track racers salery!
 

how much money does an average professional track racer make a year in the US?

I very very very very highly doubt there is a single professional trackie that races the majority of the time in the US. There may be an american racing the 6 days in Europe or possibly in Japan doing the Keirins. But there just arent enough pay races in the US to sustain a job. The events that actually have prize money are few and all over the place.

so lets say your a very good racer in the US will the japanese scouts recruit you to japan and have you join their racing team?

Your best chance of scoring some cash would be at The American Track Racing Association's 2011 National Championship Series:
http://raceatra.blogspot.com/2011/03...-schedule.html

I would say that a weekend series might have $2000-$5000 in cash prizes total. Good luck covering your travel expenses.

Uh, no. I would not get my hopes up of seeing a Japanese scout at a race. You could always shoot for the Olympics if you are searching for fame and fortune.

Why do you ask?

The professionals in japan are all in the JKA foundation Keirin series. In order to be able to race in it you have to go through the school and have moved up through the rankings. There are no scouts traveling to velodromes around the world trying to find the best races. In europe there are Six Day races, with two riders sponsored by a country or corporation. They are sometimes found through racing series at velodromes, but usually they are discorvered at World Cups and on national teams. If you are actually serious about being a profesional track racer your best chance would be to move to the UK or Australia. They are the two nations that are far and away ahead of the rest of the world on supporting their top trackies. In the US the best place to live would be Colorado Springs.

Why do you ask?

I don't think any pro racers make any real money. The few pro track-only racers (not road racers that also ride track) that I know have day jobs. Basically, I guess they are happy to have free (or heavily discounted) bike gear and travel expenses paid by their sponsors. I don't think there are many people (if any) paying rent, car payments, etc... off of it in the US. This is partly because the races don't have the cash to pay out. $2,000-$5,000 is the total payout for the whole weekend...paid to all 3 placements for all the races. So, if there are 10 races all weekend and they pay 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, that's a LOT of splitting of the pot.

In my estimation (I'm not a race promoter) There is no "real" money because there aren't fans that will pay and fill up a stadium...like in the European 6-Days:
http://www.fatnick.com/ghent98.jpg

vs

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/...78aaeba1_z.jpg

It's just not that popular as a spectator sport in the US. We are all trying to change that :)


I've never seen this happen. The last US racer was Gibby Hatton (I think). But, the people that get invited to those programs are literally tops in the world. US Track Sprinters haven't been considered tops in the world for years. The French, British, and Australians are head and shoulders above the rest of the world as of late. US Sprinters seem to place in the middle of the pack lately. I haven't seen a US rider make the cut for a sprint tournament in a world-class event in some time. But, there is hope! We now have Jamie Staff as the sprint coach. Hopefully he can help get the US back to the top.

Josiah Ng did at least one visit to race Keirin in Japan (yeah, he races for Malaysia, but he was living in and pretty much from LA at the time), and I think Shaun Wallace did a bunch of trips. There may be a few others who've done it as well-- they have special series where they invite foreign riders over for a few weeks or months at a time. If you google a little you can probably find Jo's blog of his trip. You pretty much have to be riding well at least at the world cup level to have any chance of getting invited.

There are also a number of american riders who go race the 6-days in europe. A bunch in the UIV series, and a few in the pro races. Marty Nothstein did after he retired from sprinting and did well. Daniel Holloway does pretty well, too-- he understands that it's as much show as race and puts on a good show. He was racing with Colby Pearce for a while, but I'm not sure if they still always ride together. Various other US riders have gone over for one or two pro sixes in europe.

I'm not sure the COS is the best place to be based anymore-- A large fraction of the kids going over for the UIV races are coming from LA, and Jamie is doing most of his coaching here, too, AFAIK. T-town is probably also still a good place to be based, and San Jose is producing quite a few people who ride the track and get road contracts, as well.

But like everyone else has already posted-- you're not going to be able to pay your rent from track racing in the US.

thanks for all the feedback guys. i was asking because im going to start racing in the velodrome this summer, and was wondering if it's something i can go far with.

i hope it does become a popular sport. im noticing much more people are riding bikes now a days.

Mark Whitehead also raced the keirin circuit in Japan.

A hundred and ten years ago when bicycle racing was the world's richest and most popular sport, top professional baseball player Cy Young earned $2,500. In the same year, 1901, track cyclist Major Taylor netted well over $20,000. How times have changed!

I guess you meant that literally!

Bikes ultimately were a stepping stone to automobiles - they were really the first mode of personal transportation. Things have changed a little in the last century haven't they?

ESPN put together a list of the top paid athlete in each country. Mostly its soccer players, in the US its baseball play Alex Rodriguez. The only cyclist on the list is Andy Schleck of Luxembourgh. There is also a badminton player, a motorcycle racer, a sumo wrestler, and a yachter.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6391145

Pretty much. This would explain why NASCAR is now the most popular spectator sport in the US.

Track cycling came first, then motorized pace bikes were invented to motorpace riders to speeds they couldn't otherwise achieve. There was some disagreement on what to call them initially, but they settled on "motor-cycle." After automobiles became popular, it was discovered that driving them on banked tracks like bicycles was fun!

Major by Todd Balf tells not only the story of America's first great professional cyclist, but also has a wealth of information about the early days of the sport and the transition to motorized racing.