Sierra Cars Grassroots motorsport journal
Global Rallycross round, Daytona — supercar class through the asphalt section
Season opener

The cheap way into dirt racing is never the cheapest car

Nine write-ups on what it costs to run a light car in the dirt — entry fees, cages that fail tech, shocks that fade by lap fifteen, and the donor market everybody shops in and nobody explains.

Global Rallycross round, Daytona — supercar class through the asphalt section

Super Buggy at Crandon — the class most first-year drivers underestimate
Feature · Budget

What a season of club rallycross actually costs

Car, cage, entries, rubber, fuel and the parts that break. A full budget with the numbers a first-year driver never sees until the receipts pile up.

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Recent

Paddock at Portland International Raceway before a morning session
Buying · 2026-07

Where club racers actually find project cars

Private sale, dealer leftover, wholesale lane or a lender's list — four sources, four different problems, and the fields on a listing that matter before the photos do.

1050 words
Night heat under the lights — every car here passed tech that morning
Safety · 2026-05

Why tech inspection rejects a cage

Tube tables that do not line up between sanctioning bodies, the seam that ends the argument, and the mounting plates where amateur builds actually fail.

1100 words
Vegas-to-Reno course — the surface that finds every weak bracket on the car
Setup · 2026-04

Suspension that survives a dirt season

Travel that helps and travel that hurts, valving for jumps against smooth clay, and the brackets that crack long before anybody notices.

1209 words
Machines lined up before a run — the walk-around everybody skips
Buying · 2026-04

Inspecting a used race UTV before you pay

Hours that mean nothing, a clutch cover that tells the truth in ten minutes, and how to turn a list of findings into one number at the table.

1171 words
Strapped down outside Alamo, Nevada — two ratchets short of a long night
Logistics · 2026-04

Hauling two cars on a club budget

Trailer choice, tongue weight, straps against chains, and the four parts that fail on the road in a predictable order.

996 words

From the paddock

Stadium trucks, Crandon
Stadium trucks, Crandon
Sprint car heat, Oostburg
Sprint car heat, Oostburg
Prototype class, Sonoma
Prototype class, Sonoma
Autocross, Cherry Point
Autocross, Cherry Point
Bandolero in the Crandon paddock
Bandolero in the Crandon paddock
Dusk at the dunes, Glamis
Dusk at the dunes, Glamis
Cone course, Cherry Point
Cone course, Cherry Point
Desert run, Yuma
Desert run, Yuma
Class buggy on the Vegas-to-Reno course
Class buggy on the Vegas-to-Reno course
Strapped down outside Alamo, Nevada
Strapped down outside Alamo, Nevada
Full gallery →
“Everybody asks what the car costs. Nobody asks what the second set of tires costs, and that is the number that decides whether you finish the season.”

Wes Trombley — editor, fifteen seasons in short-course

Season, as it runs

Full calendar →

Where to look next

Donor cars move south for the winter. Teams in the northeast sell in October rather than store a shell through the salt season, and the same cars surface again in Florida and Texas listings by December at prices that have nothing to do with condition and everything to do with storage costs. Anyone shopping a shell in the off-season should watch the southern states first — a scan of abetter.bid listings in Florida in January turns up the same hatchbacks that were $900 dearer in Massachusetts in September.

Sanctioning bodies

  • SCCA regional calendars and novice permits
  • NASA club codes and class rules
  • Local off-road series supplemental regs

Safety and tech

  • SFI harness and helmet date tables
  • Cage tube charts by vehicle weight
  • Fire system inspection intervals

Parts and shops

  • Suspension rebuild shops by region
  • Fabricators who do cages to spec
  • Take-off tire suppliers near dune country