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Originally Posted by ShifterKart,Mar 29 2005, 01:39 PM
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
Anyone who sneers at karts is a fool.
For example,at my last race at Streets of Willow the winning Rotax at 365 lbs had a best lap of 1:23.383 in a race. This is a $6500 kart with 28 HP and NO transmission, 1 gear only. Shifter karts and Super karts are even faster.
For comparison, the best lap on the same config for a S2000 per Doug's Honda Hall of Fame is 1:28.329 in a heavily modded S2000 with a S/C.
5 seconds a lap faster in the "kiddie kart" Ownage.
If you want to be a PAID racer one day you have to start in karts. And dominate damn near every race you enter. If you can't whip ass on everyone in karts you are not gonna to get an invite up the ladder.
Being born into the right family sure does help. In what sounds like a headline from Indy Car racing years ago, is actually the results of the Infiniti Pro Series run this weekend. Marco Andretti, son of Michael and grandson of Mario Andretti took the checkered flag in his first IPS race. Al Unser, son of Al Unser Jr. and Arie Luyendyk Jr. landed in the top five, in a salute to the winning bloodlines that begat them.
Dude, how come there is such a wide range of times?! Do some of those guys just suck? No offense to you Will, I to your skillz. But I think you need to find yourself some stiffer competition.
Here's a question that hasn't been asked on this board (unless I missed something), are there any books specifically on the BUSINESS of racing? As in finding funding and sponsorship, hiring drivers and crew members, estimating realistic budgets, negotiating and writing contracts and all the business that goes into it?
There's a chapter in Bob Bondaurant's book, but I'm looking for an entire book or even website on the business of racing, pref. road racing, but any racing for now.
Drive To Win has quite a bit on that, IIRC. Speed Secrets 2 has some on that. Those are basically from the point of view of an aspiring driver, not a team owner.
A lot of what you are talking about is not specific to racing. You just have to understand that you are selling yourself as a business opportunity to the sponsor. They really don't care how good you are as a racer, per se. They want to know if you will be good advertising for them. If you notice, pro drivers also spend a lot of time doing charity work and speaking appearances and the like on behalf of their sponsors.
Oh, and don't get yourself arrested or otherwise negatively in the news.
In the parking lot of the Golden Pheasant in Willows I was changing out brake pads and started talking to a guy who was packing up for the day. He had just completed a day of testing after he had to rebuild his car. A week before he said he drove from CA to Michigan to compete in some series or another and got taken out by some yahoo on the first lap....pretty much totalled his car and had to pack up and drive back to CA.....if you can shrug off $20K mistakes caused by others and not sweat driving across country only to drive back for no reason, go for it.
So my advice to you--before you drop serious coin, go to an event and talk to guys who race and find out what goes on the 7 days and 23.5 hours a week you're not racing. And if you don't know how to work on your car already you'd better take a course in wrenching.
For me, it doesn't get any better than taking a day off work, swapping out a few parts and heading off to some armpit town like Buttonwillow or Willows for a track day, a bad lunch and a sunburn.
04-16-2005, 07:49 PM
Ownage.
to your skillz. But I think you need to find yourself some stiffer competition.
