I know this sounds dumb but exactly how does one get started? How would a 19 year old with little experience eventually wind up as a professional racer? What kind of licenses will one need and where are some good organizations that can guide me?

 

i would start in barber dodge.....

 

Me too. Deep pockets are a necessity too. Or corporate friends, with deep-pockets...

 

Ive noticed that the fastest way, if you have money is to enter a Racing School.

I dont remember the links but Bridgestone has a school in Toronto or somewhere, also there were a couple of other schools that gears you towards professional driving (most of them were an year course).

They also have racing mechanic classes (also 1 year), which was what i was looking into.

 

where abouts?

 

http://www.goodman-motorsports.com/c...g_program.html

thats one of them
ill get more links once i get back to school tomorrow.

 

http://www.nasaproracing.com
http://www.nasaracing.net
http://www.carguysinc.com
Everybody has to start learning somewhere, and these are the best and most affordable ways. Start attending these schools, be very open-minded to criticism by instructors, and you will learn a lot. I promise.

 

Well, there are many different levels of pro racing. It starts from Pro karting and goes to F1.
This is only one way of many...

A year ago I met a Speed World Challenge driver and I asked "how do you get an SCCA Pro licsnse?" Basically he mentioned that SCCA Pro wants to see that you have competed at a high level of competition and performed well. For example they would like to see that you have run in the SCCA national road racing run offs. To get there you need to get a regional license then a national license. You also need to run in the national tour events to qual for the run offs.
You can try:
The SCCA GT1 class is basically the Trans-AM spec car, run SCCA GT1 nationally and work your way up the ranks towards SCCA-TransAM.

Try racing in SCCA Showroom stock, then work your way towards Nationals and then the Speed World Challenge.

 

Sounds great! But if you dont have money like referenced above, is all this possible?

 

If you dont have money, you have to be marketing savvy and know how to get money from ppl.

 

Nope. The quickest way to make a small fortune road racing or rallying in the U.S., is to start with a large fortune. If you don't have wealthy relatives that you can tap, the only hope is to make friends with wealthy people who aren't your relatives. I'm not in the business outing anyone in a public forum but it is not unheard of to further one's racing career by beoming really good friends with a wealthy person. The common quality here is wealth.

Kirk

 

Kirk is right on.

Without money you have nothing. Ok not nothing, just no racing for you. You can be born Schumacher’s twin, if you have no money to start racing, you will go no where. To get to a position to start racing "pro", you need to have invested in yourself prior to that. That’s where the money comes in. The difference between the highly talented and the no talented is how long it takes for you to get to your potential and how high your potential is. The longer it takes for you to develop, the more money you’ll need. You can have a potential twice as high as Schumy, but if you don't have money to start out racing, you won't get anywhere period. But if you are born with great potential in a house where you'll find a go kart track in the backyard, you can start driving just after you start walking. Only if you meet *both* of these conditions, then maybe you can be the next 5 time world champ. If you're missing either one, you won't.

Money is the key word. There never was a way around it and there's no way around it now. Mr.Money is Mr.Racing's best friend. The better in touch you are with Mr.Money, the better Mr.Money can hook you up with his best friend. Now how you get to know Mr.Money is all up to you. Kirk pointed out a great way! lol

 

hmmm I have a billionaire Uncle. Now if I only had driving skill. lol

 

Hey look on the bright side. You could be racing in F1! Money allows you to race anywhere you want, *however* doing well once there is all up to you. Alex Yoong could tell you all about that.

 

Good reading: Carroll Smith's "Drive to Win". There are a few chapter on preparing yourself (mentally, physically, economically) for pro racing.

I can sum it pretty quickly - it's damn near impossible. The best most of us can hope for is MAYBE getting a seat in a decent World Challenge, SCCA Pro Rally, Grand Am, etc type car, where we split costs with owners or sponsors and don't **** out families off too much. The easiest way to pro racng in the USA is roundy-round stuff - though even those guys tend to start young at the kart tracks.

 

I personally set my goals to be in the Honda Challenge as "PRO"

When I attain this goal... I could care less about some high falootin' F1 or CART

ECHC ownz your "PROFESSIONAL"

Pete

 

Attend some HPDEs...then go rob a bank. What you learned at HPDE might help out during your getaway.

Money equals Speed...how fast can you afford to go?

 

MONEY!! From what I've heard, the driver of a race team in financially responsible for the car whenever it is in his/her possession. If a you crash the car, you can race again as long as you pay for the complete rebuild.

 

This is only true of rented rides, which are common in semi-pro racing like Grand Am and WC. Many times the driver will pay out of pocket for the seat, or find his own sponsorship.

I doubt true professionals have any such obligation to pay for damage.

 

OK, that does make more sense. When it was explained to me I think they were referring to some drivers in the WC series.

 

I went through the mechanic's programme at the Bridgestone school about 9 years ago and it was an excellent experience. At the time you were paid in track credits that could be used towards lapping and the mechanic's F2000 racing series rather than $$ but they did put us up in a crappy apartment at no charge.

We worked like dogs, alternating shifts between 7am-6pm or 5pm-2 am, working on average 6 days a week but there were stretches of 10 days sometimes.

Anyway, you still needed money for day to day expenses like gas, food, clothing but I looked at it as an investment in myself. Like the saying goes, anything worth having doesn't come easy.

The other thing to keep in mind is that being a professional racer involves more marketing yourself than actual driving. I'm guessing that around 85-90% of your time would actually be spent cozying up to sponsors, doing PR events, etc. Afterall, racing is a business first and a sport second.


[Modified by rainman, 7:45 AM 10/9/2002]

 

Wow! so it seems like the mech program is quite "interesting"
Though it seems hard, it might be something to consider (myself too).
Eh, ill have to graduate my General Mechanics course im going to now first.

 

shut up man!! how did you find out about my plan?? shhhhhhh!

 

i started racing when i was 18 yrs(i am now 20) old at Skip Barber 3 day racing school(July 2000)... i then graduated and began the Skip Barber Formula Dodge Western Championship...after that i was invited to the Formula Dodge National Championship. i then started my second year in racing with the Skip Barber Formual Dodge Western Series and became the Champion and most imporved driver. I now race in my second year of the Formula Dodge National Championship and currently 6 in points due to some badluck...

i will be participating in the Barber Dodge Big Scholorship Run Off later this year as well as some testing in the Barber Dodge Pro Car...i get my official CART PRO License at the end of the year. and will be racing CART Barber Dodge Pro Series next year...

So to make a long story short to become a pro racer i say go through the Skip Barber/CART Ladder System.

for sponsorship opportunities please email me at robbiemontinola@aol.com
www.skipbarber.com
www.formuladodge.com
www.cart.com

 

Hey Robbie,

Good stuff, but unfortunately the route you've taken is still very costly. It is a great route to take if you have the talent to progress into the upper ranks of motorsport, but unfortunately most of us (although we'd like to believe otherwise)will never have that inate talent that you may possess.