QuestionQUESTION: Hey! I am 15 years old, and I have been interested in cars since I was very young (at 6 months!), and I started driving in India at the age of 10. Now, I want to, hopefully, get a start on my racing career. I've seen other responses to questions like these, but they were all over 18, and since i am a minor, i wanted to have advice to my age group. I'm looking at karting and such, but I'm not getting a good outlook and i am confused. I live in the Dallas area, and i was wondering if you could help me get a start. Thanks a lot!
ANSWER: Hi,
You should still look at Karting, and I'm sure the Dallas area has plenty of opportunity for young men like yourself. This is where you learn the basics of car control and racing strategies on track. It is NOT inexpensive, so you will have to have a pretty good job.
You should also look into the Sports Car Club of America. ( www.scca.org ) You can join right away and be involved in racing right away. They will even have local monthly meetings where you can meet others with the same interests. NO you won't be a driver or even a crewman. But you can be around the action as a course worker. Maybe getting drinks to the corner workers, helping with food for them , and learning what it takes to be a course worker. There are LOTS of jobs once you have some experience. Flaggers at the corners, timing and scoring, fire safety, an endless list of duties. And you will be in the thick of racing competition too ! It may be that there is someone in the local SCCA group that is involved in Karting too.
With all that, you MUST stay in school, and plan for college and college expenses. It's highly unlikely that you could earn the kind of money needed to start a racing career without a good college background, and Engineering is a natural if you are good with math.
That should be enough to get you started , if you have other questions , feel free to write again.
Good luck
Dan Liddt
Sarasota, Florida
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Haha, thanks a lot! I'm actually a really successful student, because of the push i get from my parents, but im really set on driving instead of a medical degree and such. payment for college isn't much of a big deal for college, but my parents aren't too supportive of the racing idea right now and want me to focus on studies. But is there a way to get into the pros faster? Like skip the karting? or would you know anything about european circuits? Thanks!
AnswerThe Karting will develop your "seat-of-the-pants" skills more highly than any other form of racing, the other good choice would be BMX Bicycle racing. BMX also forces you to stay in excellent physical shape, also important to a racing career.
Nearly EVERY aspiring race driver faces the same challenges with parental support. Your parents want you to have a career that will support you . You are seeking a hobby that MIGHT turn into a career, but most likely won't. For one thing , you are already about 6 years behind the drivers that will become tomorrows F-1 drivers and Indianapolis winners. For example, by the time he was 13, Jeff Gordon was beginning to drive 800 horsepower Sprint Cars, Not Sprint Cup, but the hair-raising short track racers you see in Ohio and the Midwest. Google "Sammy Swindell" for an idea what I talk about here.
I would bet you don't realize that a good 1/2 of the boys in your age group would LOVE to have a professional driving career. That's probably 500,000 young men. Some of them are going to come from outrageously wealthy families, Others are going to have god-like amazing raw talent, and then there's you. You have the desire, but can you compete ?. Until you have been racing Karts for a couple of years you won't know. It would be a tremendous waste for you to start in larger cars, and never develop the skills available in Karting. I don't think you can name one famous race driver of this era that didn't begin in Karting or something very similar. And most of them came from considerable wealth. Not all of them, There are those that started with nothing, but they did have a degree in something.
No, I think you will have to start with Karts first, and from what you say about your parents, pay your own way. That means buying and funding a race car out of pocket. Even at the amateur level that costs $5000.00 for a season. And that can be done in the Sports car Club of America.
The European circuits are even much tougher - - - and there is almost NO support for working class folks. You just abou thave to own your own bank or winery!
Again, Good luck. I'm sorry to be so negative, but you really have to stay in school and your really have to develop the basic skills. before you can plan on moving on .
Dan Liddy
