First of all, it should be said that "cheap racing" is an oxymoron...
Let's also establish the fact that racing motorcycles is a really fun way to spend some of your discretionary income (hopefully not on credit cards!) While many of us could've spent that money taking vacations in Hawaii or Costa Rica or ???, racing is a sort of substitute for the more traditional types of vacations. To help put it in perspective, I will use California as a vacation destination in the following analogy:
Let's say your best buddy is a hard working stiff living in Munich, Germany and he decides to take a week of vacation to spend in California. Out of that one week the first and last day will be wasted on plane travel, so it's really only 4-5 days of actual vacation time in California. He took the time off work, he bought that pretty expensive plane ticket, so now he has to decide where he's going to stay. He has the choice of a really cheap $hithole motel in Stockton that charges by the hour or he can pick a slightly more expensive yet decent place to stay in San Jose, 45 minutes from the beach in Santa Cruz and 45 minutes from San Francisco. If that poor german guy was really your buddy coming to visit California, would you ever tell him to pick the $hithole motel in Stockton???
It's the same for racing. Pick a motorcycle that you want to race, don't just get something you think is "cheap". If you actually want to race a Ninja 250 because you like the bikes and you know/like the people in the class, then that's definitely the way to go. However, if you would rather race on a slightly faster bike with better brakes and handling, there's nothing wrong with going to a SV650 or even a 600... but you'll find that most of us who have been around racing for 20+ years will try to steer you away from 1000s as a first racebike.
The problem with chosing which bike to race strictly on the price of the bike and maybe the cost of tires for the season is that you are ignoring all the other expenses of racing:
- travel costs ($50-200 per weekend, depending on vehicle and distance to track)
- motels ($120-250 per weekend)
- food/restaurants ($50-200)
- AFM entry fees ($250-350 assuming you pay for Saturday practice and 2-3 race entries)
Those costs are exactly the same whether you race a Ninja 250 or a BMW S1000RR!
Ultimately none of us are "forced" to race motorcycles, so whatever bike you race just take a look at the big picture and make sure that you actually want to race that particular model and it will put a big grin on your face. (you could've gone to Hawaii with that money, right?) To settle for a bike you don't really want to race is just plain foolish because the overall difference in cost is very small.
Would you ever tell your buddy from Germany to take a week off work, come out on vacation to California and then stay in the hooker motel in Stockton? I hope not.
