Best way to get into auto racing

Have a really rich dad who spoils you rotten and buys you a go-kart when you are 6 and drives you all over te coutry to race, or even in the case of MS and RS builds you a go kart track at home.
Good luck

 

USA based:

http://www.jimrussellusa.com/

Or best in the world at the moment is:

www.bmw-performance-bahrain.com

But you WILL need a lot of money, driving is the easy bit.

and learn about the sport Production/Touring ain't ALMS...

 

Michael, I was in your shoes at your age. I found the money. I made the sacrifices.

If you want it, you will find a way.

Look up Ron Fellows or Boris Said. Both started in the same place and clearly have long since arrived in the world of motor racing.

 

Karting is a good place to start. There's no more cost effective way to go about it.

 

Well you can do what i'm doing now...

1. take a 3 day course at skip barber - $3500

2. take additional lapping/instruction days - $3500

3. buy a kart/maintenance for kart/spending as much time in it as possible - $6000-$15,000 a year.

4. skip barber regional series - $2600 for each race, $2000 for practice days before each race, 6 races in a season. This will also be very challenging because you'll be up against guys who have been in karts since they could walk.

5. i'm not even going to mention the national series, because what i've already listed is plenty for now.

 

Sorry to be so honest, but at 20yrs old you are too old to even consider single-seater or open-wheeler racing. You should think about becoming a GT car racer, in ALMS or European Le Mans Series - and remember, Le Mans-24 is the greatest car race on Earth.......

I am a European Le Mans Series team owner so can only talk with experience about the UKand Europe.

Start with smaller less expensive cars in championships such as the Renault Clio Cup and then progress through more expensive and faster one-make series. Good "feeders" for pro GT1 and GT2 are Porsche Carrera Cup, Ferrari 430 Challenge, or GT3. At that level, aside from the car, costs are $200,000-400,000 per season. GT2 racing is $2-4million per season, and GT1 $4-8million.....

As for the car, an F430 Challenge car costs $350,000, an F430 GT2 car costs $1million, and an Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 car costs $1.5million........
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Based on my observation of lots of young aspiring racers over the past ten years, I'd advise you to read and re-read and re-read and re-read b-mak's post.

 

Hey RTB, about your comment stating that at "20 years of age he's too old to even consider open wheel racing". What about the asian F3/Formula Nippon series? There are plenty of guys there who got a "late" start, and even a few drivers in their 30's racing in F3! Not to mention there have been Formula 1 drivers in recent years who have started in their 20's. Tiago Monteiro started when he was 21! and Takuma Sato got in a kart for the first time when he was 19! and let us not forget the 1996 world Champion Damon Hill who started in Formula Ford whe he was 24! My point is, I think it has to do with how much money you can get your hands on as opposed to your age. Since this guy isn't rich, doesn't have a famous last name, and doesn't seem like he'll come into some cash soon, i'd say that's the main indicator that a career in Open wheel is far fetched.

 

Kinda like wash, rinse, repeat, huh? I think you can call my response well-practiced.

I've lived in similar shoes as this young man, then made brash and tough decisions when I was young. At this point, though, I'm still waiting for Ganassi to call with that Grand Am Rolex offer.

 

All fair points, but Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet Junior, and Nico Rosberg were all winning in GP2 when 18-19yrs old. That is the current benchmark/fashion.

I think that it is easier to have a successful and enjoyable GT car career than single-seater career when starting late, but that's only my opinion.

You can't drive at Le Mans in a single-seater.........

 

One thing people always mention is money, but money won't make you competitive if you're starting racing from scratch.

What you need is seat time. Lots of it. This is especially important when starting late because many of your competitors have been racing since the single digits or early teens, and have almost (or more than) a decade on you in terms of experience. It's not only a matter of doing fast lap times, but also developing race craft.

If you really want to make it you will have to make bigs sacrifices and be relentless, almost obsessive, in your pursuit of it.

Of course, if you really love it the last part won't seem like such a burden.

 

Money=seat time.

Someone who isn't very talented but has alot of money, will usually do better than someone who is very talented but has no money.The person with money will be able to pay for racing schools, personal instruction/coaching, karting and the maintenance/ expences that come with it. He will amass a huge advantage over a guy who has the potential to become the next Senna, but with little to no cash. Not to mention, he'll be able to buy his way into teams. The only hope that the poor man has, is to attract whatever investors and sponsors he can, and hope that his talent allows him to adjust and perform well in new machinery. This may sound a bit harsh, but from what I've experienced and seen, it's true.

 

Ralllying in america is little to non existant. Im your age and had the same aspirations one day but realized no matter how hard i workd at my age now there wouldn't be any way to go pro. albeit im still karting and plan on going to nationals this year for rmax, but at the same time you need to be realistic. I always ahted the people who told me i wouldn't be able to do it due to lack of money so i don't want to do that to you. Your biggest obstacle is going to be making connections. Go to open wheel events for scca nasa, etc. get your name out there and see if you can apply to wrench for a team. Another critical point in your career is going to be learnign how to tune a chassis and understanding the physics involved.

heres a tip of how i thought of getting into racing. Due oval tracks, be it dirt asphalt whatever and try to feed your way in through that. It may or may not help but it could be less technical for you as it sounds like you just want to show up and drive type deal.

Don't know if any of this will make sense to you but good luck!!

 

If you come from a middle class family and have alot of talent (e.g. Schumacher, Alonso), that should be enough to give you the experience so potential sponsors, racing teams and mentors can notice you.

You don't have to come from a rich family to start racing. If you are poverty stricken then obviously not. But on the flip side, if you are utterly hopeless, it doesn't matter how much money you have, you'll never win anything. The whole point of racing is to win and if you're just tooling around at the back then why bother?

 

slightly OT,

How much does it cost to run a 1 car team in the SPEED touring and GT series?

 

$500,000+. Most of it goes to being just completely ripped off/screwed and having no experience/connections. If you can get around that, you may be able to do it for less.

 

Fifty bucks.

 

How do you get crack in North Carolina?

 

Do you have a better estimate? If you do, please give it. "Fifty bucks" What?

Sure I may be wrong. I don't run a team in either of those series, or any other series for that matter. But I do have some insight into owning a race team and how much money is involved. There are people on this board that can back up that statement. I met a guy at Daytona Grand-Am test days that already has the experience and connections. He claimed $400,000.

Grand-Am GT cars can easily become dumpsters for hundreds of thousands and still not run right.

The hard part is stopping the spending once you've gotten started.

I'm not here to discredit your experiences. I'm giving a guess based on mine.

Its hard to find people you can trust in this business. The vast majority are in it for themselves have no problems screwing you to feed their own egos. Just keep an eye out for yourself and be an honest person, and the others like you will find you.

 

I would suggest get all of these books:

http://www.speed-secrets.com/racing_publications.html

It gives you secrets on how to go faster and how to better market yourself.

I consider it the racing bible.

They also do some coaching:

http://www.speed-secrets.com/race_coaching.html