I searched for some info on this topic.. Currently I'm 21 years old, am financially independent (read - I can afford to try my hand at racing, to a certain extent), but I don't have any racing experience yet.

I'm interested in knowing how people go about professionally racing in something like formula one, and was wondering if anyone had any advice on the topic. I was thinking about doing something like the skip barber racing schools in the formula Dodge cars, and if im good enough, spend more money to race in the series.

Does someone need a sponsorship to race in the series? I believe the cost is somewhere like 50k or so, and if I could possibly get someone to at least partially sponsor me, how would I go about doing this?

If anyone has any advice on what I should do (ie forget the idea altogether and concentrate on my day job, or go ahead and do it and let me know how to do it), it'd be greatly appreciated.. thanks..

- Mike

 

The bad news: You're about 14 years too old to get started.

The good news: Anyone with money can race.

Sponsorship is a funny thing. It's arguably not a very effective form of marketing for most of the businesses that do it. But it still happens. Mostly, it's done between friends in the early stages. If you have friends who want to get involved and have the resources, they can take advantage of the the modest tax breaks for sponsoring you. Bigger (more legitimate) sponsors don't have much reason to take a risk on a team without a long history of victories or drivers who aren't already proven. They'll spend their money on the most visible series and the most visible teams.

 

Juan Manual Fangio was 35 years of age when he started his first Grand Prix. Danny Sullivan was driving a cab for a living and was 19 or 20 years old when his parents sent him to driving school and he went on to become a great driving champion. Mario Andretti was 14 years old when he, and his brother Aldo started racing. There is a picture of A J Foyt sitting in a Midget car when he was only 2 years old. Scott Pruett was 7 years old when he began racing go carts (the legal age was 9, so his parents lied )

So you see, racing drivers start racing careers of various ages, but in these modern times, with racing as complex as it has become, with all the tough competition, it is best to start as early as possible but that doesn't mean it is impossible if you don't start at 7 years of age.



Not everyone has the talent of a Foyt or an Unser or an Andretti and not everyone has the financial resources to pursue a career in professional motor sports, but you never know If anything, a person can just have fun whether it be Formula Mazda, or simply an HPDE. Hey, you can always dream can't you Nobody can take your dreams away. Dreams live forever

 

Forget Formula 1 dude. Don't mean to sound negative, but an American entering F1 is one out of a billion. Not very good odds are they Just being realistic.

What series are you referring to

[QUOTE=dragon2218,Mar 25 2005, 08:45 PM]Does someone need a sponsorship to race in the series?

 

How do you make a million dollars racing cars?
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Start with five million dollars.

Yes, it's an old joke, but pretty much true. If you want to race, it costs some serious money. One of the most affordable classes of racing these days is Spec Miata. You'll need to invest about $30k in a car & equipment to be competitive, and it costs about $5-10k a year to run, assuming that you don't crash or blow an engine. Other racing series can run well into 6 figures per year to have a well-supported, competitive car.

Regarding Formula 1, I'd strongly recommend that you "walk before you run". Get involved in some local racing activities, take a performance driving school, or two, or three, and see if you really like it and if you have an aptitude for it. With your own personal experience in motorsports, you'll be better able to map out and execute a career path. If you have the means, go for it. Speed can be quite addicting, and if you are dedicated, pretty much anyone can become good.

 

There are "arrive and drive" programs available for many different types of racing that you may want to look into. (I assume by posting here that you are interested in road racing.) You might start by getting associated with the SCCA and getting registered/licensed for competition as a good way to start things off. I am certain that there are some more knowledgeable people here who could chime in on the subject.

Here is a link for a place that does Spec-Miata Rental for races.
http://www.motorsports-exchange.com/

-Justin

 

I think he's talking about the Formula Dodge series that SB does:

http://www.formuladodge.com/

It's basically a pay, show up, and drive series. They give you a car and crew. Probably not a bad way to start, along with a bunch of Barber lessons. If you have the money it's as good a way to start as any. And no car to maintain.

Edit: Reading the site a bit it looks like about $5K/race, including pratice days, qualifying, and two points races. No sponsorship required, Barber is the sponser. Looks like you just need to do the 3 day race school and 2 day adv school to be able to race.

 

Thats exactly what I'm talking about.. sorry if I didn't make myself clear.. I do understand that these things take a while, and what I was thinking about doing was going to two or three schools and seeing if I had the aptitude or talent for it.. if I do, then I guess I'll continue.. but if I don't.. then I can just make it into a hobby I suppose..

I don't expect to get into F1 right away, even for a couple of years, but I wasn't quite sure where the drivers come from, or how to get spotted by teams like Toyota, BMW, and the like.. ie feeder programs, being spotted at certain events, and how to be able to get into those events if there are. Does anyone know anything about that??

Thanks all for your responses, your input is greatly appreciated..

 

The story of a guy that starts racing at 20 and eventually makes it into F1 is a novelty story because it generally just doesn't happen.

If you're 21 and you've never been on a racetrack before, I have some bad news for you. You will never win a formula 1 race and without a phenomenal learning curve over the next 10 years AND a gigantic financial backer who just loves you for whatever reason and wants buy you a losing seat, you will never race in a formula 1 race.

Despite the weird tales of people coming out of nowhere, typically, F1 drivers are groomed from a very young age, starting with karts and eventually competing in feeder open-wheel series. Only the rare prodigies who completely dominate everything at every step of the way ever get a chance to test with a Formula 1 team.

Ok, so F1 is off the table - sorry. Next question is whether you stand a chance to ever be a pro racer. Yes, just about anyone can race at a professional level, as long as the have lots of money. Just take a look at the video of the asshat driving the Corvette in the Sebring video Rylan posted on this forum last week. There are two distinct classes of pro racers: those who are ridiculously wealthy and buy a seat from a race team that already has a car and just needs a driver with cash (normal situation); and those who are actually paid to drive (rare). Of the ones who are paid to drive, few make enough for that to be their only occupation since it's not a steady job at all.

If open wheel cars are what attract you, you probably won't have much fun in Spec Miata. Spec Miata is a great place to learn how to drive a sports car because the cars have so little power that any mistake in a turn slows you down and you get passed because you don't have enough power to make up for it on corner exit. But driving a car with doors and driving an open wheel car are very different games. Sports cars (even cars as light as the Miata) have tremendous amounds of weight transfer. Open wheel cars are more like larger wheelbase, higher hp go karts.

I would say the best place to get a similar education to what you get in Spec Miata but for open wheel would actually be to race a push-button start kart series. A single-speed kart like a Rotax (there are more) offers a similar challenge to a spec miata in that you have to take a perfect line because you don't have the power to make up for sloppiness or error. Of course, karting is a very different sport from cars, so eventually you'll want to work you way over to something like a Formula Ford or Formula Mazda. You can get used Van Diemen cars for about $20k. These are very fast open wheel cars. From there, you can progress toward Pro Formula Mazda, Formula Atlantic, etc.

Since it sounds like you've never been in a racecar, I advise you to first go to an HPDE event and do a few laps in a fast car with an instructor. Tell him/her to drive at full speed. You will be very scared. No matter how fast you think people go in race cars, inside the car is a far more violent and frightening experience than you think. And that's just with a sports car. An open wheel car (even an entry level open wheeler) is ballpark far beyond that.

 

Too add to what The Reverend said http://jhrkartracing.com/ is something I would like to attend some day. Also quite cheap for a driving school. Expensive part for me and you is airfare.