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How can I get started road racing? The answer to that question is a complicated one in part because everyone starts from a different point and everyone has a different goal in mind. Let’s stick with the idea of going club racing in a Formula Ford for the moment. First thing to do is to go to the SCCA website - www.scca.com – and look over the information there. There are links to your local SCCA Region's website. Listings of all solo, racing, rally and school events can be found either on the SCCA website or by going to your Region’s own website. Then, before diving right in and joining, go to an SCCA Regional or National race in your area. Spend the weekend at a race event and soak it up, talk with the car owners and drivers, observe the way the event runs and watch especially closely when the Formula Ford cars are on track in qualifying or in the race. You’ll learn a lot and there’s a good possibility you will be bitten by the bug!

Books: There are a few books good books that can provide with a great deal of information. Take a look at the Books, Magazines and Articles page and the FAQs page of this website.

Driver’s Schools There are several options when it comes to going to a racing school. The SCCA required that you attend two SCCA school or you can attend an SCCA accredited professional school and obtain you license that way. To do an SCCA school you can either buy your own car, rent (or borrow) a car for the two weekends.

What is your goal? Ask yourself what your overall goal in racing is. Occasional club racer? National competitor? National Champion? Professional driver? ChampCar? IRL? Formula One? You may start out with one objective in mind and find that once you get into it, your goals evolve or change completely. The best way to approach it is to take step one and get involved at the Regional level. There are a multitude of regional race weekends in most of the active SCCA Regions. This will give you a chance to get an idea of what it’s all about and to do so at a reasonable level of cost and time. The simplest immersion in the sport The simplest way to get an intense immersion in the sport is to go to a three day professional driver’s school such as the Skip Barber Racing School. It’s a pretty pricy deal – perhaps as much as $2,500, maybe more – but the school provides everything you need – the car, crew, driver’s equipment, etc. And then the instructors will get you up to speed progressively over the three days and will mix a lot of classroom time in with the on-track time. It will be about the same cost as renting a FF and driver coach for a school and you can't beat the amount of track time and skills training you'll get. You can do the school at fun places like Road Atlanta, Sebring and a host of other great tracks around the country. At the end of the three day school, you will have your Regional license too. The one day introductory course will get you into the seat of a race car but it will only get you a little taste of the game because on-track time is limited and so are the speeds you’re allowed to run.

Buying a car straightaway Many people decide to go right ahead and buy a Formula Ford and take it to an SCCA driver’s school. Purchasing a car at the outset is a significant commitment to the sport and you’ve got to be ready to do all the work the car may require and then to maintain it over two rather strenuous weekends involving as much as three or four hours of track time each. (See the “Buying a Used Race Car page)

You want to be a professional race driver? If you truly have aspirations of making it to the big time, hopefully, you are starting out at age 15 and you’ve got a few years of karts under your belt! Then, the best alternative is to sell everything you have, move to England and dedicate your life to the dream. Otherwise, an “arrive and drive” championship series is the only way to go – series such as Skip Barber, Jim Russell or a few others. Somebody else worries about the car preparation, you focus strictly on the driving and how you're going to pay for it. These organizations know talent when they see it, they have the contacts at the next rung on the ladder, scholarships for the series champion, you get coaching after every session; if you're faster than the guy next to you, you know it's the driver and not the car, and if you bend a car, there will likely be another one ready and waiting for you for the next session. That's a lot better than tweaking your own car for three years wondering if it's you or the car that's slow, finally making it to the Runoffs, and then what?

The best advice: get a copy of Carroll Smith’s book “DRIVE TO WIN” and read the first chapter called “Follow the Yellow Brick Road”! Is there sponsorship available at the Club Racing level?Not really. Almost everyone at an SCCA Regional or National race is using his personal funds, has family support or they might be taking advantage of the normal contingency packages available to pretty much any reasonably well known Club driver. Even in Pro Atlantics, Pro Mazda, F-BMW it is nearly ALL family money or daddy's business paying the bills. Three hundred thousand to nearly a million dollars is the going rate for a ride in one of those series. Do you have those resources available? If not, and you are not prepared to climb the NASCAR ladder, then buy yourself an FF and start enjoying a lifetime's hobby

Q. How much time does racing take up!

A. The amount of time involved in racing can vary widely depending on number of factors such as the number of events you expect to enter, the type of car you race, the amount of work the race car requires to properly prepare it, how much help you have, etc. Different kinds of cars require rather extensive preparation while others can simply be parked between events and loaded up on the trailer the day before a race weekend. One important thing to keep in mind is that everyone’s goals will be different and so while one person may want to only go out for two Regional races a year – enough to retain his or her license – others will not be satisfied until they go to a dozen or more races with a few test days thrown in for good measure. Racing can take up all the time you have available – if you let it.

Q. How competitive do I need to be to succeed in the sport? A. The answer to this question hinges on your definition of “success”. Again, everyone wants to get something different out of their hobby or their leisure activity. Success for some means going to the National Championships – or “RunOffs” at Mid-Ohio Race Course in October of every year. Others will be pleased as punch to get over to Lime Rock for two or three good Regional weekends – even if they’re running mid-pack or tail-end-charlie! The key here is to sauce out what the sport really means to you once you get your feet wet in it. Then, adjust your own perceptions and criteria so that there is match between what you genuinely expect to get out of the sport or what you expect to achieve doing it. Only then will you be in a position to determine what kind of success you can realistically achieve and at what “cost” in terms of time, money and commitment.

Q. Where can I race? A. In New England, the three prime venues are the fabled Lime Rock Park in Lime Rock, Connecticut – a 1.5 mile road course with a long history and a very challenging layout; New Hampshire International Speedway in Louden, New Hampshire. NHIS includes a 1.6 mile long road course on the same site as the one mile NASCAR oval; Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York is a world famous former Grand Prix circuit. There are two courses – one, the “Short Course” is the original GP 2.4 mile track and with an extension, there is a “Long Course” of 3.5 miles. In addition, there are tracks in Pocono Pennsylvania, Summit Point, West Virginia and a few others. All these tracks hold SCCA Regional and National races.

Q. How much does it cost? A. Now THIS is one tough question! A famous quote about the cost of racing is this: “Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go”. First, let it be said that auto racing of almost any variety is not cheap. It costs money to equip yourself and it costs money to maintain the car, go to the race weekends, pay race entry fees, etc. If you wreck the car or blow the engine, you’ve got much larger expenses to take care of and your local insurance agent isn’t going to be any help. The most important thing to know is that racing can be done fairly economically under certain conditions. In very general terms, driver equipment and schooling can cost $1,000 to $ 3,000. Race cars can cost between $3,000 and 30,000. Race weekends (including all costs, entry fees, hotels, gas and also tires and wear and tear) can cost between $400 and $2,000. A typical season of, say, one test day and five races will cost between $2,500 and $8,000 or more. A “blown” engine can “cost” between $500 and $5,000 to repair – it all depends on the type and quality of car you are driving. Q. Do race cars appreciate or depreciate? A. Some do, some don’t. A well maintained car in a popular racing class can easily keep its value over a few years. Uncompetitive cars or those in classes that are becoming less popular can drop in value. If they are abused or “thrashed”, they will definitely drop in value. Some cars do actually appreciate if they are rare or if they are especially competitive in their class. I know people who have always sold cars for as much or more than they paid originally. To truly find out about race car values, follow the sport for a few years and ask a lot of questions. Watch the classified ads in SportsCar and other publications. Talk to racers with experience.

Q. I know about AJ and Mario but who the heck is Briggs? And who are Max and Lance and Masten? A. America has a tremendous racing history – now a full one hundred years of it and so there is no shortage of fantastic individuals, incredible innovators and amazing champions who deserve to be recognized for the heros they were. One of the great pleasures of the sport is getting to know about some of these guys. The great Briggs Cunningham built several race cars and ran them at Le Mans. He was also a New England Region Member and in his spare time, he won the America’s Cup sailing his own boat. Max Balkowsky built the string of cars known as “Ol Yaller” and with them, he beat exotic Italian cars regularly! Lance Reventlow built the Scarab’s in the late 50’s and set a new standard for American race car construction. Masten Gregory was the first great American driver to move to Europe and pursue GP racing full time. He also managed a podium finish in his first GP! So, there’s a lot of history there and it’s all worth reading about. If you’re racing in SCCA, you’re carrying on that history.

Q. I think I’m the next Michael Schumacher. How do I convince other of that fact? A. Since the mid 50’s, racers have believed themselves to be “the next Stirling Moss” or “the next Juan Manuel Fangio” or even “the next Mario Andretti”. Unfortunately, not too many of these guys with a high degree of over-confidence have been able to produce the goods! While there may be no doubt in your mind how fast you are, the fact is the stopwatch doesn’t lie. So, what you’ve got to do is this: 1) Set an incredible series of lap records, 2) Start a dozen races from the role and then, 3) Take an amazing string of victories against fierce opposition using inadequate equipment and overcoming daunting mechanical difficulties. After achieving such incredible results and getting a picture of yourself on the cover of Pit Talk – holding a bunch of checkered flags and trophies, of course – you can move on to the next level. About three years later after you’ve won the SCCA National RunOffs and a few other Championships, you just might be ready to call yourself “the next Michael Schumacher!! Of course, the other guy will tell you he’s “the next Aryton Senna”!

Q. Are all racers motorheads? A. No, thank god.