I no longer race for Gold positions (25th place or better) as the only benefit of winning top positions is to gain trophy points quickly, a bit of extra cash (and more useless VP). If you no longer need trophy points to buy BP in the TS, then you're simply wasting gold (and time) to come in 25th or better. Spending 1200 gold to get 900 back is bad economics unless you need the trophy points that badly or if you feel it's worth the gold and time invested for the $250k prize money, or a chance at the $500k main prize (hardly an incentive in my opinion).
300 gold buys you 10 refills (60-90+ races depending on VIP level) and in half the time it takes to race 140 tournament races (connecting to server lag), you could run a heap of boss events and bag $450k plus in a days racing.
E.g. If you have 15 boss races with maxed out BP, that's 45 races you can run in the morning and 45 in the afternoon. Total of 90 races, which can be achieved with 300 gold in refills on VIP 8 or above (or thereabouts). Race well and you're guaranteed to get between $2k-$4k just for the replay... then add an Average of $5k per race in Mystery Rewards and you've got on Average of about $8k per replay.... That's $720k for 300 gold... and you would have picked up a few materials in the process!
I'm on VIP level 4 (Max 14 Fuel) and get on average $250 per day from Boss events with no more than one refill a day!
The only reason I still race in tournaments is to pick up the bit of extra cash from races ($1.5-$2k per race) which amounts to about $40k per day, and the +-1400 trophy points for leveling up and finishing under 250 (I don't buy more tickets anymore). More than enough to buy up remaining F40 BP. If EA were to include some SE BP's in the Tourney Store, I might invest a bit more time in Tournaments for trophy points, but until then, tournaments are a sideshow I don't take too seriously anymore.
