Grass Paddock Motorsports

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Grass Paddock Motorsports Grass Paddock Motorsports specializes in SCCA B-Spec, T4, H Production, and Improved Touring (IT) race car rentals NATIONWIDE

Old school return to the basics weekend. No big trailer, no big canopy. Just a simple popup
27/09/2026

Old school return to the basics weekend. No big trailer, no big canopy. Just a simple popup

Im not driving today, but im happy. Clients are having a great time
18/09/2026

Im not driving today, but im happy. Clients are having a great time

5 Hard to swallow Race Car Facts related to the purchase or sale of race. General rule for race car prices. 1) Complete...
14/09/2026

5 Hard to swallow Race Car Facts related to the purchase or sale of race.

General rule for race car prices.

1) Completed/running/legal race car = ~ 50% of the price of new parts purchased + 0% of the labor.

2) Incomplete race car = 10-25% of the new parts + 0% labor.

3) Bonus points/extra % for classes in high demand and/or very low supply.

4) Deduction corollary, if the class the car is designed to race in is shrinking, halve the value. If class has been cancelled or "absorbed" the car may actually be already worthless regardless of how much you have invested - just part it out already.

5) Time to sell: If it doesn't sell in a few weeks, it will likely take a year or more (ask Racing Junk how long they keep their listings up).

We have a lot of caged road race cars for sale and sold in our database and the results are stunning. And sad :(

GPM exclusively uses G-Loc Brakes in every one of our B-Spec race cars.
13/09/2026

GPM exclusively uses G-Loc Brakes in every one of our B-Spec race cars.

Our database is starting to bear fruit. While a lot of these recent posts are SPECIFIC to the SCCA, many of the newer s...
10/09/2026

Our database is starting to bear fruit. While a lot of these recent posts are SPECIFIC to the SCCA, many of the newer sanctioning bodies will encounter the same issues as they mature (and many already are). Often at a much quicker rate than the SCCA, because the things we talk about here tend to be endemic to Amateur Racing as a whole. Data for other series exists but as the season is not yet complete, the results are still percolating (SCCA Majors are the among the first series to end their year long championship so that is why it is presented). PS we can sit here and argue the facts all day long, but we actively working on ways and ideas to fix things (many are contained in previous posts). If you are part of a sanctioning bodies' future strategy planning team, feel free to reach out for advice or assistance.

Our database of wheel-2-wheel racing events and cars is coming along quite nicely. We are at a track > 20 weekends a ye...
10/09/2026

Our database of wheel-2-wheel racing events and cars is coming along quite nicely. We are at a track > 20 weekends a year which appears to be at the top of the participation results. About 2/3 of ours are SCCA events but we also attend ChampCar, LuckyDog, NASA, WHRRI, MCSCC and various vintage orgs (we have also done Lemons, just not recently - we need to find a way to get back). On our todo list is AER, WRL, NEGT, ICSCC and the rest of the vintage orgs. Sometime in March next year I will race in my 500th race (including a brief circle track detour) and we have passed 50 drivers in one of our cars for Driver's School < the thing we are most proud of. The average racer does around 2.5 weekends a year. How many weekends do you guys and gals get to spend at the track?

Before I summarize my thoughts and your feedback on what is driving the SCCA Road Race Entry Decline, I just want to res...
08/09/2026

Before I summarize my thoughts and your feedback on what is driving the SCCA Road Race Entry Decline, I just want to respond quickly to those of you dismiss my posts because they are misunderstanding the details.

A) Racing has always been expensive, its getting more expensive and potential racers today have less disposable income that previously.

B) When you are trying to address an issue, you combine facts and data with honest feedback and try to correct for things that appear to be root causes but are really just environmental factors.

My recent post on costs is a great example. Are costs too damn high? Yes. Is that the reason SCCA entries are declining? Maybe. But when you consider that costs going up are even for most everyone, then it doesnt explain why some series are growing a little, some are growing a lot, and only two really seem to be hurting, of which the SCCA is one. So it cancels out.

That does not mean I am poo-pooing your inability to afford racing, only that for this PARTICULAR question it does not appear to be the main root cause.

C) Racing is not a democracy, it is not something that is fairly administered nor does anyone have a right to racing. Me personally, I see the biggest impediment is knowledge - the sanctioning bodies have applied what I believe are unreasonable hurdles to getting started. One of which is cost.

But the one that frustrates me most of all is information. Information should be free and presented in a way that everyone understands, and only then can people make good decisions. One of the worst things we are facing is, by my estimates, there are only 100,000 people who race wheel-2-wheel amateur in the US annually. Worse still, they are spread thru almost 100 sanctioning bodies, clubs and businesses. In the end we, the racers, have zero power and those in charge spend a ton of time fighting each other for limited customers instead of working together to grow the sport.

This whole page, the race car rental business and the time I spend on the phone or messenger to anyone who asks, has one end goal - the democratization of Amateur Road Racing. Step 1 was putting all the events into one search engine. Step 2 is building a database of all the caged road race cars for sale and putting them into the same search engine. And the final step will be pulling all that data together to give people an honest pros/cons comparison about every choice, from which sanctioning body to join, to which class fits your goals and budget the best, to the easiest way to improve skills or the smoothest route to just have fun. This picture identifies the goal - I am looking to you all to help me make sure I don't leave any stone unturned.

I need to update my rankings of the 40 tracks I have raced at (view the old list at the link provided), but here is the ...
07/09/2026

I need to update my rankings of the 40 tracks I have raced at (view the old list at the link provided), but here is the short version of our Milwaukee Mile thoughts and feelings. 1) Fun to Drive 4/5 - I guess as someone who started in autocross, the narrow infield, slow speed corners and massive amount of cones made me feel at home. I thoroughly enjoyed driving both the 2nd gear parts of the infield section and the Turn 1/2 banking at full speed in 4th. 2) Raceability/Technicality 2/5 - It is however, not a layout that is conducive to wheel-2-wheel racing/passing. Other than outbraking someone into T1 into the infield, the only passing opportunity is to out horsepower them on the oval sections. Not something that happens often in our underpowered class. 3) Competitor Atmosphere 4/5 - OK, maybe I am just biased by the free lunch and the Apple Pie Trophy, but the smaller size of Midwestern Council events leads to people just generally having a good time with each other. I saw not a single body-to-body contact all weekend (there might have been one I missed) and I saw a bunch of people helping competitors and just hanging out. 4) Paddock 1/5 - ok, it was not nice, had no shade and like some older tracks getting in and out was across the tracks aka only at lunch or end of day (small tunnel for cars but tow vehicles and trailers did not fit). Bathrooms were half a step above Nelson Ledges if you understand what that means. 5) Off Track Attractions - 4/5 since the track is literally in town, there are tons of things to do and places to see within 15 minutes and the amount of bars restaurants hotels etc within walking distance of track reminds me of why i like Europe so much. 6) Track Aura/Mystique - 2/5 although the track hosts Indycar races and has a long history, I just did not feel like I was in a special place. Could also be because its in a fairgrounds complex so it felt more like a temporary facility rather than a place of homage. In the end 17/30pts put it squarely in the middle of my rankings. https://www.grasspaddock.com/post/my-favorite-tracks-top-5

New track, excited! Back with Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs.
05/09/2026

New track, excited! Back with Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs.

Incorrect Reason #2 that SCCA Racing has been shrinking: Cost. Look, racing was never cheap, no matter what the old ti...
02/09/2026

Incorrect Reason #2 that SCCA Racing has been shrinking: Cost. Look, racing was never cheap, no matter what the old timers will tell you (I guess at this point I am slowly slipping into that group myself). Yes, some things have gotten more expensive. But the real issue with the cost of racing sits entirely on the shoulders of the racers and not the sanctioning bodies.

Lets start with entry fees, I have posted before and will continue to share the data that entry fees have generally increased just under the level of inflation. Which to be fair, is amazing as track rental costs and event insurance have definitely increased more than inflation. Of course there are costs of safety improvements like expanded cage rules, fire systems and flagtronics among other things, hopefully no one has issues with those.

NO, the real increase in the cost of racing has to do with YOUR choices. The same "old days" the more senior members discussed included driving a car to the track with no trailer, or using a tow dolly or scratch built homemade open trailer. Now it seems enclosed trailers are commonplace and RVs are getting so popular many tracks are running out of paddock space. The same applies to your choice of cars. A reasonably priced Improved Touring car can still be had for $5-7k. But many people have chosen cars that will eat that same amount up in 2-3 weekends of fuel and tires. Weight and pursuit of lap times are the true driver of cost of racing.

Finally, travel is another difference. I remember when starting none of the tracks I frequented had on site food, if you didnt bring a cooler and make sandwiches in your tent you starved. Today hotels and eating out are the norm. In the end, these cost pressures are real and I have empathy for anyone trying to start racing these days, however they are not exclusive to the SCCA and other sanctioning bodies are not seeing the same drop as the SCCA. More on this later, in the interim, here is a new ITB car for rent in our stable (which could also be for sale soon)

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4770 Waterford Rd

48346

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