Renting VIR

[mpg9999]

You track whores know how much it costs to rent the track for a day (Either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday), including insurance, ambulance, and corner workers?

[Evan]

"over $25k a weekend" was the response I got from JJ when I asked him, which does not include insurance, ambulance, or flaggers. And thats even if you can get a date, which you probably cant. (and by "you" I mean any club/group that does not have a significant following and established base, and who has no business history with VIR)
Open "club" dates are shrinking, not growing unfortunately

You will not be able to get a single saturday or sunday date. (or the whole weekend for that matter)
Getting a friday date is a slightly better chance, but still not easy.

Midweek "test day" would be the most economical and easiest to get a date.

[mpg9999]

"over $25k a weekend" was the response I got from JJ when I asked him, which does not include insurance, ambulance, or flaggers. And thats even if you can get a date, which you probably cant. (and by "you" I mean any club/group that does not have a significant following and established base, and who has no business history with VIR)
Open "club" dates are shrinking, not growing unfortunately

You will not be able to get a single saturday or sunday date. (or the whole weekend for that matter)
Getting a friday date is a slightly better chance, but still not easy.

Midweek "test day" would be the most economical and easiest to get a date.

Wow, thats out of our price range.... Summit point JC it is 6,628 and that includes a maned ambulance, 6 corner workers, and insurance. Thats within the budget. I will call VIR anyways just to check... Do you know about how many cars VIR can accomidate at your typical HPDE? Only possible chance I see is if we run with another club. Thanks for the info.

-Mike

[mpg9999]

Hmm, another thing, is that for the full course? Wonder if they split it up between the N & S course.

[G.Irish]

Full course or not I can guarantee you a weekend at VIR would be out of our price range, even if we were to get a date. We've talked about JC before and maybe the time is ripe to do it now. Part of the reason we didn't push for it before is because a large percentage of the club hadn't even tackled autocrossing/karting yet and a track day would've been a leap that many would not have taken.

We've discussed the idea at length and maybe its time has come.

[Feersty]

I never heard of doing this.

[mpg9999]

Full course or not I can guarantee you a weekend at VIR would be out of our price range, even if we were to get a date. We've talked about JC before and maybe the time is ripe to do it now. Part of the reason we didn't push for it before is because a large percentage of the club hadn't even tackled autocrossing/karting yet and a track day would've been a leap that many would not have taken.

We've discussed the idea at length and maybe its time has come.

Sorry for the confusion, but by we I meant the SE-R Club of America. I should be more careful about the use of we, lol. If we... errr. SERCA has the convention here next year and we have extra slots (which we probably will), I will see about offering them to you guys. Some other people are trying to get it at Pocono, so all this is still up in the air. I know people would prefer VIR over Summit Point JC, but that cost is pretty extreme for a small club.

-Mike

[G.Irish]

Ahh I see. Well if you're doing this for SERCA why not try Beaverun. It'll be more expensive than SP-JC but its a better track. Roebling Road and CMP might not be too expensive either.

[mpg9999]

How far of a drive is Beaver Run? I'll look into it.

[G.Irish]

I never heard of doing this.

There are several evil MM schemes that have never really been shared with the group for one reason or another. It was just one of those things we didn't think we could do at the time. There is some cool stuff in the pipeline though...

In response to Mike: Beaverun is about 4-5 hours from JMU.

[Evan]

The League Of Extraordinary OG's discussed in detail running an event at Jeffy about a year ago. Unfortunately, since BSR raised the track rates and Jefferson is so short, its hard to make any money with the low amount of cars you can put on the track per session

BeaveRun is a great track, lots of fun. Let us know what rates they give you if you talk to them

[mpg9999]

So thats 2-3 from Nova? I'll let ya know the rates when I find out.

[G.Irish]

Nope, still 4-5 from Nova.

[.RJ]

The League Of Extraordinary OG's discussed in detail running an event at Jeffy about a year ago. Unfortunately, since BSR raised the track rates and Jefferson is so short, its hard to make any money with the low amount of cars you can put on the track per session

The numbers came out that we could certainly break even and most likely make $1000-$1500 for the club - IIRC but my memory is rather fuzzy.

I think its a great idea and it might be worth doing in the fall - we know enough people in the community that we can get instructors, flaggers, etc to cover the event now that the club is growing

[Dave]

not to mention that part of the reason that this wouldn't be broached to the general public of the club is because us throwing an event is NOT necessarily the best place/time for everybody to decide to track thier cars.
Slightly less than a year ago there were only ~7 MMers who had any kind of experience on track. Since then, those numbers have swelled to 10+ regulars and more preparing to start this summer. As these numbers multiply, the feasibility increases and it becomes more natural to think about renting a track as a club.

[.RJ]

Well JC is a slower, smaller track - while it doesnt have much runoff room, the speeds are pretty slow and its very technical, so its a great place to work on skills.

Just because they dont have any experience doesnt mean they couldnt come out and have fun I had a student at roebling 2 weeks ago in a 996 porsche that had never even laid eyes on a race track - if that doesnt sound like a disaster waiting to happen...... but we had a great time and he was safe all weekend.

The possible scenario I thought of was that we would have a dedicated worker crew for the event - half the group would flag saturday and drive sunday and the other half would flag sunday and drive saturday so we could expose some new guys to the sport while raising revenue for the club.

[Ryan T]

The guy who I was flagging with at VIR works in their accounting office and I started talking to him about how much it cost to rent the track. He said that during peak season it was a little over $30k a weekend and towards the beginning/end of the season it was around $25k a weekend. That does not include paying flaggers and ambulance.

[Dave]

thats a great idea RJ, hadn't thought about that. My only reservations were in staffing enough instructors and fear that MMers might feel a little more like they have something to prove if they have another member for an instructor (just a "for instance", not saying it would happen). As always the best way to drive away from an event with a smile on your face is by keeping your head out of your ass.
As for JC, I've never driven it and would love to, so it sounds great to me. What are the prices for the three Summit circuits; anybody know?

[.RJ]

IIRC, jeffy was 4500/day.

[Evan]

The numbers came out that we could certainly break even and most likely make $1000-$1500 for the club - IIRC but my memory is rather fuzzy.

In a best case scenario we can break even or make a small amount of $$ (less than $1000) but there is a large amount of risk involved that must be taken into account.