A few years ago ( 15 or 16 ) I owned a small import auto repair shop and I
had a friend that worked for me that was into off road racing. He ask for me
to help sponser his car for the upcoming year. I ask for a estimate of his
cost for the year. Based on previous year he said he could be very competive
in his class for around $15,000 which would include: major rebuild of car,
repairs and prep work between races, travel and entrys for six races that
year. At that time off road racing was mostly amateur with very few pros. In
the next few years along came ESPN and TV coverage, followed by big buck
sponsers, and larger prize funds. With all this "improvement" to that sport
the cost to compete has risen to $150,000 to $200,000 per year to run in a
mostly amateur class.
My main concern of course is the well being of the horses but we would also
see a loss of the friendly commeradre that is there among riders today.
Money breeds money.
Jim Clanin