getting into racing

[YaLeBoY]

i was just wondering. right now i'm 17 years old and i desperately want to become a race car driver, for either IRL, CART or F1. And i hear about all these people starting out at such a young age. I was just wondering, first, if i have a chance and second, how do i get started at such a late age? any help will be appreciated. thank you.

[DanFlag]

A lot of people started with Karting

Read more about it here:
http://www.nationalkarting.com/

[bella]

i'm actually with you there mr.boy, being someone not involved in the mummy and daddy want you to do this scene.

the way i'm looking at is getting a racing licence through a course silverstone do (ouch - v. expensive), and then grovelling like hell to some friends who happen to be a) famous, b) run a nice little team of good cars and c)my dad's car industry business for a bit of sponsorship.

first you need to find out if you have any talent, and i guess that's a driving course at a racetrack. a lot of the trainers are racing drivers (present or ex) so they know when someone's pretty good.

i guess if you've got a feel for the old car, and really want to do well, you can do it. just go out, do a hell of a lot of normal drving practice (you need to learn what a car feels like and how it reacts to doing certain things - mind you, i drive a lot and i've had my licence for about a year and a half, and i'm nowhere near aware of my cars every move), and get arting. get a job, whatever to pay for track time. it's all about experience. forget jenson button and kimi raikonnen - they've been karting from an early age.

btw, andrea montermini didn't start karting till he was 21, and 11 or so years later he was in f1. there's hope for us late starters yet.

[Racer X]

The Skip Barber Racing School has a ladder series that is run by the school, and now is supported by CART. I think you start in go-carts, then progress to the barber dodge series, and then I think to either the dayton indy lights or toyota atlantic championship. http://www.skipbarber.com

[AndyM]

Hi,

I did the course at Silverstone last summer. Yes, its expensive but WELL worth it. The stuff they teach you is invaluable. The opportunity to do a couple of FFord races at the end of the course is good too, real racing experience!

The instructors are fantastic too, all serious racers, and all incredibly helpful and approachable.

Right now I am not racing (funds - I'm a student you see, all my money goes on beer...) but I hope to do some more races with Silverstone Race school in the summer. One of the guys from my course is racing this weekend in the BRDC FFord championship run by Silverstone, supporting F3, GT's and Slick 50 National FFords at Snetterton, so you can progress up the ladder to racing in front of 20,000 people pretty quickly.

I have a report of what I did on the course on my webpage here if any of you guys are interested:

http://www.f1mech.co.uk/racing/racing.html

Hope this helps you

Andy

[Liz]

Like everything else in life, if you want it badly enough you will find a way. (Okay, so you have to have talent too, at least if you don't have a wealthy father or a lot of your own money.) I'm having dinner tonight with a young man from Vancouver (he's 20) who has just put the finishing touches on his budget for this year and will soon be heard of in the major junior European series - and has been racing for only 3 years. He decided this is what he wanted to do and he's doing it.

The main thing is: don't wait a minute after you have decided this is where you want to spend your life. If you end up short of the Major Leagues, you will still have had a wonderful ride and at least you will not have any regrets.

Go for it and Godspeed.