We Are Tyrese
Prospectus for a New Racing Class - Formula RPD
Why Formula RPD??
Background
The Tulsa Shootout typically draws over 1600 entrants! This is a week-long event for micro sprint racing, held right after Christmas every year in Tulsa, OK.
Micro sprints (aka mini sprints) are like sprint cars, but smaller. They run motorcycle engines instead of big V-8s. There are quite a few divisions, based mainly on engine size. Some run with wings, some without.
One very popular class is the 600-cc engine class. They have upward of 160 horsepower and weigh only about 750 lbs. including the driver. These are serious racecars!
I have no idea how many micro sprints there are, or how many races are held every year, but the numbers are huge.
These cars run mostly on dirt tracks. The racing doesn’t get the national press coverage that the full-size midgets and sprint cars do, but micro sprint racing is a very popular sport.
No doubt some drivers are content to stick with racing these cars. But many have their sights set on climbing the ladder to the top echelons of dirt track racing: full size midgets, sprint cars, and USAC Silver Crown cars.
Midgets and Sprints—and the “wing” version of each—are one of the purest forms of motorsport, in that the driver is primary. It’s also crazy fast and fun to watch.
If that’s where you want to go, the micro sprints are where to start.
OK, But How Does That Relate To Formula RPD?
TIt relates because Formula RPD is the counterpart to micro sprint racing, but for drivers whose dreams and ambitions, lean toward IndyCar.
The connection is the use of high-performance motorcycle engines. In most racing classes the engine is probably the single most expensive item. For road racing another expensive item is the gearbox. These motorcycle engines include a six-speed gearbox! And a clutch, and a starter, and an alternator. They cost about $5000 out of cycle salvage, and for another $4,000 you can freshen it up and modify it to the limit of the rules. That’s somewhere between 5% and 10% of what a competitive engine and gearbox would normally cost in a racecar of this caliber. And if you limit the RPM to 11,500, as our rules require, they rarely blow up.
There are other motorcycle engine formula cars, but they are road racing only, and it’s difficult to race often enough to rack up the amount of experience you need to progress to higher levels of the sport.Then there is the Indy ladder system that consists of four classes of racecars: USF Junior, USF 2000, USF Pro 2000, and INDY NXT.
The SCCA also has a couple of Pro formula classes designed as stepping stones to the higher levels of racing.
The problem with all of these classes is the costs are not within the means of ordinary middle-class people.
- The initial cost of the racecar and spares is high.
- The initial cost of support equipment is high.
- Maintenance costs are high.
- Crash repair costs are high.
- Tire costs are high.
- Entry fees and license fees, etc., are high.
- Travel expenses are high.
- If you work for a living, the time needed away from work is prohibitive.
- To be competitive, you need a full-time team—i.e., employees.
And even if you can afford all that, it’s very difficult to race often enough to develop the skills needed to move up the ladder.
Formula RPD makes racing affordable:
- It is hard to keep the initial cost of a car like this down, largely because it does have to be so rugged. But the ZX14 engine/gearbox cuts about 40% of the initial cost of a comparable racecar with a conventional racing engine and gearbox.
- Being able to run on all the available tracks in any given area can drastically reduce travel costs (fuel, lodging, meals, etc.).Reducing travel makes it possible to hold down a job, and still race almost every week during the racing season.
- The rugged tube frame construction of this car—needed for the rough-and-tumble short-track world—compared to the monocoque construction of most rear-engine cars, makes repairs much less expensive.
- The ability to run the short-tracks is key to being able to make money—or at least offset costs—because “Saturday night racing” on the short-tracks brings paying spectators, which is why the short-tracks always have a purse. (Road racing attracts fans too, but only at major events.)
- The spectators at the short-tracks is also why it is much easier for racers to get sponsorship. Race fans are a demographic that is easy to cater to.
If Indy car racing is where you want to go, Formula RPD is where to start.
