Enough about Midgets and Sprints and car control an all of that mumbo-jumbo...take it from one who has steered them...that is a nice form of racing but if you are a kid and want to run Indy some day take note:
1 - Karts, karts and karts. Get your *** in the seat and steer! You will learn all the car control and feel you can imagine as you progress. Get to the KT-100 class quick as you can. Learn it, live it, love it! Then get some 80CC and 125 CC seat time if you wish. You can transition into entry-level singel seater formulae out of lower kart classes.
2 - Read Bob Bondurant's book. Many have been written. Bob gets the Pulitzer. Also, read anything of race car engineering by Paul Van Valkenburgh. This is mandatory reading!
3 - You don't need to be another Smokey Yunick (learn who he was) but do take your basic auto shop class in high school. This is basic knowledge some professional drivers I have known barely had.
4 - When you are old enough, enroll in a half-day driving school course on a summer's vacation day. Treat like an outing. Get a feel for a real race car (albeit a school car) without the added pressure of being there for a week. The, go back and get some more with a full-course. Ideally, choose a school with a race series. Russel is good. Bondurant has the best school I have ever scene, however. Daly out of Vegas is good too. Stay away from schools who cater to fans who want a thrill ride. They are ******** for a serious racer.
5 - With an SCCA license and so forth, race in whatever open-wheel class you can get into
and try to get into that school series. You wouldn't be sorry to try put Russel's mechanic program for a year. I have not. See Memo Gidley. Better yet, contact Memo Gidley and ask him "How do I (fill in the blank). He'll know.
6 - Spec Racer, FF2000 are good classes to run. DO MAKE SURE YOU FIND A SERIES THAT FEATURES SOME OVAL STUFF!!! Especially schools!!! This is an area that needs work regarding what is available. I see progress here in the near future.
7 - Stay away from the dirt tracks, the Sprint 360's, the Late Models, midgets etcetera. Period. THIS IS REALITY!!!!! If you are to succeed as a formula-style race car driver you need to eat, sleep and drink that existence...Period!
8 - Stay in school. Get an education. Learn to talk like Tom Brokaw and brush your teeth. Comb you hair. Eat your Wheeties. Limit your drinking. Do not smoke. Take up a cardio-vascular exercise such as running or cycling and lift free weights regulary but do not buff!
Too many promising racers have chased all over the place trying to find a combo to get them to places like CART or the IRL and wound up spinning out. FOCUS ON FORMULA RACING!!!!
See you at Indy!
1 - Karts, karts and karts. Get your *** in the seat and steer! You will learn all the car control and feel you can imagine as you progress. Get to the KT-100 class quick as you can. Learn it, live it, love it! Then get some 80CC and 125 CC seat time if you wish. You can transition into entry-level singel seater formulae out of lower kart classes.
2 - Read Bob Bondurant's book. Many have been written. Bob gets the Pulitzer. Also, read anything of race car engineering by Paul Van Valkenburgh. This is mandatory reading!
3 - You don't need to be another Smokey Yunick (learn who he was) but do take your basic auto shop class in high school. This is basic knowledge some professional drivers I have known barely had.
4 - When you are old enough, enroll in a half-day driving school course on a summer's vacation day. Treat like an outing. Get a feel for a real race car (albeit a school car) without the added pressure of being there for a week. The, go back and get some more with a full-course. Ideally, choose a school with a race series. Russel is good. Bondurant has the best school I have ever scene, however. Daly out of Vegas is good too. Stay away from schools who cater to fans who want a thrill ride. They are ******** for a serious racer.
5 - With an SCCA license and so forth, race in whatever open-wheel class you can get into
and try to get into that school series. You wouldn't be sorry to try put Russel's mechanic program for a year. I have not. See Memo Gidley. Better yet, contact Memo Gidley and ask him "How do I (fill in the blank). He'll know.
6 - Spec Racer, FF2000 are good classes to run. DO MAKE SURE YOU FIND A SERIES THAT FEATURES SOME OVAL STUFF!!! Especially schools!!! This is an area that needs work regarding what is available. I see progress here in the near future.
7 - Stay away from the dirt tracks, the Sprint 360's, the Late Models, midgets etcetera. Period. THIS IS REALITY!!!!! If you are to succeed as a formula-style race car driver you need to eat, sleep and drink that existence...Period!
8 - Stay in school. Get an education. Learn to talk like Tom Brokaw and brush your teeth. Comb you hair. Eat your Wheeties. Limit your drinking. Do not smoke. Take up a cardio-vascular exercise such as running or cycling and lift free weights regulary but do not buff!
Too many promising racers have chased all over the place trying to find a combo to get them to places like CART or the IRL and wound up spinning out. FOCUS ON FORMULA RACING!!!!
See you at Indy!
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