What The World 100 Will Cost You

It's time for the 47th annual pilgrimage to the the World 100, and Jonathon Masters will help you budget.

Sep 7, 2017 by Dan Beaver

By Jonathon Masters

It's that time of year again! The air is cooling. The days are getting shorter, and the entire Dirt Late Model world is going on its annual pilgrimage to Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

The World 100 gets underway on Thursday, and race fans and teams nationwide are booking hotels, filling campers with food, and buying tickets to the biggest crown jewel in dirt racing.

Since the event's debut 47 years ago, there has been a joke made that original Eldora Speedway owner Earl Baltes could have broken even at the World 100 if he sold one more hotdog. Even so, Eldora absolutely makes a good profit from its biggest event of the year.

Over the next three days, the real question is what are the fans and teams spending on the biggest event of the year? What is the price of a good time?

This time we won't focus on tire bills, car damage, or cosmetic racing expenses. Instead, we're going to look at the creature comforts for those who are camping at Eldora or commuting to the speedway. So let's write some checks to track owner Tony Stewart and tackle this weekend head-on by starting off with the life blood of the World 100, the fans.

Fans come in two groups when it comes to the World 100. The most famous of which will be the campers. We are going to assume that you'll be traveling in groups of three. That can either be you and two racing buddies or your spouse and kid.

[tweet url="https://twitter.com/EldoraSpeedway/status/902972130597502977" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
Start with $200 for generator and engine gasoline for the weekend. That number can increase a lot if you are traveling from far away. You'll of course need to fill that camper with no less than $200 worth of groceries for the weekend. Adults are going to need $75-150 worth of your beverage of choice. Keep those drinks cold with $20 worth of ice over the weekend. When you get there, you're going to need a $50 camping pass for the weekend and your $100 weekend tickets each.

Now what's a trip to Eldora without some apparel? We'll add $50 per person for T-shirts, stickers, cup holders, and other merchandise from vendor row. So where are the campers in terms of weekend spending? Your World 100 weekend is going to cost you around $800.

Now we'll tackle our commuters. They are going to be spending less in gas. We'll say on average they are going to need around $75 in gas. They are going to need a place to stay, and the hotels in the area get crowded over the weekend. We'll go conservative and say it'll be $80 a night, making it $160 for the weekend if you go home Saturday night.

You'll still need your tickets $100 each for a total of $300. You'll be eating at restaurants and track food so you'll be spending around $150 in food. Most of you will be buying your cocktails or beverages at the track concessions and bar. However, since you'll be driving back to a hotel, you'll be responsibly slower on your drinking than campers so you'll be about $50-80 in alcohol over the weekend. In total, our commuters will be spending about the same as a camper thanks to those hefty hotel bills.

So call your friends, grab the wife and kids, and hit the bank. You may be spending $800-1,000, but its World 100 weekend. It only comes once a year, and if you have a couple dollars extra you may stop by the concession stand for one more hot dog.

Highlights From the 2016 World 100

- Jonathon Masters has a lifelong connection with dirt racing. His family has owned and operated MasterSbilt Race Cars manufacturing dirt late model chassis for 35 years. He attended college in North Carolina for motor sports management and has written for various industry publications. Jonathon was an account executive at The International Motorsports Industry Show, founder of the Heartland Auto Racing Show, and has been a racing industry professional for over a decade.