Any Teams???

[YelloMP5]

The guys at Skip Barber told me that this would be a long shot but that I should try it anyways. Are there any teams looking for drivers? I am 18 so I have room to progress. My instructors also told me that some experience is better than none. Well I have had 5 hours of driving in the Formula Dodge and I feel I could take on any other Formula car. If you know of any teams that are looking for drivers let me know. I will do anything!!!

[Eric E.]

Or work 11P-7A because you couldn't afford to race working any other shift.

[Larry]

An upcoming pro driver's #1 task is to raise money--not to drive. You'll spend far more time trying to get the money than you'll spend on the track. There are plenty of fast drivers around. There aren't many that can raise enough to fund a pro ride.

Raise $250K - race F2000 pro for 1 year
Raise $2M - race FAtl pro for 1 year
(Did I mention that you don't get paid?)

Larry Oliver
International Racing Products

[Purple Frog]

If you have done Skippy School you're probably too old to pick the right parents. So that eliminates the top 10 ways to get started in racing at your age.

Somebody already invented the transdermal patch (Panoz), so you can't do that.

My favorite Polish guy already invented a shrink-wrap pallet wrapping machine (Mucha), so you can't do that.

Can you act? That worked for P.L. and Craig T.

Option 14: Marry well. (Caution: This may require multiple attempts.)

That leaves option 15: Stay in school following a scientific/engineering discipline. Be a eunich. Live like a monk. No drugs. Form no love relationships. Have no children. Run 10 miles per day. Find a nice overpass to live under. Buy no motorized street, water, nor air vehicle, but hold a CDL certificate. It also helps to be a certified Microsquash systems engineer, with deep Oracle experience, applied to data transfer from any known data acquisition system (e.g. Pi, CDS, Stack). Donate all your free time to volunteering for top notch race teams. Meanwhile, look handsome, dress well, speak the King's English... All that should get you on as a tire guy on some team by the time you are 30. Then, you will be able to rub up against a well heeled driver and get his $4K custom fitted driving suit smudged with carbon black. At that point you will be fired and go directly to Option 48.

Option 16: Invest all available funds in the purchase of Lotto tickets, or penny stocks.

There is option 48: Realize the brass ring has already passed by and live to be the perfect racing parent so your kids can start racing with a great program by the time they can drive (usually 5 or 6).

Option 69: Be willing to dye your hair purple, and.... (nevermind... that's been done already)

Hum... are we feeling cynical today, or what?

[carnut169]

Another possible option is to work for a racer for the opportunity to drive the car once in awhile.
Mark let Stan drive at TGPR...
Isn't that the deal that Cecil & Jon have?

Problem there is the possibility of damage. I would want anyone that I let drive the car to be able to fix it should they run it into a wall (or flip it). You could total the car on your 1st lap....

[Purple Frog]

This is the 2004 "On the Cheap" storyline that I am telling newbies:

To just dip your toe in this sport and get a taste, you need to come to the table with at least $20K ($20,000 USD). That has to be money that will not cause you to even blink if it evaporates instantaneously. (OBTW, loans are not a good source.)

Then you have two basic paths to use the $20K.

Path #1.
That money will buy you up to 4 weekends of rental from a quality race prep shop. I would probably point you at FM. Less chance of engine destruction, and less expensive crash damage. Of course it could be like Sean says, the $20K might only cover the first session on the first day. [img]graemlins/skull.gif[/img] This path should get you in a reasonably decent machine, through whatever drivers school requirements might remain, and into some regional wars. At the end of the $20K you should have some lifetime memories and a few large pictures to put on your wall proving you have been there.

Path #2: Buy a solid old CFC car in the $9K range. Spend a couple of grand getting it ready (not fast, just ready). Scrounge as many used tires as possible. Find a friend with a truck. Buy a $1,000 open trailer. Spend a big one on driver gear. Use the rest to get through the schools you need and some regional wars. At the end of the $20K, you'll still have the pictures for the wall, although the car in them may not be as sexy. But, you should also still have about $10,000 worth of inventory, and probably a pretty in-depth knowledge of what it really takes to do it right. The next year you would only need about another $8K to $10K to go play six to eight more times. That's assumming you do ALL the wrenching, sleep in tents, and don't crash a lot. On Path #2 you will never meet Chip, Jack, or Bobby nor get a pro offer. But, you wouldn't have met them on Path #1 either.

Like Larry said, after that all the other paths are a bit more expensive.

Don't have the $20K to toss in the crapper? Then that is what you should concentrate on achieving.

[dc]

Yep, your instructors were right...

If you find any formula car teams just giving away seats to guys with little or no track time, let me know. I have a helmet in my office collecting dust.

Unless your last name starts with "A" and ends in "ndretti" or have a grandma who owns a big 2-mile superspeedway somewhere in the midwest, no one is going to give you anything without working for it (and then bringing a lot of money in yourself on top of that, too).

Racing is not cheap. Racing is expensive. Racing is not free. Handouts are almost always someone else's problems or garbage.

Charm,
Money,
Good looks,
Charisma,
Money,
Talent,
Money,
Intelligence,

Oh yeah, and you'll need some cash, too.

If you're like the rest of us, you look at that list and realize you may have only one of those things, if you're lucky, and then you'll go back to work to start saving your pennies.

Not to sound like a jerk, but no one is going to "give" you anything in any type of racing, especially club racing, and unless your parents are really wealthy, you're going to have to work 9-5 like the rest of us to afford to play with cars.

[El Guapo]

Here's another viewpoint Yellow. First, DO NOT buy any formula car that you can get for $2K. What you would get for that money is not worth having. I will give you two options, instead of the 62 proposed by my esteemed amphibian friend. Option one: find a team (even a small privateer) to work for. Work for them for free. Refuse pay. Endear yourself to them. Eventually they may offer you seat time in return for all your hard work. A friend of mine who is a runoffs quality Formula Ford driver went this route very successfully. Option two: figure out what you need to do to get a high paying job. This is what those of us without uberrich parents mostly do. Do not let all the words of discouragement you will be hearing deter you. I wish you luck, and hope you succeed in joining us on track.


EG

[John Nesbitt]

Another option would be to check out an 'apprentice' program, Autosport BASI in Montreal, and perhaps others from the ads I see in Sportscar, offer 'learn-and-drive' programs.

Basically, you work a race season as a trainee mechanic. No pay, bring your tools. In exchange, you earn points that can be cashed in for the school's training and racing programs.

At the end of the season, you have a bunch of training, seat time, and competition, plus a real skill that you can use to maintain your car and/or catch a job with a team.

[J Mabee]

Yello,
You sound just like I did at 18 - would have done anything to drive. Now I'm 31 just recently done w/ nurse anesthesia school - in these 10 years of work and school I autocrossed my Neon acr (daily driver). Now going to 1st school at Gateway this comming week to FINALLY live the dream. Realized at 18 that I needed to make some money to race and live comfortably. Well here I am. Could have done it sooner but also realized I need to retire w/ some $$ in the bank too. Soon to be wife and kids. Need to be realistic about goals. If I could do it over again I would have started in shifter carts at 18 and not autocrossed. I think carts will be your best bet yello. can be cheap and great training ground.

Jason

[size="1"][ March 19, 2004, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: J Mabee ][/size]

[Mark C. Ritter]

Yellow,

Karts, Karts, Karts. Did I mention karts. At 18 you are plenty young to explore this avenue. Find out which class is popular in your area. Visit the track and talk to your peers. Just about all the F1 guys came up this way. Now is a good time to purchase racing vehicles and karts are no exception.
Back in the early 80's when I was starting out on my chosen carreer everyone said that without military experience I would never make it to a major airline. I begged, borrowed and stole every hour of flight time I could, drove a old Toyota Celica, dated girls from the wrong side of the tracks (cheaper dates and more fun anyway). I poured every dime into flying and today I fly for Delta.
Don't quit on your dreams, just go about it in an intelligent fashion.

[YelloMP5]

Thanks Everybody, I am talking all of this advice!

[surfdude]

Yellow: You might try hanging around a local kart shops. Work for some seat time. Learn toe in/out, push, loose, camber, squish, pipes, temps, etc. Drive a kart as much as you can- it will give you invaluable experience at a cheap price. Build a few motors. Change the brakes and gears. Learn gear ratios. Learn how to communicate with someone experienced as to what the kart is doing. I started my son in karts at 5, he's 18 and we run FC on the West Coast, and he's doing great and having fun. Karting is the basis for racing. If you have the desire, you'll figure out a way to race. Good luck.

[formulaking]

yelloMP5. Look for the Easy Kart Racing program,the cost of a complete kart is $4000. The advantage NO MODIFICATIONS are allowed, so you are in a level playing field. Or rent a Kart for $500 per weekend. If you have the talent and win the serie (4-6 races),a paid Formula BWM test program is waiting for you to show your talent to the European teams. Any other Kart route today is as expensive as FF1600 ,FF2000 or even more. Any mid pack seat in any known Kart series cost $6-8000 per event.

[carnut169]

Any mid pack seat in any known Kart series cost $6-8000 per event.

Wow. Thats hard to believe. How do they end up spending $8g's for an event in a kart?

[formulasuper]

Must buy a new kart for each event. Think I'll stick to formula cars.

[Keith Laney]

Hi yellowlp5,
I like your sense of humour,and your approach to racing,what erea are you In?
and what were yoou hoping to get into ,class I mean,if you want ring me (269)-253-2412