Thread about the future of motorsports?
I think we all agree that the club racing scene is on the upswing...but is American motorsports as in nationwide recognition really going up?
Are the club racers the future? Us, here, just starting out in our late teens to mid-20's? How many winning SM racers move up to gt1 or prototypes or f3000?
From what I've seen, as far as worldwide/nationwide recognition, the future of motorsports will be the kids in karts like always.
Like mark and others have said, when you don't start until your 16, no matter how much raw talent you have, you will be outclassed.
We do auto-x, track days, eventually buy a $10,000+ race car that we get to drive in maybe 10-15 events a year and then what? Maybe you can buy your way up the professional latter (with expensive car/mods/track time) but for the average joe car nut...it seems to stop here. I may be wrong, but this is just what I've seen in my limited time in the motorsports scene.
As for illegal racing being a stepping stone...I'm going to have to agree, but only to a point. You have to have some sort of rush or something driving your car to spark enough interest enough to go to an event...cool races on TV won't be enough for most people. But after some real experiences, the illegal stuff seems slow, dissatisfying, and more dangerous.
Then again, there are different degrees of stupidity that come with illegal stepping stones. Dragging your buddy up to 60mph doesn't seem very dangerous. High speed driving on the mountains seems extremely dangerous. I've driven "the mountain passes" and you really can't see what’s coming at all. If there is a stopped car around the corner or a deer...or what happens when you spin and hit the inside wall and some guy comes around with his family on a road trip and rams your ass. Inital-d should have taught the mountain drivers that much
I think we've all done some spirited driving though, just any type of automotive masturbation before you can get on track again...I have that favorite exit ramp, I’m sure most guys do. You can learn a lot about car control on the street before ever getting on the track...but there are smart (turn that allows full view of what is ahead) and dumb (blind turns with cliffs and drop-offs) ways of doing dumb and likely illegal street driving.
Then again, most of the guys out doing the illegal stuff are just “stunnas” who will never get into official motorsports in any way.