Thanks for the encouragement, and just so you know I'm planning to be self
financed for the Barber Dodge series unless I can completely 0wn people in
the go kart racing I plan to do next year (missed the deadline to do it this
year.) I'm hoping I can get a good paying job in IT that will allow me to
finance as little as possible of the ~40grand that is required for a
regional championship in Barber Dodge.
Where do you live? As much as I dislike autocrosses, it is a good launching
pad for track racing, if nothing else then that you learn to be self
confident simply because you've only got 3 minutes total during the event to
run. Car's don't matter at all either, I've got a Subaru Legacy wagon right
now, but before this I had a 89 Corolla...at least with that car I learned
about momentum. I'd do at least a few autocrosses first, then do a few track
days and see how you do there. At the two track days I've done so far I've
been outclassed car wise, but at the first one (first turn of Pocono) I was
the second fastest car in my group, and at the second one I wasn't fast at
all, but I learned how to be consistent, and no one kept up as much momentum
through turn 10 as I did.
Even if you can't afford Barber Dodge, there are a lot of other series that
you can go into at a lower price, although it will be your own car. Minus
the replacement cost, rally racing is relatively easy to get into. Buy a VW
Rabbit for a few grand that is already built up, and you can run asap.
Just because you might be getting older doesn't mean you can't at least have
fun in racing. You might love autocrossing, I know a lot of people in my
region swear by it. And with other series like NASA starting up, there are
other outlets then just the SCCA to run in that might allow cheaper racing.
-Stuart Becktell
