s13Kurt

I always wondered this. My best guess would be they started driving there own cars and got noticed? Opinions?

Matej

Rich parents.

ZilviaKid

just like every other motorsport

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sr20sean

sad but for the most part true

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ayuaddict

Rich parents and some talent, or a metric shit ton of talent.

Edwin562

or just plain skills...

mrchomponthis

Most likely karting.

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curbhuggerrps13

Or rich friends

HyperTek

Karting is the way.. Professional Racing favors the young to grow fast into pro racing.. You cant be old, I think drifting is the only sport that you can do this though. Get your hand at being a champion in pro drift, having that on your resume then you can try rally imo


or like Nick Hogan - get shit handed to you

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curbhuggerrps13

nick works hard for his things.......he has to wake up everyday and look at himself in the mirror

Quail

A lot of F1 drivers got into it through Karting. I still remember when Hamilton was making big waves in the karting scene.

(Becoming serious in karting usually requires rich parents)

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lawrenceyang

karting. i was wondering about this not too long ago also

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sidewaysil80

go through all the hpde's, get your comp license, get into spec miata/spec3/spec e30 and not suck, get some podiums/network, hopefully get hired onto a professional race team (grand am cup or something along those lines). i don't think you would be making enough to "live" off of, but still have fun and not have to come out of pocket to race around the country. i feel like thats semi realistic and attainable. but imo i think thats the highest you would get, like everyone is saying f1 and things like that you need be molded into from a young age. you can do the hpde at a fairly old age (early to late 20's) and still have a shot.

alexanderig

very true, but ive read and heard many times karting is the way to start but you need to start young

sidewaysil80

indeed, i'm trying to coerce my wife to sign off on picking one (pref. all) of the kids and starting them in karting. my oldest is 4 so i think i still have a LONG time to go before she is ready lol.

alexanderig

lol if you have the time and money to invest into them and getting them into carting thats great and id go for it. that goes for any motorsport though for example i dont know if he is still driving for them but back in 2004 the driver of the titan motorsports supra came from motorcross racing. That's also how Travis pastrana came to be in rally

drift freaq

All forms of motorsports are expensive. Getting into them is a matter of cash. Being good in them is a combination of practice and talent. Just like anything else. I would say Rally driving would be easy to get into if you have the cash. Though having the talent to be a successful Pro Rally driver is a whole other ball game. Its a sport dominated by drivers from Finland. It just so happens racing of all sorts in Finland is pretty much a national past time. They put kids in cars in the snow and ice at the age of 13-14 and let them battle it out.
Most Finnish F1 drivers are also Pro Rally drivers because of this.

Almost all motorsports though is a throwing cash down the drain proposition for most drivers. Its a satisfaction sport. Few make enough money to support themselves doing it.

With that said if you have the cash do it! They often said Paul Newman would have been a real world champion driver if he had started younger than he did. He was busy making his fortune so he could race pursuing his first passion acting. He did not get into Trans Am and SCCA driving till he was in his 40's. He was a very good driver too.

Shifter Kart driving is probably one of the cheaper forms of motorsports and is actually the closest to F1. You are running speeds of up 125mph an inch or so off the ground. Pretty damn sick and fun if you ask me.

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Living in America already puts you about 10 steps back.

Honestly.

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drift freaq

LOL yup QFT!!

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IIIXziuR

F1 Drivers are Handsome and all come from wealthy families...or so I've noticed.

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lflkajfj12123

handsome and wealth brings attention to sponsors

slider2828

Truthfully, cash, credit cards maxed out.... Seriously if you are old enough to read, its already too late....

Lots of kids start carting at like 5-7 years of age....

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s13Kurt

All this is what has been crossing my mind Im 20 and to be as humble as possible i've been told alot that im im a very good driver. I also now realized that im pretty nasty on a quad also. I would just love to even be in some kind of pro am rally series or something. Maybe I should start trying to get into karting to get my self noticed.

simmode1

If you're already 20, I'd say hit the auto-x and HPDE instead. Aim for SCCA or Grand Am racing...

At 32, I've giving up hope on any sort on pro racing career. So my cars will reflect that I'm only building them for mild recreational use only. Nothing too balls to the wall serious.

drift freaq

There are a lot of amateur racing series. I believe there is an amateur section in SCCA Rally. Like others have said if you wanted to get noticed in karting you should have been in it already. As 20 is usually the jumping off point to other forms of open wheeled racing. If you want to do it for fun go for it shifter karts are a blast.

Have you thought about Quad racing? I had a friend back in the bay area that used to quad race in his 20's. It was competitive it was not overly expensive. It looked like it was a blast. You just have to drive your shit all over the place to do it. LOL but that is pretty much all racing as well.

At this point in time, if I were you I would focus on career that could support the habit. Most of the drivers in SCCA Trans Am and whatnot are business professionals that do it on the weekends. Some do own tuning shops, BMW, Porsche, Toyota, Nissan etc.. others are software company execs. Stuff like that. The top guys are full time professional drivers but a lot of them are not.

Oh and don't forget the Vintage series. Get to drive cars you always thought were the shit but are no longer considered competitive in today's race world.
The big key once again in all of this is MONEY! Its just the way it is.

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ronmcdon

I don't know, the motorsports are actually a lot more popular and accessible here than most countries. It might not be optimal, but driving events and different tracks are readily avail, at least in CA. Might not be optimal, but it surely isn't the worst.

Steinkrunk

Didn't some dude build a BMW for under $2k off of craigslist and run in a pretty big rally race? IIRC he came in second next to factory racers with crazy budgets and now he's sponsored and doing it big. If you want to rally, if there are any hillclimb organizations around your area I would figure that would be a good way to get started down that route.

But yea, I'm a professional racer on my xbox :-) I figure that's as close as I could ever get since I'm broke and I drive a busted ass 240.

future

Forza pro racers ftw

HyperTek

look up Damon Hill..
Damon Hill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He got involved in racing at a later age then most (started racing motorcycles at 23) and became an f1 world champion in 96. Though his dad was a f1 racing legend but died when he was 15.

check out Gilles Villeneuve
Late f1 racer who died in 82, but was just a snowmobile racer in the beginning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Villeneuve


Check out Sim racing, there have been some sponsored competitions that take someone who is the fastest, and putting them in real cars.

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s13Kurt

Well I guess I need to either start trying to slide in pro am or get into some kind of scca racing. Only reason I ask is i've always had a borderline obsession with cars but I've recently figured out its more driving them instead of working on em which I do now for a living. I wouldn't care about making a shit ton of money if I just got to focus on driving something.