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Then let's look at GS. In 2007, you had to build your own car or buy a race ready Mustang for $135K. If you went the non Mustang route, you were looking at $180K for a build. Then you had to carry all of your spares because there was not truck or manufacturer there with a truck and engineers. It was super expensive and IMSA figured out that GT4 was a much cheaper way of running in the class and they did cost cutting measures. In 2007, you had 10 races and 28.5 hours of racing. You needed a full blown crew for pit stops. So, IMSA cut the costs by reducing the hours of racing to 24 and reducing the practice time by 20%. Then they did away with tire handlers and a jack man.
In 2007, a front running GS season cost you $400K. Today that would be $478K adjusted for inflation. To run a front running GS car this year was $800K. So, you can see, the reduced cost of R&D, track time and crew has resulted in a $322K increase over what you could do in 2007 along with the IMSA cost cutting measures. Top it off, prize money has gone up 0% and instead of paying out to the top 20, it's only the top 5. So, the winner gets more money.
I still can't figure out where the money is going because it's not close to the US inflation rate. Plus, IMSA has been cutting costs for the GS teams. Best part is that a current GT4 car is getting closer to the speed of a 2007 Rolex GT car. So, that should work out well if they would incorporate GT4 into the big show because of the extra track time, it should be around 2007 Rolex GT costs then.
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