I never really liked the idea of an "arrive and drive" seat, but...

I have a very stringent vetting process for our potential team mates.  They need to a: have the money to pay their share and b: want to give it to me.

I have had the BEST experiences with our arrive and drive victims, I mean teammates.  First off, there is the Flying Fire Fighter, Tony Silva who we got as a replacement for another guy who could not make it.  Turns out Tony manages a nationally renowned endurance race team and sure did know a few things about racing.  He's a permanent member of our squad now.  When the sad reality came to pass that he would rather race with his "real" race team in Daytona and miss a Lemons event, we ended up with Dan (Gila Monster) Gielas by placing an ad on this forum.  Turns out Dan is a pretty fast driver and does so by ruling the car with an iron fist, spitting gears and brake pads with every lap.  He also likes getting greasy and was willing to do whatever it took to help keep the Gnome on the track so how mad can we get about his equipment pulping nature?  We also sold a seat to the Krazy Kop named Craig.  He was great too.  Sadly he decided to field his own car now and he is no longer available to drive for us.

Long story longer, I think a great part of having a team is the characters you end up with the fill the empty seats when they come up after all, there's always some person around with more money than brains.

We had 2 arrive and drives. One was the worst driver EVER (if you see video of the Bee wobbling all over by itself and going two wheels off for no apparent reason, that's him). Never paid in full, was late on everything, never returned calls or emails. He spun and went off so many times he wasn't sure which penalty he was being called in for for. Several visits resulted in the dude getting yanked out of the car like 20 minutes after hitting the track. We spent the entire half an hour running back and forth in the pits. Thank god the car wrecked by the next ding-dong before someone got hurt.

The other arrive & drive Doug from Texas was one of our best. Check came early, great guy, went out of his way to help, stayed clean, kept us fed and in good spirits. Too bad the motor barfed early. He deserved more seat time. But he never complained once. I need 2 more like him.

It's a crap-shoot, but hey, at least they always give you good stories to tell.

I'd always been skeptical of adding an arrive-and-drive teammate, but necessity was the death of skepticism when 2 of my 4 drivers dropped out at the last minute (one with an emergency sewer repair at home, the other with a nasty case of poison ivy/oak). We couldn't have asked for a better teammate than Erik of the Rusty Nuts squad. He pitched in, helped work on the car (and being super skinny was the best one to fit under it when we did our ghetto-pit alignment job and needed to adjust the tie rods), drove clean, stayed to help us pack up the trailer, and was overall just a great guy and teammate to have around. I'd take arrive-and-drives like him again anyday!

Thanks for the praise, DJ. I did deserve that first BF. I was over driving the car and spun a front wheel drive. How do you think I had a faster lap time than anyone else on the team, with 0 track experience.
The second BF was your fault. I got stoned from the gas fumes from the leak you fixed, and went 4 off.
Judge Scott gave me some great advice after my fist flag, but I didn't really understand it until after sunday. He said "your not the fastest car out there, so you have no excuse to drive like a douchbag. Slow down!"

From the POV of an arrive and driver, your team was great. You had no expressed expectations of me (other than $ and need for good humor). You included me in decisions even though it wasn't my team; you let me in on making bad ideas to threaten everybody's lives with a questionable fix or two.

If I get my car ready for September, I may even steal a few of your team members, and we'll give the Mustata a run for it's money.

Some advice to everyone considering an arrive and drive: be up front about your car's expectations. Tell your driver A: we are in pursuit of the nickels, or B: we are just here for the saturday party.
Adjust their driving style to meet your goals. If their driving sucks too much for A, shorten their stints, or pull them when they get flagged. If they are not fun enough for B, leave them in the car all weekend, or make them do the 100x writing of jig-saw puzzle all by themselves.

Dont get all ahead of yourself, I never got to get in the car on sunday, My fast times came with the brake and clutch pedals were laying on the floorboards...

Fees, consumables (For Summit Point, since we're erring towards the side of being an unmaintainable pig, a million gallons of gas, a whole set of drive tires and maybe half a set of pads), a few bucks for some food and a refundable "Don't crash into the wall" deposit. Asking A&D's to cover the build seems to have the nasty effect of making them think they're fractional owners or something.