Following the entire SOD tour...

[tjslideways]

...I'm curious to why more teams don't do it.  I know the schedule is a bit more travel intensive this year, but it always seems like only a handful of teams do it.  I know it has to be painful to buy different tires for the NRA and Ohsweken shows (I've never heard a logical reason why Patriot's tires are different than every other ASCS region.  Note I've heard the reasons, none of them logical).  Is there anything else that is a deterrent?  Money I'm assuming is a the biggest factor?  From what I've heard from teams is the point fund is pretty decent.  Thoughts?

[GavinHunyady187]

I'm going for it, here are my concerns. This is strictly me, better more professional teams wouldnt have these issues.

1. manpower: I've been lucky so far, but one of these days I'm sure it will be just me and the wife, and it will be frustrating. Racing is a lifestyle, and its hard to get crew members that buy into the lifestyle... fulltime. I'm sure the Cherry-I96-Kokomo weekend will be tough. Its tough to keep up on everything alone in the course of racing 3 days in a row. Fridays in general are tough for the guys.
2. costs: hotels, tow fuel, food... it adds up
3. wear: Not sure my motor will last all year, very concerned about it actually. ideally I'd put together a backup, but I havent been running sprints long enough to have built up 2 motors. Dont have the money to pile them up either, I mean I had to take a year to build up enough stuff to make an honest go of it.
4. vacation: I work a mon-fri 7-4 (or whenever) job, and I dont get that many vacation days. I just recently got enough senority to gain a few days, and take more fridays off to go racing.  
5. credit: I cant race on credit cards, I've nearly gotten into money trouble doing that before, and I wont do it again. So a big year end payoff (which I really have no idea how big) is a difficult carrot to go after when you don't know how many meals it will make, and how many you can float to make it out of a pinch if you need to fix something quick.

Coming off a 3day weekend I think this is a good question. I was lucky to have my dad wife and 2 of the guys with me.

The biggest reason I want to do this is for the seat time, best way to get it at the places i'll race the most. So a lot of races is good... if it doesnt kill me.

[racerguy6n]

I could race on your credit cards... no problem.

[GavinHunyady187]

I'll remember that next time I come sniffing around for used tires.

[wngsprnt50]

I don't know about others...but in our case, running for points is no fun.  We enjoy the ability to race wherever we feel like, or not at all if other things come up, such as family stuff.

[Stevensville Mike]

I don't know about others...but in our case, running for points is no fun.  We enjoy the ability to race wherever we feel like, or not at all if other things come up, such as family stuff.

Hey!  Long time no hear, Mark!  You going to dust off the car and go racing soon?

[dirtracer74]

Mark nailed it. Racing for points really is not alot of fun. I was always baffled why more teams did not run the whole schedule. Then, after I hit the road, it became pretty clear, pretty quick.

It really is so much more fun to look at schedules on Tuesday, even wednesday, and decide where to go. You get to see different tracks, and you can stay away from the tracks that you decide not to support. The pressure of keeping track of points takes alot of the fun out of it.