With the cost of gasoline at $4.00 + all over the country and rumors of $5.00 by the 4th of July, how is this going to affect the way you race? And what are some of the things that you can do to combat this problem?

I race Electric so it dosn't effect me......LOL:woohoo:

no he means driving to go race

I Know just messing around....

Well McLin the first two responses to your question are funny as hell, 'cause I don't know which one is serious.....probably both. LoL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My answer.. stopped pulling the pit trailer last year. That helps a ton!!
work harder on hitting bonus money at Job. thats my fun, race money.
double up with another racer to travel with, split the gas.

It won't affect what I do.

Carpool to races

Take the car to races instead of the pickup or SUV

Fly to races. I flew a bunch last year, it's not more expensive than driving by yourself and you can save a day or more of vacation not having to drive 500 miles+.

on a serious note: I Think it might slightly hurt a few bigger race's or tracks that get a lot of travel'ers but I for the most part i don't think it will really hurt racing to much, All we really have left is die hard racers and they will find a way to get there if gas was 10.00 a gallon....

My hope is that the local tracks that have had car counts plumet due to there being a trophy race every weekend out of town will see some kind of rebound this year. :thumbsup:

John

My hometrack is a 80 mile round trip.We're racin saturday and since i help prep the track,i'll be leavin work early friday afternoon to blow & sauce the track,then up early saturday for another round trip.Does 4.50 a gallon gas affect me?Your damn right is does.Have i cut back on racin this year?Absolutly!I also follow nostalgia drag racin out here on the west coast.Last race at Famoso(outside Bakersfield),car count was down,crowd way down.This was for the U.S. Fuel & Gas Championships.This crap is effecting the country & racin across the board.Got to thank Bush for all this.What a piece of trash as a president.

"Got to thank Bush for all this."
Has nothing to do with it. Keep politics out.
To keep cost down go to less races. Have a carpool to help with gas.
Don't pull a trailer can help.

So far it's not effecting my racing. Farthest I travel is about to Maximus, 450 miles round trip. It costs about $23 more round trip comparing $2.50 gas to $4.50 plus I usually go with someone, so it costs like 15 bucks extra. (35 mpg saturn)

Kevin 250--BUSH has a lot to do with it!!!!!!!!!

The way I feel is we are being let down by our Government in this case... someone is screwing us and they don't seem to care (just terrorism in another form). We should make a deal with Iraq and these other countries we help keep safe for exchange of oil, develop our own resources so we can be up and running in eight years, and supplement citizens with gas cards like the rebate checks the next few years while it gets straightned out. I see things getting far worse than they are now and that scares me. Hopefully I am wrong.

well said RCThunder!!

With the cost of gasoline at $4.00 + all over the country and rumors of $5.00 by the 4th of July, how is this going to affect the way you race?


The cost of racing itself, has had a bigger impact on me
than the cost of getting there, so far, to be honest...
Coupled with the combined fuel/energy issues facing us,
this winter, I'd say there is a very high probability that
my racing days are numbered. :(

I have found ways to offset the higher cost of gas. Some things I've done are taking my lunch to work, splitting meals with the significant other when we go out, downsizing or eliminating any excesses (storage unit), eating before I go to the track or packing a meal for the track (unless the track has on-site food), cutting down on sodas/vending machines at work, and the list could go on....

The higher cost of gas has made me evaluate the areas of my life where I have been wasteful. In the end I'm going to try to find ways to have money to race instead of sitting at home grumpy about the cost of gas.

Oh, I should add that I've gravitated to the type of class that doesn't require the battery of the month or new motor/brushes every run.

Correct RCThunder. Not just one person, it is a whole group that has caused it. Lobbiest and other "make money off the little people" are responsible.
I know where were you coming from Flipper. Hope things are going well on the homefront

heard today that congress wanted to tax the oil companies to give it back to the citizens??????????? UUHHHH! Doesn't work that way,LOL!
Carpool and support your local Hobbyshop & Track so it doesn't go under!

I have found ways to offset the higher cost of gas. Some things I've done are taking my lunch to work, splitting meals with the significant other when we go out, downsizing or eliminating any excesses (storage unit), eating before I go to the track or packing a meal for the track (unless the track has on-site food), cutting down on sodas/vending machines at work, and the list could go on....

The higher cost of gas has made me evaluate the areas of my life where I have been wasteful. In the end I'm going to try to find ways to have money to race instead of sitting at home grumpy about the cost of gas.

Oh, I should add that I've gravitated to the type of class that doesn't require the battery of the month or new motor/brushes every run.

IndyRC has it right.

Why cut back on racing when there are so many other areas of your life you could but back and never miss?

If a person drinks soda or coffee and spends $3 a day on it that adds up to $1095 a year.

If you have a 100 mile round trip to the track, you car gets 20mpg and you pay $4 for gas that adds up tp $1040 a year spent on gas to race 52 weeks a year.

Hmmmm I think I'd switch to tap water before I'd give up racing.

Just one of about a zillion examples someone could come up with.

don't pull the trailer much any more, car pool when I can or drive something other than my diesel. The fuel problem is not the governments problem. Wall street is a big part of the problem with all the speculators and investors buying futures. No one should expect the government to intervien, I mean what right does the government have to tell the oil companies what they can charge for fuel? I sure don't want them to come into my office one day and tell me what I can charge for my services. The consumer is going to have to put a stop to this and until "we" the consumer force the market to change, it will not. I want one of those Honda cars that run on Hydrogen, this is a great new technology and the handwriting is on the wall for big oil so they are getting all they can get while they can get it.

...I had already cut back or cut out a lot of other stuff to keep racing a long time ago...now I have resorted to putting my microsize car back on the road (94 GEO METRO) that I bought new, but hadn't been driving for a long time.

It's sad, but as most of the rest of the country is finally getting to $4.00 a gallon gas, we've been there and more for quite some time now, and we were $4.69 YESTERDAY and at the rate of increase..I expect to see $4.75 today and $4.99 next week...and $5.25 by 4th of JULY.

ALL SWTour Guys - TRY to carpool more! It's a great way to get to know each other better...and as long as it's not someone you had an ON TRACK altercation with..the BENCH RACING on the way home is FUN

I bought a smaller trailer. With a bigger a/c unit! Gas in the middle of illinois is 4.19 yesterday. They want more for ethanol. Im in the middle of cornfield county!! This is Bushs greed! When hes booted out of office he will fire his oil rigs back up. And line his pockets, with cash.

Jenzo Steer clear of ethanol anyway. You will get less mileage using it.

Just got wind of your thread. ....more bad news coming. As an owner of HobbytownUSA in Boardman OH i have heard from all my suppliers that the price of NITRO fuel is going to go much higher.

Gallons of Traxxas Top Fuel to $35 a gallon. There not even making the 33% right now..

Check out their press releases.

PS Hard to carpool in a Losi 8

...our LHS said their NITRO went up to $42.00 a gallon YESTERDAY

Price of nitro for drag racin went from just over 1000.00 to over 1400.00 a barrel.Barrel used to be 55 gallons,now its 38.China where all the worlds nitro comes from has stopped production & shipping from their ports because of the terrorism threat from the olympics.Production will resume after the olympics.Do you think the price will come down?NHRA is worried their official supplier(JP Fuels)wont have enuff to supply the teams thru the US nationals.I allso saw where the hobby industry is gonna be in deep s**t because of the availability & cost.The hobby industry & drag racin are at the bottom of the list as far as availability.Nitro has a lot of other uses all over the world.
Dave Werner

I would'nt be suprised if it doubles in the near future.

Dave That is VP fuels. And everything you posted is correct. NHRA and VP fuels are actually trying to buy nitro from Don Schumacher racing in an effort to help keep racing going. Yes the RC industry will be at the bottom of the list.

...our LHS said their NITRO went up to $42.00 a gallon YESTERDAY

Was that Monster Brew?

My hometrack is a 80 mile round trip.We're racin saturday and since i help prep the track,i'll be leavin work early friday afternoon to blow & sauce the track,then up early saturday for another round trip.Does 4.50 a gallon gas affect me?Your damn right is does.Have i cut back on racin this year?Absolutly!I also follow nostalgia drag racin out here on the west coast.Last race at Famoso(outside Bakersfield),car count was down,crowd way down.This was for the U.S. Fuel & Gas Championships.This crap is effecting the country & racin across the board.Got to thank Bush for all this.What a piece of trash as a president.

its not Bush's fault. its all the bleeding heart liberals in this country who refuse to let us drill for oil in our own oil rich land. start drilling in alaska or the dakotas, and OPEC will open up the flood gates and gas will be back down to a dollar again.

I would'nt be suprised if it doubles in the near future.

Dave That is VP fuels. And everything you posted is correct. NHRA and VP fuels are actually trying to buy nitro from Don Schumacher racing in an effort to help keep racing going. Yes the RC industry will be at the bottom of the list.

Thanks for correcting that.Had a brain fart.Check out competition plus.com.I been watchin whats been goin on with Schumacher & the NHRA for months.Ever since the NHRA decided to fine him 100,000.00 at Vegas.:thumbsup:

IndyRC has it right.

Why cut back on racing when there are so many other areas of your life you could but back and never miss?
If a person drinks soda or coffee and spends $3 a day on it that adds up to $1095 a year.
If you have a 100 mile round trip to the track, you car gets 20mpg and you pay $4 for gas that adds up tp $1040 a year spent on gas to race 52 weeks a year.
Just one of about a zillion examples someone could come up with.

All good points Pat. From one particular point of view.

But some situations may not just be about making choices
between coffee, and racing..(I know, it was an example...)

Two years ago, it cost let's say, $1200 to heat your home.
Last year it was $3000, this year it may be $5000.
Our property tax rate is currently set to go up $2/1000 which would raise
the tax on an average home from around 4500 to ~5000.
Then there is the matter of your regular gas consumption for work etc.
not just travel to the track..
I used to fill my van a short time ago for ~75 bucks, now it's ~120.
Now if you happen to be self employed, or in a distressed business,
and you aren't making as much as you did, or less, than 2 years ago.....
Or you are some place that has a temporary freeze on wages.... :drunk:

So when you add up all the extra fixed costs, for some of us, it's more than
giving up the medium regular at Dunkin Donuts....:thumbsup:
It's going to be having to save the couple hundred a month
that used to be spent on racing.. (or whatever it is that one spends)

And for a lot of people, there just won't be any way to make it through
the winter... no matter what they do..:(

I hear you Dan and I definitely hope you'll be back out this winter. Can't fix everything by giving up the DD coffee. I actually didn't see you post on the other page before, so don't think I was speaking to you specifically by any means. Just a general thought on my part on how to combat price increases of just gas alone.

I hear you Dan and I definitely hope you'll be back out this winter. Can't fix everything by giving up the DD coffee. I actually didn't see you post on the other page before, so don't think I was speaking to you specifically by any means. Just a general thought on my part on how to combat price increases of just gas alone.

No explanation from you ever needed, Pat...
I understood what you meant. :thumbsup:
But for the sake of discussion on the thread, I was just offering
a different slant.
I'll be racing some for sure,
But certainly not every week like in the past..:(

sodas/vending machines at work,
these things tend to hurt me more then i realize look in the wallet an see some ones .. an think ... soda candybar ...... an u do this few times aday 5 days a week ... man that is a good sum of change ,

PRIORITIES!!!! Decide what is more important/fun and ROLL! I enjoy racing<But, I enjoy Beer, Quads, camping, Nascar races,etc... I'll try to attend most local racing but out of town stuff has to be special to make the trip! At our last out of town events ( 60miles) we carpooled and it was Great!

I am sure some of you read yahoo news and have seen reports of gas going up to $10.00 a gallon!! Once again today the market took a plunge as oil hit $137 a barrel and the dollar once again declined in value. The real problem we face is that our Great Nation has become too service laden and not enough produced anymore to export.
With diesel at 4.70-4.95 a gallon I'll be staying local for racing as much as possible, and they were pushing alternate fuels what a scam, Diesel was 1.59 just two years ago. And the oil for protection was suppose to be part of the agreement in Iraq but with huge amounts being stolen and sold on the black market it hasn't been working out that way.
Also, FYI I just read an article where the UN and certain Presidential candidates are trying to pass a bill that would tax us all further to the tune of $850 billion dollars, that is a "Global Poverty Act" (S.2433)? Also atached is a little blurb about Nations abolishment of small arms. Please research and read you may find these things interesting.
Oh well what are you going to do, well time to go to WAL-MART to save to live better...
I love it don't y'all?:woohoo:

I'll tell ya what to do about it.......bend over and keep taking it as we have for years now.we can bitch untill we are blue in the face but the higher powers(man with more $$$ and oil) will just keep putting it to us.once an oil company see's how much one will pay for a gallon of gas there is now way that they are gonna go cheaper on it.

Oh wise Yoky (son of JC) You could'nt be more wrong, There are many things one can do to combat the ever raising fuel prices.

I am not letting gas prices stop me from racing this year, may have to skip the strip clubes during the BRL Races, but I am going racing. Pat made a good point about packing a lunch vs. eating out. I was spending ove $200.00 a month eating lunch at work. Sharing rides is always a cash saver and if you can split a hotel thats even more money back in the pocket.

I can speak first hand in my line of work as people become are stressed due to inflation in everyday life and no increase's in work wages people become angry and get violent. I don't blame any of them either, wouldn't you be upset if you lost your house. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, but hay we appearantly we can aford to keep paying for everything that Iraq and Afghanistan need. Its a lost cause over there. Darwin had a theory about it, survival of the fittest?

This may sound crazy but I believe that governing officials have forgotten the REAL chain of command according to the Constitution?????

tommy..if thats the case if your car gets 35 mph you need stop and race with us 10th scalers at walts every once in a while. just drop us a line to let us know when you and your group are comming.

Klupi I kinda sort of have to disagree with with one thing, Afghanistan is not a lost cause it was just thrown on the back burner for a while and kept out of mainstream media. However Iraq is another story...
And believe me by no means am I bitching about any of this, well not until I have a few cold ones, just stating the obvious that is in black and white print. And it will get worse before any change happens, shoot I can't wait until Christmas time, possibly, when oil will probably spike at about $200 a barrell to see what happens. What I'm really getting at is that some of the population see what is happening but are still blind to it as a whole.
I have to say, and I was only a kid but remember, I agree with the analysts that have said this is going to be like the 70's on steroids.
And I will continue to truck to the race track each week in my oil burner and hope to see some of you somewhere soon. And remember all of this is small potatoes compared to the people that have lost alot in the middle states from flooding this week.

what you can do is vote every one out ...congress...senate and put in new people who are not getting kickbacks and meeting with lobbyists....Conserve as much fuel as possible.....I swear I think I spend almost the same on gas as i did 2 years ago by setting the cruise control at 55 and planning fewer trips......I will still attend as many larger races as I can (work Permitting)...but I completly understand when others say it will affect thier attendance............Im hoping were in a energy crisis as we were in the
late 70's.......that will correct itself in a year or so...but who knows....I do believe know is the time to support our LHS....because if they close....Dont see many others looking to open up.....

GREAT THREAD for venting and discussion A+

The funny thing about discussions on political topics is how everyone thinks they can solve it in two sentences or less.

The biggest problem the could maybe be fixed (with a lot more than just two sentences) is the commodity trading of oil, or more accurately the fact that there is virtually no regulation of it. I don't like Bush, but that isn't his fault.

The biggest and most fundamental probelm is that demand is skyrocketing, while supply is beginning to peak. This is also not Bush's fault.

Also, oil is traded worldwide in dollars. As the value of the dollar falls the price of oil has to go up. Depending on how much you think the president really has to do with the state of the economy I suppose you could put some blame on him here.

People think the problem is the government doesn't care about them. I'd say the reality is that this is as painful as it is right now because the government has been pandering to the voter for the last 50 years. Things would not be nearly this bad if the government had begun taxing gas like the rest of the western world does decades ago. Unfortunately most people are too short sighted to see what might be best for them in the long run.

Also, there has been a realistic alternative energy available for 60 years now. Nuclear power. But everyone has the not in my backyyard attitude and once again the politicians can't go against that or they just get voted out of office. If you want to burn hydrogen in your car you need a vast amount of electricity to make the hydrogen. The only realistic way anyone will getting that in the next 20 years is nuclear power.

In a lot of ways the majority of people have brought this on themselves.

Simkins for President!

Things wouldn't go any better, but the speeches would be a lot funnier!

Although having a president who probably used to ride the short bus to school makes them kind of funny now!

Ok. Peter Griffin for Pres, Simkins Vic Pres.

Very timely I'm watching Family Guy right now.

Pat is right on with his post. To add to the Hydrogen thing. The neat looking hydrogen cars that you see in the TV adds cost a MILLION dollar each to build. We won't be seeing many of them anytime soon.

Here is one way that I am fighting the greedy oil companies.