Race car drivers at smaller Northeast tracks like Seekonk Speedway are struggling to cope with rising operational costs.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

A misfiring economy and rising energy prices are choking off the racing done by the semi-pro drivers who grind gears each summer at Seekonk Speedway and other small tracks around the Northeast.

Record oil prices are pushing up the cost of many products associated with auto racing, including the fuels used to tow racecars to the tracks and to propel them once they arrive, the parts used in the racecars, and even the food sold in the stands.

“There’s no question that it’s a problem for everyone,” said Francis Venditti, Seekonk Speedway’s owner. “We’re all struggling.”

Operating costs are up at Seekonk Speedway but ticket prices remain about where they have for years, ranging from $1 to $20, depending on the event. Early-season rainouts haven’t helped, canceling the Speedway’s opening day program May 4 and scrubbing races May 31.

The 110-octane fuel used in race cars costs $8.25 a gallon, more than twice the $4.099 a gallon average being paid by the motorists who tool along Route 6 on their way to the weekly races at Seekonk Speedway. But a racecar may burn through only 10 to 20 gallons of the high-octane fuel, costing anywhere from $82.50 to $165, as it whips around the 1/3-mile track during a day’s worth of practice runs, qualifiers and a feature race at the Speedway.

Instead, high oil prices have fouled the economics of small-track racing in other ways, making it costlier to haul racecars to a track such as the Speedway, cutting into sponsorship money and forcing some volunteer pit crews to carpool on their way to a race.

“The fuel cost that’s burned us the most is the towing,” said Chuck Vanada, who’s son, Jake, is a rookie in the pro-stock division at Seekonk. “That’s the fuel crunch that’s eating everyone.”

Pulling Jake’s No. 16 car in a trailer on a 90-minute trip from Berkley, Mass., to the Waterford Speedbowl, near New London, Conn., cost him about $90 in diesel fuel last year, Vanada estimated. This year, the same trip would cost about $140.

It’s the reason he pulled Jake from the Allison Legacy North Race Series, a 17-race program run at tracks in Maine, New Hampshire and New York.

With car haulers lucky to average 10 miles a gallon, Vanada switched to one that uses gasoline, which he said is cheaper than diesel. Diesel sold June 10 in Southeastern New England for an average $4.935 a gallon, according to the Automobile Association of America.

Fuel costs also eat into the time the all-volunteer race crews spend working on the cars when the vehicles aren’t whipping around a track, according to another racer, Billy Bernard, a contractor from Holliston, Mass.

“They used to come out to the shop every night; now I’m lucky if they come once or twice a week,” said Bernard, the head of WC Racing.

Holliston is a 45-minute haul from the Speedway, a drive that once wasn’t such a big deal for his crew members. Not so anymore.

“We’re carpooling; we never used to do that.”

Some of the 35 drivers registered to race in Bernard’s late-model division have yet to make it out to the track since it opened for the season in mid-May.

“We’re lucky if we see 15 or 16 every week,” he said

Bernard, Jake Vanada and the other racers also have cut back on mid-week practice sessions, said Venditti, the Speedway’s owner.

“We haven’t been doing a lot of practice sessions,” Venditti said. “Because of the cost, [the race teams] don’t want to wear out their tires and their cars before Saturday.”

Tires can cost $125 each (Seekonk has a two-tire weekly limit), rims $100. There are $75 registration fees for owners and track entry fees for crew members.

A win in a feature race at a track like Seekonk may bring a team $1,200 to $1,500.

Vanada is realistic about 17-year-old Jake’s chances for recouping the money he’s putting into the car.

“The chances of him winning …,” Vanada said, his voice tailing off a bit. “It’s a learning curve.”

Fuel costs may nearly double this year for BGB Racing, up from $3,000 last season, according to Bob Botelho, a partner in BGB Racing. That’s a significant hike for a two-car team budgeting $1,000 a week for a 20-week racing season.

“We’ve had to cut back our schedule already,” Botelho said.

Like the Vanadas, Botelho’s team will cut back on trips to Thompson International Speedway, in northeastern Connecticut, from a planned six to two.

“We could come in third place and still lose $100,” Botelho said of a trip to Thompson.

The Vanadas are lucky in one respect; the Main Street-size sponsors are sticking with them. The lineup includes such small-town operations as Aubuchon Hardware, Bumper-to-Bumper Accessories, Propane Plus and others.

“We’ve been fortunate, this year is the best shape we’ve been in,” said Vanada, a service technician for Bay State Gas.

Not so for BGB Racing, Botelho said.

Some sponsors cut back how much they gave the team.

“The economy hit us twice,” he said.

Less sponsorship money forces BGB’s drivers to ease up on the track.

“We have to be much more cautious, much more diligent,” said Botelho, who runs an industrial engineering firm. “If you wreck, where is the money going to come from?”

pgrimald@projo.com