I offer this in the hope that I can shed some light on what it really costs to field a competitive 5/1600 car in the SCORE desert racing series.  We believe that our expenditures were prudent and necessary in order to field a serious entry in each of the SCORE "Baja" races; further, they represent the "low end" of the cost spectrum given that we do all our own prep work......  Yes, it can be done for less but at the cost of serious "corner cutting" that could negatively affect the ability to win or even finish any of these races.  The sheer brutality of these races has no equal anywhere else in the world of motor-sports of that we are aware; to enter these races under-prepared is a mistake with possibly serious consequences that could go far beyond any financial considerations.  We believe that our outstanding safety and finishing record gives testament to our strategy; your mileage may vary.

We raced all 3 SCORE BAJA Races; the San Felipe 250, The Baja 500, and the Baja 1000.  There were other races in the series that we elected not to run (Laughlin and the Primm 300) for various reasons, so this accounting includes only the SCORE races held in Baja.  We are a very small team and that keeps our overhead to a minimum - we don't travel with a large contingent of chase/pit or driver/co-driver crewmembers.  We do all our own car "prep." but have our engine and transaxle serviced by Paradise Motorsports and Power Box, respectively; the only labor expenses are related to those two items.  As you can see, "Maintenance and Repair" Expenses were where the largest amount was spent (41%).  Entry fees (including insurance, land use and points fund) accounted for 20% of the final total, the remaining 39% consists of miscellaneous expenses including Fuel, Pit Services, Hotels, etc.  I was surprised to see the total at the end of the season....... 
 

Notes: We started this race season with a freshly overhauled car/motor/transaxle, no outstanding problems or issues to address at the beginning of the season.  We retired some high stress components during the race season at significant expense, however.  There were also "routine" engine and transaxle service expenses.  We ended the accounting of the 2010 season expenses once the car was returned to the "pre-2010 season" condition, giving us a complete picture of our actual expenses..

Click on any expense category for a break-down of those expenses: