Let me start out by saying I make my living in auto racing, always have and always will, not as a driver, but as a car designer/engineer, for Gurneys, NPTE, Swift, Rahals, Williams F1, Panoz, Lola, Audi, Ford, Porsche, etc. And here is my viewpoint: 1.) Cost of racing is way higher than anyone imagines. A two car GT2 program in ALMS is 3.5 to 4 million up, to do it right. A two car LMP2 program is about the same, maybe a little more. A two car LMP1 program can be as high as 40 million a year, but 10-12 million will allow you to play near the front. A two car Daytona Proto team is 3.4-4 million a year. A one car Formula Atlantic season will set you back $750 k to 1 million. A speed vision program is 400k on up. No problem. My little Formula Ford 2000 that I race as an amateur has a budget like so: 1.) Car, trailer and RV to haul it around. $50K 2.) Engine rebuilds: $2500 per, twice a season 3.) Tires: $1000 a weekend or so. 4.) Spares package for the year, assuming no major offs, but spares enough for a corner prang, 2 sets front wings and nose boxes, 2 sets rear wings, rads, etc. $10k 5.) 4 spare sets of wheels $5k 6.) Set up pad $2k 7.) Tools and tool box for track $1 k 8.) Operating costs (Travel fuel, food, lodging, etc.) $1k/weekend. 9.) Suit, helmet, etc. $2k So, to go and play around for about 4 hours a weekend on the track, I have an investment up front of $ 70k or so and a running budget of $2000 a weekend. (Maybe $1000 for the closer, lesser races.) And this is with no intention of going anywhere professionally. So if you want to become a race car driver, what do you do? 1.) Devote all your time and money to practicing your craft. 2.) Find a job that allows you free time off as needed, pays you way over market rates and will contribute to your effort. 3.) Find a job in motorsports as an instructor somewhere, just for the seat time. 4.) Drive any car, anywhere, anytime, no matter how bad it seems. 5.) Find a patron who believes in you and is willing to invest 1-2 million in you. Or maybe less, but find somebody! 6.) Be at every racetrack you can, every weekend of the year with helmet and suit. Show your face, make you a known quantity to the teams. 7.) Pound the business circuit for contacts and relations. Join the local business councils/etc. 8.) Learn to play golf. 50% of all motorsports deals are done on the fariway. 9.) Marry someone rich. 10.) Use your non-racing contacts to create b to b opportunities for your race partners. 11.) Get as much publicity as you can, from where-ever. 12.) Give up girlfriends, buddies, holidays, family and whatever else that is in your life that will keep you from being focused on your goal. 13.) Embrace, use and abuse, in any way you can, any of those people who are inclined to help you. Throw them away as soon as they become a drag on you. 14.) Never worry about someone elses feelings before during or after the race. 15.) Cheat, cheat often, cheat hard and cheat smart. Your competition is doing it. 16.) Be ******-don't worry about other peoples feelings-they only get in the way. 17.) Be as aggresive off the track as on the track. 18.) Screw over your team mate every chance you get. He is doing it to you. 19.) Never share the success with anyone. If you win, it is because you are the best, if you lose, it is because you have a crap team, car, engineer, whatever. 20.) Get in a small fight with someone not relevant to the race just before getting in the car. You will go faster. 21.) Always thank your sponsors, no matter what. 22.) Go to whatever sponsor event there is, no matter what, smile, say all the right things and never get drunk. 23.) Never go out partying, drinking, boozing, whoring etc, anywhere near a race weekend or near a sponsor event, ever. 24.) Loose all concerns about injury or death. Your attitude is race to win or perish trying. 25.) Never help a team mate or competitor, ever. And finally, don't assume that any of this will actually get you where you want. The truth is that as a guy looking for drivers to hire, I look at who is winning and not much else. Welcome to racing-let the games begin!
As they say, "Here is the way to make a million dollars in racing. Step 1: Start with 2 million dollars...
With the exception of No. 18 and No. 25 I think you have hit the nail so hard on the head it has disappeared through the floorboards! That's what it takes to get onto the grid, no question. Well put.
Good advice Impdesigner, except no. 15 - 20, which I think are rediculous. Taking all the credit and blaming the team for every failure will not win you any favours...
Excellent and insightful post, lmpdesigner. You quote 400K+ for a Speed Vision program. I assume this is for the total cost, including (somewhat) non-recurring costs like cars, tools, rig, pit equipment, spares, etc. Assuming that is all in place, what is the running cost per car for the season? What would be the amount of money a driver would have to bring to get a seat in each of those teams for one season? I know of one team in the touring class that has a seat available for 2007 for around $150K.
No problem Tom. This thread exploded much more than I expected it to. Thanks to everyone who has contributed!
As much as people seem to think I am being cynical about how and what is necessary to be successful, I am not. It is not that you must do everything on my list or that all drivers behave 100% as my list shows but as some point in every driver's career he or she has done what I listed. This is not a friendly sport----not at the professional level at least, and the drivers that make it to the top are not always the easiest of people to deal with-at times--that doesn't make them evil or bad, and some (many drivers) I have worked with have been very pleasant and fun to be with. Some, like Jan Magnussen are super friendly, easy going and pleasure to work with (besides being super fast!) but Jan still knows what he wants and makes sure he gets it in the car. I have had other situations where I have had drivers come to me after a test or race and have tried to influence me to modify the car or team set up to improve their chances, vis a vis their team mate. In the end their "job security" is a function of their success against all the other drivers-including their team-mates. I have been at tests, where I could not care at all about laptimes, (I am doing A/B comparo's) where I will have had one driver set a fast time for the day and then had the other two drivers come to me and pummel me with demands that they be allowed back in the car "now!", with sticky new tires to show that they can go just as fast as that "other driver". I have literally been at the track at 10:00 PM with a "slower" driver looking at track data and he is putting together his fastest theoretical lap by grabbing the fastest segments from all his laps to create a "best lap", just to prove he is quicker. I have had drivers demand that I only engineer them, not anyone else, I have also had drivers demand that I not engineer them at all, that I am not the guy for them. Drivers do what is necessary to improve their chances to win and to improve their career. I see nothing wrong with that and actually agree a lot with the behavior necessary to be a winner. I am not in this business to lose-I hate it, I love beating the other guy/team and will do all that I can to see that I (we) win-and sometimes that means being nasty, hard and a bit of ******. I didn't make the rules but I play by them-as hard and strong as I can. It's not that you need to be an a**hole all the time-that will get you nowwhere fast-but it is knowing when it is in your best interests to be that guy and then being able to deal with and live with those actions. Motor racing is not a game, it is not a sport, it is a serious, high stakes business where continued failure is not tolerated. You do what it takes to beat the other guy, because he is doing what it takes to beat you. And this is really no different to any other business, either.
Senna3xWC, For a proper world challenge program I would look at a per weekend rental cost of about: For Touring about 10-15K per weekend For Challenge about 20K per weekend.
Yea, I have reread my post and maybe I went a little overboard with some of the points (Heh, I was on a roll!) but put it in perspective--I was trying to impart the concept that this is not a game and that, like in any endeavor where you want to be the very best in a very special field (Sports, acting, CEO's) that those people who make it to the very top have had to make some very tough and not always very nice decisions in their career. To get to the top requires a degree of selfishness that most people would find objectionable.
PS next year I am looking to do some Grandam races in either a 360 or 430 Challenge. Any suggestions?[/QUOTE] I believe Grand AM will not accept 430 Challenge cars as carbon ceramic brakes and center lock wheels are not legal. 360's are definately not competitive against the 996's or 997 Porsches. NGT or 360 GT's used to be competitive but are no longer legal. Grand Am has been approached by several teams wanting to run 430's but they have made it so difficult to compete and be competitive with the Porsches and tube frame cars like the Pontiac (Manufacturer Politics) everyone has given up. If you want to race Grand Am Gt buy a Porsche.
lol..yup. What he said. 1 season of pro racing in Star Mazda was enough for me to see everyone of those 25 tips. Ferrari Challenge afterwards was a 2 year party
In my opinion and based on experience, Brian's post is pretty accurate. Doing some amateur racing in mid-90's, working in a few professional race teams (CART, IRL) as an engineer in late 90's and working on the motorsports business side afterwards (F1, Nascar, IRL, ALMS, WSB, etc.), I can confidently say that being a consistently successful driver doesn't include being a nice guy. In fact, the word "selfish" comes to mind.
In 2001 Jeremy Clarkson did a program called "Speed", one episode of which looked at the psychological makeup of race drivers, comparing them with fighter pilots, etc. Schumi was a guest. Was quite interesting. Anyone see it?
Brian, truer words have never been spoken about racing drivers. All of my friends and acquaintances at the top of the game exemplify most of those traits and behaviours, with a couple of drivers as minor exceptions.
I am 20 years old. Started racing quarter midgets at 10. At 16, this was my first year in Dwarf Cars (5/8 size w/1000 cc. motorclycle engines). I won the Championship and Rookie of the year award. Funds precluded me from racing much the next couple of years. In 2006 I picked up a sponsor which got me through the season. I won the Arizona ModLite Championship for 2006. I plan to run again this year in Arizona and make a run for another championship. I just picked up a major sponsor (SOCKO Energy Drink) because of my 2006 championship. They are going to put me on their website, etc. So my question is, "What is the BEST next step for me from here"? I know it will be where money can take me, but I need to supply the cost and method for going to the next level. Do you rent a race operation, or is there another method besides your father being Mario Andretti? Thanks, Nicky
I don't know what all the minor catagories are in the US, but in Europe you would do something like British Formula Ford / Formula BMW, then either go to an intermediate catagory like Formula Renault, or go straight to Formula 3, depending on money / talent. At the same time you can also be racing sports cars, touring cars or GT cars for added experience. If you're successful in European F3 the sky is the limit. From there you could go to GP2, CCWS, IRL, A1GP, F1. Renting a race seat is really the only way to go once you get more serious. Alot of the work is left to other people and you can just focus on the driving.
Agree with the Admiral here. Most folks who've even begun to "break through" and arrive on people's radar have "climbed the ladder," often with mistakes and pauses along the way. You will ultimately be "renting" when you drive for top teams with the sponsorship money you bring along to pay them and pay yourself, so get started early. Three examples I know of are Tom Long, who drove his own SSC car for several year until winning the Southeast Division, drove his own Pro Spec Miata until he won the Championship, rented some Grand Am ST rides and now has a full-boat GS ride with a top team cemented through meeting the team principal though Tom's relationship with the BMW Performance Driving School, where he works as an instructor. The next is Keith Goring, who started and won in karts for YEARS until he rented a few rides in the Skip Barber series, then attacted enough sponsorship to pay for a year and won the Championship (and the $100,000 bonus) last year. Now he's going to run Pro Star Mazda with one of the best teams in the business, Andersen Racing. Hopefully, his next stop is Atlantic. Andersen runs teams in Star Mazda, Atlantic, Indy Pro Series and is partnering with Rahal-Letterman in Champ Car. The last is J.R. Hildebrand, the Pro FF2000 Champion, who just signed for Newman-Wachs Racing to run in the Pro Atlantic series. There was a lot of dancing going on before that deal went down, principally because by the time drivers reach that level, they want to be sure of the teams commitment as much and maybe more than the team is of the driver's motivation. NWR changed their long-time engineer and ramped up their operation significantly to land J.R. over other teams, just because they believe in him so strongly. It takes two (or maybe three, if you count the driver's race engineer) to win and progress and NO driver, no matter how talented, can do both without an experienced and more than competent team behind him. It's like a funnel. Wide at the top, narrow on the bottom. Money, commitment and good fortune determines who makes it.
