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But Ted, lately you have been a driving FOOL!!
Where ya gettin' all that extra gas money from?

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Wife has a good job...Great uncle was John Dillinger

I gotta be honest here. These threads are nothing but detrimental to our sport. Its a bandwagon effect that should never start. Don't get me wrong I am not doggin on anyone on this thread. I just hate anything that hurts our sport.

Its 6 hours one way to Columbus for me. Its roughly an extra $60 for diesel round trip with diesel at 3.99 versus 2.99 and I havent seen 2.99 for awhile. So I will still be going to the Mopar Nats this year. Like you said P, if its tight enough that $60 is gonna stop me then I need to concentrate on more important things. However, I did find someplace to leave my car and trailer so I could come back the following week to the Jegs Doorslammer race and save some fuel.

I`ve always been an et chaser and since I got my 9-sec. pass, the obsession has honestly been lifted. There was a time when $$$ wasn`t even an issue...........see it, want it and buy it.....that simple well, those days are gone for now or maybe forever.....who knows and who really cares as I`ve got bigger fish to fry. I work for myself and that`s tough sometimes and great other times but for now, I drive my dart each week to keep it lubed up and I`m ok with that. I WISH I had the money some on here have but I don`t so more power to you guys and keep the Mopar banner flyin..........

Parked my junk back in 08 when diesel peaked around 4.99 a gallon. After pulling up to Vegas for a simple saturday night bracket race cost me nearly $250 I decided it wasn't fun anymore. That combined with the fact that my daughter had become more involved with her fastpitch softball (12 at the time) I opted to spend my race funds on composite bats, cleats, gloves, uniforms, and travel/hotel expenses. I ALMOST got the car ready for MaTS this year, but things tightened up in the auto industry again so the car is back in the trailer. At this point I'm ready to make the car run slow enough as to not require the dated belts. I just can't part with the money just to run the car a couple time. I know it's only $100 in the scope of things.... but it pizzes me off!

Dont get me wrong. I agree with all you guys. This crap sucks. We are all at fault but we have a bunch of children in Washington that cant agree on freaking donuts let alone a budget cut. But I digress.
I dont really agree that the tracks are getting greedy though. We all need to do the math on the insurance, electricity, traction compound, payroll etc that these tracks have to pay. That stuff keeps going up. Add to that the fact that we all want a decent payout and everyone wants to pay the same entry they have been paying for the last 15 years when parts for these cars have in some cases more than doubled. Its almost not even worth going if I dont have a chance to win more than $800 and the only way a track can pay that down here is to charge $50 to enter which they cant do because everyone stays home. So here is what happens. All these tracks down my way charge $35 to enter and pay like $500 to win and $100 to runner up and $50 for semis. Even at my local track I am in the hole if I dont win the whole thing and that aint easy. So now only the hitters show up because the other guys dont ever win any money and you end up with a class of 20 cars or less every week. Like we told Josh on the Monster Mopar deal. You better pay back rather than up top. These stupid top heavy purses are burning all of us and I am one of the guys that chases the big money thats saying this.

I'm not traveling to any out of state shows with diesel over $4.00 per gallon. That's why I'm not going to MATS this year.

Miss new York, I use to try n, make all the Mopar
events, would just slow the car down. But here in
Florida, they don't exise. When n, if my car gets
running this year. Mite just take it back too ny for
some grudge racing, n hit some Mopart events.
$$$, ain't their like it use too be n, I forgot one
big factor, I'm taking care of my dad now that he
lost his eyesight, with little too no help from other
family members. WoW let me shut just going on...

Im going to race more this year then the past two. I have been to the track once and going twice this weeekend:)
I see a bunch of guys that need to stay off the race only section lol.

I see a bunch of guys that need to stay off the race only section lol.

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Funny Funny.... glad you can

threw 140.00 in the dually(will use it all)
threw 165.00 in the wifes Excursion(tows her car to the track)
240.00 for entry fees for me...the wife and the boy all to race.
another 120.00 for friends/crew
another 200.00 in race fuel and methanol
....130.00 for food for us and the crew(brews included)
So....for a grand total of 995.00 ....WE'RE GOIN RACIN !!!!!

Now...this is the season opener....1 down ... 9 more to go....LOL

Not flaming anyone in here, but:

I think people just like to bellyache about gas. I think its a control freak thing. I saw people do all kinds of stupid stuff when the gas prices got high last time, taking hits to the tune of 1,000s of dollars to buy a NEW gas efficient car (that they traded back in on an SUV when the prices went back down). They could have bought a LOT of gas for what they spent on those transactions.

Try this: Do the math on how much more you're really spending.

My track is 100 miles away and my truck is a 351W gas F250. Pulling an open trailer I get 12mpg (I've measure it over and over again). @ 3.00 per gallon a race day costs me about $50.00 in fuel.

At $4.00 per gallon race day costs me $66.00 in fuel. Yeah, that's more, but I'm not letting my $10,000 plus (and 1000 hour+) car sit because a trip to the race track costs an extra $16.00.

All you diesel humpers get better mileage than that, right? All I hear about is how those trucks get 18-20 mpg.

Again, Im not talking about anyone here, but I hear a lot of smack from people with new(er) duallies and shiny enclosed boxes complaining about spending a couple extra bucks on fuel. It doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe to them its about rolling into the track in a 50K rig, rather than running down the track.

I'm still racing. Between gas, gate, and a cooler full of ice, soda, and sandwiches I spend $125 or so on a race day.

I drive a sedan during the week so I'm not feeding the tow vehicle every day. Car tires are cheap, car brakes are cheap. Hell, cars are cheap. Trucks are not. I used to drive a new F250. I've got less in my Dart, truck, trailer, and taurus combined than I had in that stupid thing, and I can change the oil in all of them put together for less than the diesel oil changes cost. My car goes twice as far (at least) on a gallon of fuel than that truck did.

I kicked the cable and that's a free race every month. I don't miss it at all. Maybe I'll sign back up in the winter. maybe.

If I brown bagged it instead of eating out, I'd probably be ahead of the game, and I know I'd live longer. If I went ahead and did it before the gas prices go up, that'd probably be a free trip for me to the Hot Rod Reunion in BG, or maybe the Mopar Nats.

Priorities. Mine is racing.

Yeah, it sucks that gas prices are high, but if we can figure out how to make these heaps run like they do, I'm sure squeezing a couple extra nickels out here and there isn't really that big a deal.

Worse, I fear that high gas prices is something we're just going to have to get used to.

My .02

Steve

i dont know about driving all the way up to CF this year Teddy ........ I will get up there at least once.

eddyville is only 1 hour from my house

I'm not a U.S citizen so disregard if you want.
What people are complaining about here isnt just related to fuel costs. It's inflation. Higher fuel prices push up the prices of race day things - the food you buy on raceday - the entry fees and accommodation costs.
If it makes you feel better it's happening here in Aust as well.

Good point. I ran the numbers, and the difference between $3/gallon and $4/gallon diesel for my setup is about $150 on a trip from Denver to Las Vegas and back. I figure fuel costs at $4/gallon would be about $615 round trip?
My problem is I may owe on my taxes!
It depends on if all my wifes medical bills exceed the amount to be able to deduct them? I've only started on the pile of medical bills, but it looks like we should have plenty to deduct... OK, its 3am and I'm rambling, but I do plan to race the Charger this Saturday at the Test and Tune event.
First time out with the new engine.

You will get get used to it, just right the rest of the world
I would be very pleased to pay only 4 $ / gallon...

Tow fuel isn't a big extra expense, I agree. Life with negative cash flow is. The car will still sit. 6 years now. Off to work for another 12 hour day, so I can live negative. Exillerating, whoopee.