Bench Racer With Steve Turner—Powerful Impact
Written by Steve Turner
For years we have heard talk about the pending doom of converting street cars into race cars. For any automotive enthusiast, this is an unthinkable prospect. Not only do many of the purely professional racing leagues have their roots in converted street vehicles, but both the Holley NMRA Ford Nationals and Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals are examples of racing series that are primarily based on converted street vehicles and dual-purpose machines.
With any luck, such talk will fade away. Including the two series covered on these pages, motorsports is massive. From dirt-slinging Ultra4 off-road racing to the technological tour de force of Formula 1 and from the tire-shredding Formula Drift to the high-speed muscle of NASCAR, there are forms of motorsports to suit any enthusiast.
These endeavors have a massive economic impact. From hotels and restaurants to trucks and trailers, competitors and fans spend money to enjoy and compete in these endeavors. One would have to imagine those numbers are massive, especially when one of these events rolls into a town that isn’t drawing huge crowds without these events.
Beyond the substantial tourist dollars and capital investments, there is the simple business of selling parts to build race cars. This is something everyone reading this can identify with. Most of us start out dreaming of the parts we are going to buy to make our rides faster or cooler. As soon as we can afford to buy them, a seemingly endless cycle of upgrades continues from vehicle to vehicle over decades.
For those who take that cycle beyond bolt-ons to the next level in competition, the impetus is even more intense as the need to outperform the competition is intense. That driver remains intense in the modern era. The Performance Racing Industry trade group that puts on the familiar PRI Show, released its 2024 State of the Racing Market Report detailing the economic impact of track-use motorsports parts. That impact was a whopping $8 billion in sales just in the US last year.
That is a staggering number. While hot rodding and racing still feels like a rebellious, underground endeavor, it has some mainstream momentum.
“The racing segment continues to be a strong piece of the specialty-equipment market and a revenue opportunity for many businesses,” PRI President Michael Good said. “Whether you are a CEO, salesperson, or race service provider, this report can help you stay ahead of the curve and navigate the dynamic motorsports landscape.”
What makes this all the more impressive is that last year many companies faced supply-chain issues and inflation rose. People have long put other things to the side to pursue their passions, and that seems to remain true, as PRI says that 47 percent of racing parts resellers grew their sales last year, while 51 percent expected to expand their sales this year. Likewise, 32 percent of racing parts manufacturers increased their sales in 2023 and half expect to experience improved sales this year.
No one ever said that going fast is cheap, and the need for speed is still moving a lot of high-performance hardware. The most popular segments were intake/fuel/exhaust and suspension/brakes/ steering/chassis parts.
With these significant economic impacts, the thought of preventing racers from converting street cars into racing machines sounds even more ridiculous. As someone who miraculously made a career out of writing about and photographing fast cars, I can confirm that the economic impact of racing extends well beyond the parts counter.
Knowing that just one year of parts sales cleared multiple billions makes me feel far more confident that we’ll have plenty of race cars for years to come, and I look forward to writing about them.
Written by Steve Turner
For years we have heard talk about the pending doom of converting street cars into race cars. For any automotive enthusiast, this is an unthinkable prospect. Not only do many of the purely professional racing leagues have their roots in converted street vehicles, but both the Holley NMRA Ford Nationals and Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals are examples of racing series that are primarily based on converted street vehicles and dual-purpose machines.
With any luck, such talk will fade away. Including the two series covered on these pages, motorsports is massive. From dirt-slinging Ultra4 off-road racing to the technological tour de force of Formula 1 and from the tire-shredding Formula Drift to the high-speed muscle of NASCAR, there are forms of motorsports to suit any enthusiast.
These endeavors have a massive economic impact. From hotels and restaurants to trucks and trailers, competitors and fans spend money to enjoy and compete in these endeavors. One would have to imagine those numbers are massive, especially when one of these events rolls into a town that isn’t drawing huge crowds without these events.
Beyond the substantial tourist dollars and capital investments, there is the simple business of selling parts to build race cars. This is something everyone reading this can identify with. Most of us start out dreaming of the parts we are going to buy to make our rides faster or cooler. As soon as we can afford to buy them, a seemingly endless cycle of upgrades continues from vehicle to vehicle over decades.
For those who take that cycle beyond bolt-ons to the next level in competition, the impetus is even more intense as the need to outperform the competition is intense. That driver remains intense in the modern era. The Performance Racing Industry trade group that puts on the familiar PRI Show, released its 2024 State of the Racing Market Report detailing the economic impact of track-use motorsports parts. That impact was a whopping $8 billion in sales just in the US last year.
That is a staggering number. While hot rodding and racing still feels like a rebellious, underground endeavor, it has some mainstream momentum.
“The racing segment continues to be a strong piece of the specialty-equipment market and a revenue opportunity for many businesses,” PRI President Michael Good said. “Whether you are a CEO, salesperson, or race service provider, this report can help you stay ahead of the curve and navigate the dynamic motorsports landscape.”
What makes this all the more impressive is that last year many companies faced supply-chain issues and inflation rose. People have long put other things to the side to pursue their passions, and that seems to remain true, as PRI says that 47 percent of racing parts resellers grew their sales last year, while 51 percent expected to expand their sales this year. Likewise, 32 percent of racing parts manufacturers increased their sales in 2023 and half expect to experience improved sales this year.
No one ever said that going fast is cheap, and the need for speed is still moving a lot of high-performance hardware. The most popular segments were intake/fuel/exhaust and suspension/brakes/ steering/chassis parts.
With these significant economic impacts, the thought of preventing racers from converting street cars into racing machines sounds even more ridiculous. As someone who miraculously made a career out of writing about and photographing fast cars, I can confirm that the economic impact of racing extends well beyond the parts counter.
Knowing that just one year of parts sales cleared multiple billions makes me feel far more confident that we’ll have plenty of race cars for years to come, and I look forward to writing about them.