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Getting
Started with the VSC Sprintcar Association
with
David Moore
In
about November 2007, as someone interested in sprintcars and speedway, but
not really classed as a diehard fan, I found myself up on the banking at
Rosedale watching the cars go round and wondering what was involved with
getting out there and having a go. Later, I found the
www.sprintcarsvictoria website, made a few calls and emails to
various committee members, spoke with a couple of the drivers, and ended
up hanging around the pits for a couple of meetings. About six months
later I had a rolling chassis sitting in the shed. Towards the end of last
year we acquired an engine from a retiring driver and rolled it out on to
the track for the first meeting in January 09.
My motorsport
background is in motorcycles, with about 15 years racing experience mainly
motocross in various forms, solos and sidecars, plus trailriding, road
bikes and trackdays. I had not driven a speedway car until my first
sprintcar meeting, so it has been a fairly steep learning curve.
There seems to be
a perception amongst people when you talk about going sprintcar racing
that you have spent $100,000 and are taking on the big boys. While that
can be the case, you can get involved in VSC sprintcars on a much lower
budget than you may think. While there is no debating that most forms of
motorsport comes at a cost, VSC sprintcars give you a chance to compete at
a fairly high level at a reasonable cost. The associations’ website quotes
a start up cost of around $20000. We were able to build a car with a late
model chassis for around this figure. It would be possible to get started
for a bit less if you used an older chassis and/or could build up your own
engine.
It can be daunting
looking at some of the equipment used by the well set up teams in the
pits, but keep in mind that they also started somewhere, and mostly have
accumulated their gear over several seasons. I run a pretty basic setup,
with a 4wd twin cab ute and an open car trailer supplied by Coates Hire.
While it’s not perfect, with a bit of thought and planning we have enough
tools and equipment to get out there and go racing.
The
other question that I had was “how good a mechanic do you have to be?”.
When you see the
cars out on the track, they look fairly high tech. When you see them with
the bodywork removed they are fairly simple mechanically. They are
basically a big go kart that is all engine and rear wheels. You don’t have
to be a mechanic – if you have average to reasonable mechanical skills,
that is enough to get by. Being a purpose built race machine every thing
is quick release or designed to come apart quickly and easily.
The actual running
costs are quite reasonable, and are subsidized by tow money paid for each
meeting that you attend. If you have raced motocross semi seriously at a
regional or state level or road raced with a latish model bike the costs
are probably similar. Alternatively if you have a toy such as a Harley or
a half decent ski boat, this kind of money would get you into a sprintcar.
Running costs are helped by the fact that the entry fee is only twice that
of the spectator fee, and most cars run second hand tyres discarded by the
pro open sprintcar teams. The costs also compare favourably to other
speedway classes that achieve considerably slower lap times. When you
consider that the power to weight ratio of a VSC sprintcar is comparable
to a 500cc two stroke motocross bike and superior to that of a V8 supercar
you can see that you are getting plenty of bang for the bucks.
All of the people
involved, from the committee members to the drivers have been very helpful
as far as answering questions and helping out with general information
regarding getting started. If you want to know more, chat to a driver or
crew member at a meeting, or contact a committee member and they will
point you in the right direction.
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