ShifterKart

I agree with Doug. Karts are as much or more fun than cars, easier to work on, cheaper, faster (usually), and teach you as much.

The only downside to karts- Non racers will often snear that you race karts.
J/K

The Reverend

Since we're on the kart subject, I've been looking to get into karts for a while. Any suggestions on where I can find classified ads for competitive shifter karts at reasonable prices? Not looking to buy just yet, but want to keep an eye out.

ShifterKart

I would start at your local kart track. Go on a race day and often times they are for sale. Otherwise post your interest in the track office, people are always uloading chassis.

TrojanHorse

[QUOTE=The Reverend,Mar 29 2005, 02:39 PM] Since we're on the kart subject, I've been looking to get into karts for a while.

JP_BLACK

HAHA, if your american, this is the only way to go in america if you want a proffesional racing career. Its sad to think of it, actually its very sad, but thats the way it is. It does not matter how much talent you have in road racing, it all comes down to finances. After you take a racing school or unserstand how your supposed to race, such as hitting all your apex's and proper hel toe, sit down and watch a "pro race" on tv. Youll be surprised at how many errors these guys make, now given there are some very good racers that race in these series like the speed gt series, but the guys that run mid pack that are only there because of money dont have much talent. Theres a guy that was racing with scca (calclub) last year that had a very nice porsche cup car, and obviously wads of cash. He bought a second car and hired a driving instructor to drive in front of him on the track so he could follow his line, and they did this during the race and practice and everything, and on the last lap the instructor would let him pass and the guy would win. and all of this for a 5 dollor trophy. It may change in the future, red bull is trying to get an american in the F1 series, but if you go to europe they laugh at americans becuase they think all we do is turn left. And it gets proven when you have people like jimmy johnson go for the drivers championship and can barely keep his car in a straight line around the course

mikegarrison

And why is it sad? Oval track racing is definitely more fun for the fans in the stands than road course racing. It's not particularly easy, either. The car is always throttle-steered at the limit of tire adhesion with much less downforce and a much heavier car than something like a F1 racecar. Look at the difficultly Boris Said has had at trying to drive in the regular NASCAR oval races -- and Boris is clearly one of the best sports car racers in the US.

In pro sports, the talent always goes to where the money is. In the US, that means NASCAR.

I think that the most challenging race series is probably the World Rally Championship. Too bad it is barely covered here in the US.

I don't dislike NASCAR, but I sure wish that the endless number of fluff shows about NASCAR (as opposed to the actual races) had not replaced so much coverage of other kinds of races.

To get back onto topic, I'd say that if you want to race in the US and make money rather than spend it, you should try to go the karts->spints->stockers route.

JP_BLACK

im not saying they dont have talent. They do have the talent to race going left, but looks what hapens when they go to sears point, 1/4 of the drivers get replaced with people that can do road racing, another 1/4 can actually drive like tony stewart, and the 2/4 kinda limp around the track and give a good show for close racing. Too me it is more interesting to watch a formula one race than it is to watch nascar. you know there going left at every track, the track never realy changes for the spectator, still goes left. The only good time to watch nascar is the very end to see the close finishes and the very end they recap the crashes and highlights. Watching formula one or rally or any other racing you can analyze peoples lines, understand what the drivers are doing better, theres still close racing in the speed gt series and formula mazda, just not f1(although recently it has been getting prety tight). anyway back to your topic. You say you want to start and see how good you are and persue a career if you are good enough, Well i can tell you you wont be happy with yourself at all. If youve never raced a car in your life on the track, not the street, then you have too much too learn. The first time i steped onto the track i was making errors left and right and was totaly terrified, now mind you i was only 6 when i did this in a go-kart, but i told myself how good i was gonna do and how slow everyone else looked and how easy it all looked, no being 6 i was very superstitous and thought i could do anything, but realized that day i couldnt. lol. What im getting at is theres no way your going t do god enough t satisfy yourself into thinking you can make a career out of racing. Its like every sport that practice practice and practice makes you perfect. If your looking for an easy way to make money doing something fun... this isnt the right path to take. When you start racing you shouldnt even consider making a carrer out of it. It NEEDS to be a hobby and something you do for fun. If you go out and have a great time it will be alot better experience then if you were to go out having a carrer set in mind. If you decide to do the skip barber stuff go to there school and they will teach you more than you need to know your first time out on the track. Even if your not going to persue a carrer, its still very good general knowledge they teach you even for everyday street driving. The one problem i see in going out and paying to run in there series is it will take you a while to get a feel for the car your driving, and have it the way you want it set-up wise. If you go out and they set you up in a nice car with a great set-up that suits yur driving style then youll have a blast. If they give you a poorly set up car and runs like crap, your going to come out of this feeling down. The best thing to do before any of this would be to sign up with scca or nasa, and either do scca's auto-X events, or nasa's hpde run group. If you run HPDE you get to get on a real track and get alot of run time and see how you like racing. Auto-x is much different, your driving around a marked course and dont get the same feeling as the track. either of these events would at least get you somewhat into racing and let you get a feel of things before spending tons of cash to go to a racing school and renting somebody's car. ok i done blabering

mikegarrison

In person at a road race, you are usually restricted to only watching one or two corners. And while it may be a right turn instead of a left, one corner is just one corner. What you are talking about is TV coverage.

I have watched road races in person. I have watched oval races in person. I have watched rally races in person. And in person, the oval track was the most fun, because I could watch the entire race.

Anyway, whether you like it or you hate it, the fact remains that stock cars are pretty much the only game in town for North Americans who want to actually get paid to drive. If your goal is to drive professionally (ie. to actually pay the rent using your racing skills), you have to keep that in mind and work towards it right from the start.

I know some folks planning to drive in the 24 hr of Daytona next year, and it is staggering the amount of money a driver is expected to bring to the table in order to get even a 1/4 seat in a ride like that. Almost all professional racing is like that --people pay to drive, not the other way around.

kster

Paying to race at the pro level is very true. There was a documentary on Discovery Health a few weeks ago about a driver trying to make it into NASCAR. He was currently in college and racing in some sort of sprint series (his parents had already spend $200K to get him this far). He wanted to get into NASCAR and so the team owner told him that unless you can pay, you can't get a seat on his team. They were showing him meeting with different corporations trying to get sponsorship. He was trying to raise somewhere around a half million to one million dollars (I don't remember exactly) but when the show ended, he still hadn't raised a single dollar.

JP_BLACK

ive seen racing both on tv and off tv. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but watching cars go in a circle is not very entertaing. Watching 2 jgtc cars tryin to out brake eachother going into a corner is much more exciting.