Ever wondered how much it costs to hire a track, why trackdays can be so expensive? Well at the BMF weekend I found out…
Cadwell Park £8,000
Oulton Park £16,000
Donington Park £21,500
Silverstone GP £24,000
Brands Hatch GP £27,000
Now, even at Cadwell when you consider that the average day may cost £100 they still need 80 paying riders just to break even on circuit costs. On top of that they have staff salaries, admin, travel, insurance costs etc. I knew it was expensive but never thought it’d be this much. No wonder there are only a handful of organisers left.
I found 13 trackdays at Donington Park between now and the end of the year. At £21.5k a shot that’s £280k - not bad when you consider that their biggest outlay during those days will be wages (and not too many at that). I found 43 days at Cadwell (excluding 12 evening events)! At £8k a pop, that’s £344k on bike days alone. Evening events, car trackdays and races will add significantly more without doubt. At £60 a ticket for the MotoGP, Donington Park can expect the best part of £5m for race day ticket sales alone. Not to mention all the ancillaray sales and other events.
This is coupled with (relatively) minimal upkeep for something that generates some much revenue; Donington have just rebuilt all the garages from scratch and it cost them £5m, but how long will they last? Probably ten years or more. Even when they resurfaced the track a few years back it was just £2m.
I’m sure that somewhere, someone is making a lot of money (and I’m sure it’s not the trackday companies).
