Its been a long year already, and I have accomplished like almost zero....I did get one car rebuilt and running, but no time or money to race it.

Everything else is just sitting....And even if I did get my "street" car running...NY & my insurgence just ruin the rest with pure greed and red tape....We don't have any way of having a seasonal vehicle on the road here, and inspections are required every 12 months and registration every 24months on every vehicle and drivers lisence every 3 years now...Its ridiculous. And the trailer is another $170 yearly, plus inspection on that as well. The insurance on my seasonal RV was ridiculous as well as more than the monthly payments!....and besides my stuff, I also have my 19 year old kids car on my insurance, that's a lot of fun...If I fire one of the cars up, the neighbor calls the state police, which really upsets the old lady who hates my car hobby anyways....

The worst was when I got a quote from a classic place, paid the money down, then they asked for pics, and then double the rates...I am so done with the BS here..

It sucks here in the car hobby in NY...93 octane is like almost $4/gal if you can find it. And my piece of junk Ram is eating parts like they are going out of style and has run me $5k already this year and it will need brakes and tires before winter. And fuel is costing me $130/wk just to go to work...

Not to mention, all my safety gear expired...I re-upped my 8.50 license, but the track switched and no longer accepts IHRA, and my two pit spots went up a $100 each...

After that my engine/trans guy retired, my paint guy retired, and anyone else I knew retired or went AWOL....

And what do I get out of it anymore...Not a lot..... Its almost always more work, and very little enjoyment. How in the heck does anyone do this without any support?

Sorry for the rant, but its not fun anymore, and it all basically just sits. Found other hobbies without the work yourself to death factor.

Engine guy, transmission guy, paint guy, etc is the reason you can’t afford this sport. Someone has to say this because your engine guy cost you a lot of dog gone money. 6.0 engines shouldn’t have the issues you’ve suffered over the years. They should last 3-5 years of weekly racing then Be freshened. This sport is only as expensive as we let it be. Sorry 😢

Have a hobby or live in New York. I would move to a free state state with less regulation and the weather is better.

I'm nobody to give others advice, but I suspect most people hit points with motorsports that require them to decide if they either want / need to scale back their efforts or get out entirely.

Ive always felt if ya cant go all in just bracket race or class race on a comfortable budget. It keeps it fun. If ya still have the drive to race dump everything and consider a very mild bracket car or a new SRT type car to drive to the track in comfort and still race.

Sounds like you might be done. Some of us have thought about it from time to time.

Good luck.

Move. I did. Best thing I ever did. Kick myself for not doing it long ago.

Dragula: I am in the same boat as you. My engine guy sold everything and retired some what. He still tinkers with cars. The other place is a year out. I got injured in 2023 so my stuff has been sitting. Truck needs front suspension, front and rear brakes and a transmisson installed. I have all of it sitting there waiting on me. But what I could get done in a day has slowed way down. And its frustrating. BUT I am not giving up yet. My goal is to get out in Sept and October. If you was closer I would help you out. Birdtracker

Never give up.

I am gonna let it all sit till I get more motivated, maybe getting out is the wrong way to phrase it...Got a pile of parts here, a ton of work to do, and zero motivation....If I could sell all of it, I would consider it, but so many times people like to play games and I don't have time for that either. It doesn't cost me anything just sitting here, so when I have more money, I will order more parts, and then try and work on it later this year or next....Gonna need to find some new help though. I am not even going to the Nats this year, it just doesn't seem worth it. Haven't been to any cruise nights, and only one race this year, that I made a couple passes at, and then got rained out. All my tech crap is out of date, anyways.

I have a slightly used spare Hemi block sitting here with pistons and a cam and half the oiling system, on top of the brand new Hemi in the Cuda that has like 10 min run time on it before the car melted all the cooling wiring down and I parked it. Bought all new wiring to re-wire the entire Cuda front to back with new ignition and Leash relay board and everything else, but just not motivated to even look at it. And my chassis guy forgot to put me on his schedule to help me put a master cylinder in the floor of my Nostalgia car and make me some door panels. I called him again and back on his schedule now before HE retires...

But no lift possible in my garage, and way too expensive to build a shop/garage...Should have anticipated this years ago, and built one then. So signing off here for a while...Just no aspirations to do the car thing anymore.

I have a relative who bracket races and he dropped to one class/series instead of two and now only races like once or twice a month maybe. Multiple other people he associates with at the track are doing the same thing. Instead of racing every weekend they go fishing or ride the ATVs around and don't race the car as much.

He was thinking of building a new motor to go a little faster, but then the safety rules for the next class require more safety equipment so decided to stay where he is at to keep it affordable.

You need a break, get some rest and then decide what is best for your situation, only thing worse than giving up is, is not giving when you should.
Life is too short to not enjoy it.

draula.i feel your pain.at 64.i had to step aside from drag racing because of the cost but not out of the question for if and when things get better if it ever does..you talking about paint and body work.i only buy cars or trucks already done.so dont have to wait 5 years for someone to finsh something for me and the high price.i have learned to buy engines,trans and diffs already done instaed of waiting for machine shop to do a simple bore and hone.which yes it took them a year to do it.i refinace to 1.6 intrest before pedo joe got inprem gas here is 3.85i use it in everything because cheap gas screws up everything.have a full time job.butthat barely covers everthing.so i have my lawn service on the weekend that covers gas and food.everything is hard on everyone.i even hall water from work to cut down on water bill which is 10 bucks a month then that brings sewer bill down to 30 a month.only have a flip phone that cuts that bill down to 25.00 a month.i dont use a/c to keep that bill down

a new SRT type car to drive to the track in comfort and still race.

https://youtu.be/jwKHE5tI25M?si=QvVhtFxm-ZkX0SqT.....This is going to be a blow to the sport/hobby

Good choice IMO. I've been there with little motivation but I'm glad I didn't consider selling-off. It might do you well to do some thinking about how many irons are on the fire, especially since you are talking about monies. I'm sure there are things to keep plugging away at which cost nothing so, at least keep plugging away at one thing. Good luck!

Where you're at is coming for ALL of us. If we live that long.

Mr Dragula, I'm sorry to hear about all the red tape and expenses that you have to deal with up there. It's nothing like that here in the south. Especially here in Alabama. You should retire down here. I sincerely hope that you find some resolutions or loopholes to the situations that you are having, Good luck

I have been thinking about quitting also especially on Sundays after a bad outing but then by Monday I am ready to go again. At 70 I am not getting any younger but seeing quite a few guys older than me racing weekly keeps me going. My goal this year was to only race pro tree races and my local track added five plus an outside promoter added two more to their schedule so I fell into the points race scenerio and have been double entering pro dial and Sportsman ( 7.35 and slower ) and I renewed my parking spot again. Well I am nowhere in sportsman points and there are none for pro dial. Its hard running two classes on two different trees ( sportsman is a .500 full tree and pro dial is a .500 pro tree ) I always go rounds and have earned bye runs based on my pro tree reaction times including this past Saturday. I am going concentrate on that racing for the rest of the year including doing some traveling . Financially I'm ok , I was forced into retirement back in 2020 , stayed home a year and hated it especially with my wife being younger and still working . I work part time for an excavating / hardscaping company moving equipment , picking up and delivering supplies and doing a few oil changes on the trucks. I really like and enjoy the job , its only a few miles from home ,sometimes its only a few hours week sometimes up to 20 or so but it gives me the money to keep racing. It takes me longer to do any work on the car because of arthritis etc. but I keep going . I also have my pickup which I bracket race on occasion but mainly take it to shows and cruise nights , I must still have the desire to race because after an hour or so at a show I am thinking about " I would rather be racing or how many more days / hours till racing "

I'm glad It's not like that in Michigan. Since I am the engine, trans, and evrything but paint guy helps. My wife and I live on SS. Still do hot rod repair out of the garage to finance the hobby. I love to race. The belt's , NHRA license and chassis certs are $. But nothing insurmountable. Except for a clutch failure the 95 Cummins 3500 is very low maintenance. Been to 10 events this year. 2 wins, 2 R/U, and a semi. Learned long ago that if I wanted to race that it would take doing pretty much everything myself. And not much of the financial end wouldn't come from houseold funds. I'll be 70 in October. No plans to quit or slow up.
Doug

Sounds to me like where you live is the problem, NOT the hobby.
At some point, the reasons that make that state impossible to have a hobby will bleed over into your non-hobby life, if they have not already. Move to a state where you have freedom.