Can Anyone Become a Racer?

The thrill of driving at high speeds on the track is a lure that racing organizations use to reel us in, but the stark reality of racing is a high cost for the action. There are some ways for you to race that won’t cost you nearly as much as what you would spend if you are able to join competitive racing and you can become a weekend warrior in a lot of ways and love the thrill of the race around a track without killing your back account, but you might need a reality check to make this happen.

First of all you need to understand you won’t go from your local track to NASCAR or Formula One overnight and probably not at all. Even with that said though you can have a lot of fun racing and enjoy the challenges that come along with some great friendships that you will only develop by being on the track. As you would expect, racers are kindred spirits and some of the most friendly and willing to share people in the world for those who want to enter and enjoy the fun that is automotive racing.

The place to start is autocross. This is a type of racing that will let you use just about any car and you can find a late model car that will make it through an SCCA Solo season for under $1,000 making it a small investment of your money for you to get behind the wheel and have a great time. You probably won’t damage your car and you won’t race at speeds that will impress anyone, but you can have a lot of fun and learn more about driving dynamics and the differences of small changes that can make a huge impact on your performance.

Other thins you will learn with autocross is the proper maintenance that needs to take place before racing and understanding the need to constantly check the pressure in your tires. You can have a lot of fun and even wonder why you’re getting nervous before your races, but that’s the adrenaline that autocross can bring to you, even though it’s a lower level type of racing.

If you do want to be able to reach up above the 100 mph mark and cut around some curves you have to take a car to an actual racetrack. This is much more expensive than autocross and will most likely require a bit better car, which you can find. For about $200 you can have several 20-minute lap sessions in a group which can be a lot of fun as you turn around the track and have a great time.

The challenge when taking a car to the track is knowing what you can afford to lose, meaning the car. Do you want to take the Corvette that’s your pride and joy out there when you haven’t run it before or would you rather invest in a car you can beat on a bit. An old GTI or M3 makes a great choice and both these cars use less brakes and tires than the Corvette, making them much more economical to race. Not only that, if you happen to run the car into the wall you won’t be out as much money as if you took your new ZL1 and hit the wall hard.

The competition at track days isn’t against the other drivers in your group, it’s against yourself. If you spend a lot of time going to the same track you can work to improve your own speeds and times on the track as you learn how to drive better. This is actually where you can spend two to three years before you drive on your own, but you’ll make friends and have a lot of fun along the way.

If you do want to go to the next level the cost increases exponentially to be much higher than you would ever expect. This is the level where you would go to competition school and hit the real racing which is as close to what you see on television. There’s lots of ways to enjoy racing without having to sell off the kids or mortgage the house just for a weekend of fun, you just need to learn what’s available in your area and go from there.