Class Nationals event planning

[Michael Beard]

Just curious if you could explain the reasoning for the big gap in the entry fees for those who might not understand where you are coming from. I'm assuming that its because the bracket race will have buy backs and pay out less for the round wins.

That is exactly it. Class Racers don't like buybacks, which reduces revenue, and the gap between getting paid $200 for winning 2 rounds vs $80 for winning 3 rounds is huge. The round money that S/SS classes are paid is more than double that of No-Box. The total purse for one S/SS class is thousands of dollars higher than No-Box, with half the cars. No-Box has an established base for this type of event for roughly 125 cars. Stock and Super Stock should have an attainable base of 65 cars per class, and if we do our job with promotion, sponsorship, and generally providing the type of race that you the customer wants, we could see 100+ cars per class. We'd also laid out where S/SS classes could earn an extra $5,000 added to the purse if a given class got more than 128 cars -- a bonus not offered in No-Box, which needs that kind of car count to start with. S/SS has the added expense of additional staff required, around $1,500 in trophies just for Class winners, and two days of track time on just one entry fee as compared to No-Box which is an entry fee each day.

I have a Race Purse Calculator spreadsheet that I have spent years developing that crunches just about every number you need for a race: Give it entry fees, buybacks (with multiple options), car count, payouts, spectators (actual # or calculated as 'people per car'), and it will tell you how many cars are in each successive round and how much the payout is for each round, how long it will take to run the race, front gate/back gate income, itemized expenses, and much more. Realistically, just for two days track rental, purse, and misc. expenses, you're looking at close to $60,000.

Great question. Hope this helps!