Today the intrepid Aaron Brown shared the epiphany that , and we realized that this sport costs a ton of money before you even get to the starting line.

I disagree with dolphs44’s assessment that it’s “misleading” to include the entry fee in the cost of Aaron’s rally weekend. In fact, I think this is a good opportunity to remind would-be amateur racers that entry fees alone represent a pretty big roadblock to real competitive driving.

I’m not saying race organizers need to charge less–I don’t know enough about their operations for a hot take on that. But I do believe coming up with entry fees is the kind of seemingly-trivial-but-actually-significant pieces of pre-professional motorsports that gets overlooked too often.

You can build a car somewhat inexpensively if you’ve got tools and mechanical talent, but there are some elements of racing that just require straight cash. So don’t forget that when you start your budget rally campaign!