Well, to that point can you tell me what car and engine has dominated the 24 hours of Le Mans for the past decade?
And honestly I've mentioned it before the last 2 Ppumped 12valve runners I've bought we're 1000$ and 1500$ respectively. Not exactly spendy gear.
That's why I said "most" forms of motorsports. The 24 hours of LeMans and offshore boat racing aren't exactly mainstream and a very small niche form of motorsports. NASCAR, Indy, NHRA, monster trucks, off-road racing, drifting, USAC sprints and such, speed boats on the lake in the summer, etc, etc, etc... show me how many are diesel.
And okay, you only paid $1,000 for a Cummins. So you just picked up a Chevy truck and bolted the engine right in with no additional expense or work (as compared to bolting in another Chevy V-8)? Is $1,000 the going rate for a complete running 12V Cummins....or did you stumble across a good deal. Nothing wrong with that, but I also have a buddy who has bought at least a dozen complete kingpin Dana 60 fronts over the last several years and never paid over $300 for any of them. He has connections and spends a lot of time searching for these deals, but the average guy would have a hard time getting these type of deals.
Don't get me wrong as the Cummins is a good engine and it definitely has it's place. For it's use in an off-road rig a lot of it is personal preference, just like an auto vs. manual transmission.