts.

That motivates the owner to get the job done in a more reasonable time frame.

You wouldn't believe the number of shops that run on other peoples money while putting customers off so they can live off the money while not delivering product or services.

I can relate. I am retired, 64 and for the last decade have had bad knees slow me down, and another issue sap my energy to the point I wasn't sure I wanted to race again either.
The big energy robbing issue is behind me, I have a new left knee as of two weeks ago, so with that behind me it is basically the money I have to spend and if the desire is really still there. I plan to get out one more time minimum, with a plan for the most fun I can ring out of it. If the desire is really fading, then it might be time to consider selling my project of thirty seven years. But somehow I doubt I will, I am just too tied up in going fast once in a while

Don, I've quit more than once In 1988 I sold the M.W.Stocker right after the 1988 NHRA World finals, the S/G car went to Sweden and the bracket car went to Finland. I took up flying and leearned that it is a lot of work and not much fun unless I'm doing aerobatics I spun a trainer doing power on stalls accidently as a student I didn't know how to recover so I finally let go. The plane recovered on its own so my next 1.7 hours of training was learning how to recover from unusual flight position, hence the aerobatics A freind and good customer of mine bought a BB bracket Duster in 1990 or so and ask me to test drive it for him, he hadn't drag raced in over 25 yrs. I drove and raced that car off and on until 2005 when we moved to Oregon. I had started building my street Duster in 2002 to race the black guys in East L.A. on the street for money I didn't get it done before moving up here due to health issues, Prostrate cancer That car was a lot of fun and when I couldn't make it go any faster legally I traded it off for my current race car. My message is if you want to stop, stop and go do something else for a while Lots of thing in life are fun, some cost more than others I'm afraid I'm addicted to going fast and can't STOP I really should finish building my 1940 Ford tudor street rod and several others cars I have before I croak instead of building another drag car and still go drag racing Will that happen, probally not in the next few years Good luck, thnk about what you want to do and go do it

I haven't driven my beater in two years. As most here know, my health took a major dump and I am lucky to be alive. That old 64 Dodge is one of the things that keeps me going! The thought did cross my mind about selling it but not now. I am gonna get back out there and kick butt!!!

if your in a small town or the only guy in town into race cars and or racing then i know it can become a loss of interest, having friends or acquaintances of racing in your neighborhood can get you motivated to wanna work and out do them. most all my old friends of racing have moved to other things like marriage and kids and drinking and lazyness. lol

If you no longer have the passion for racing your car, then you can look at the whole racing thing very objectively. What are the reasons you race? Is it worth it? Can the same benefits to yourself be achieved easier or cheaper? It will be easy to decide not to race, and save yourself the expense, the time, and the headaches. Personally, I have never been in the position where the spark is not there. Even though I have sat out racing for years on several occasions due to time and money considerations, or other priorities, The spark is always there, and I always plan to come back to it. It's tuff to get motivated when you just dumped a bunch of time and money in and then the car is hurt, and you can't even race. When that has happened to me, I always start thinking about how can I do it different, to reduce risk, (make it more reliable, use better parts, oil it better, turn less RPM) that gets me back in. But then I end up pushing to the limit anyway and taking risks with my $$.

I'm doing this ( pic ). Many of my reasons for "switching gears" have been posted on this thread. Some of the main reasons for me are; one track in the general area and it is 1.5 hours away - and it aint exactly a flat lander trip. Track is overloaded with cars. Most the time you get only 2 time runs before eliminations. Once this year I went to T&T - track opened at 5PM and I was aloud to make a time run at 12.15 AM!! Did I mention I'm firing up 70 in 2 days. Due to the weather, there are a lot of night races. Often the eliminations start way after midnight - soooo far past my Jammie time it aint funny. My 33 Plymouth street rod will be a nice driver ( heat, A/C, etc. ) that I will be able to take to the track when the itch pops up.

That's another thing that can get you thinking is distance to track and traffic. Its 2 1/2 hours to the country track and 1 1/2 to the big name track both through heavy traffic. That bothers me more than the car or cost. That's another reason to take a break. You sometimes need time to re energize.

This is one of the reasons my Dart is also a driver, no way I could justify a pure race car. I'd really like to build a gen 3 Hemi but don't know if I want to throw the $$$ at it at this point in my life. I'm 53 and planning on retiring in five years. Plus it's not as easy getting up and down and bending over for long periods as it used to be.

When I was young an older man told me to take care of myself, I sure wish I'd listened. But damn I had a lot of fun!

Been there, done that. I parked my car for about 6 years when I priced the fun out of racing. I didn't sell. I tried a couple of times but didn't get any offers worth considering. Eventually the fire lit again and I resurrected it to drive on the street. I needed to do something to put the fun of owning one of these cars there without the expense of staying up to date on NHRA certs/license and SFI items. Racing is really not in the budget anymore. If it's in your blood like the rest of us, the desire to play with it again will happen. As others have said, its not costing you anything sitting in the corner.

Take a break, but don't sell it, it's allways more expensive to buy it again. Mine has been on jack stands for 10 years, while life gets in the way. Believe me I'm going to put it back together with a mild 440 as a street car...soon

I had a few hurdles to overcome with the Savoy this year and it never seen the light of day.It seems with the many changes I made to it this year things just kept mounting up to do it right.So I ended up giving myself more work to do and now I can't get motivated to do anything constructive.
So I'm throwing the cover on it and taking a few months off while I work to get more parts that I won't feel like installing
Gus

I'm trying to make my car sit and see if I miss it or not as well this next year! Too many other things I need to spend time on at this point in life.
Good Luck with your decision Don!

i found myself getting a win slip and drive right on to the trailer because it was time to eat. when that feeling happened every time, i sold all my junk and do not miss it at all! had a lot of years of GREAT times .. but it is a different world and very different kind of racing. All good, but not for me. However, don't get rid of your stuff 'till you know one way or the other.. no regrets

Let me start by saying that I am NOT knocking bracket racers and/or bracket racing in general, but I think this type racing burns lots of guys out and here is why. You can spend thousands and thousands of dollars. Buy the best "toys" money can buy, go to the track and get your azz handed to you by some guy in a rental car. That is not fun and neither is going to a crowded track every weekend, getting a couple time runs and loaded up first round.............All these things are the reason I quit bracket racing myself. I did OK for a few years, even won a couple track championships, but it just was NOT doing it for me.

Then I turned my efforts to just making the car go as fast as I could and going to the track when I felt like it. That resulted in me going heads up racing, until that got out of control, cost wise..........The point here, is that there is NOTHING wrong with being considered strictly a career test and tuner. I personally had WAY more fun doing that, than I ever did shoe polish racing.

Monte

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The point here, is that there is NOTHING wrong with being considered strictly a career test and tuner.

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Good point Monte, I raced for 21 years straight and managed a few win lights but I've always enjoyed working towards a new best more than anything. It's fun and less stress than anything else. I haven't raced for the last 4 years, been doing other things and my 72 Duster street car is almost done, no roll cage, no tubs, no race gas, just get in and cruise with the option of blowing the tires off the car every now and then.
Once my 14 year old son gets a little older and the sports slow down I'm sure I'll have slicks and a roll cage again.