Come Sunday, my 16yo son may be a qualified racing driver...

fretmeister

That's brilliant news!

Living the dream.


(Obviously if I weighed as little as he does I'd be faster. #fatboyexcuses) 

TimmyO

fretmeister said:

That's brilliant news!

Living the dream.


(Obviously if I weighed as little as he does I'd be faster. #fatboyexcuses) 

I'm.sure he'd be happy to ballast-up at Daytona and see? 

TimmyO

RiftAmps said:

The practical ARDS test is all about safety, not lap times. The instructor wants to see that he can be safe on track and be aware of other traffic. He will be driving at about 90% of race pace.

The written exam is less forgiving, make sure he knows his flags inc waved/double waved whites and yellows, plus Code 60.

I budget around £6000 (plus damage) a year for racing, but I own my car and self-fund. Hiring is vastly more expensive but less hassle. Forty40 Racing have great deals on their BMW 116 Trophy cars, a great series to start in, and share costs with other drivers. Even though the Citroen C1s/City Car Cup/EnduroKa championships are 'cheap', they all come with massive repair bills, so factor that in.

Sponsorship - pretty non-existent in the way you'd want it to be. No one is gonna pay for him to go club racing. Most of my own sponsors simply offer discounts on parts/consumables etc but one does cover my fuel bill for the year, which helps.

Always happy to help if you need advice

May pick your brain at some point! 

SPECTRUM001

TimmyO said:

Cheers all

Offset said:

Best of luck with your op.  And you must be really proud of your son.  Does he lean towards James Hunt or Lewis Hamilton in his approach to his chosen sport?!

I've told him some of the James Hunt stories and he just looks at me perplexed - he's far more LH than JH yes

Ah, but did you tell him about Hunt’s real passion  for the birds ?!

Hope all goes well for you both…

TeleMaster

That’s amazing. I hope he has a blast!

Nitefly

Best of luck to both of you - can't believe he's 16 though!  I'm sure I remember you announcing his birth on the Guitarist forum!

rsvmark

Good luck to him. My lad came close to a career in pro sport but no cigar. He is now happy as can be at Uni so plan B is essential. But if he doesn’t make it as a driver, there must be some sort of career there somewhere?

VimFuego

rsvmark said:

Good luck to him. My lad came close to a career in pro sport but no cigar. He is now happy as can be at Uni so plan B is essential. But if he doesn’t make it as a driver, there must be some sort of career there somewhere?

well, even in this cashless, digital economy society people must still do armed hold ups surely. They always need a getaway driver. 

TimmyO

Nitefly said:

Best of luck to both of you - can't believe he's 16 though!  I'm sure I remember you announcing his birth on the Guitarist forum!

You remember right! 

YellowLedBetterMan

VimFuego said:

rsvmark said:

Good luck to him. My lad came close to a career in pro sport but no cigar. He is now happy as can be at Uni so plan B is essential. But if he doesn’t make it as a driver, there must be some sort of career there somewhere?

well, even in this cashless, digital economy society people must still do armed hold ups surely. They always need a getaway driver. 

Could be a lucrative career.

Alternatively, my brother worked as an electrical engineer for Jaguar until this week. He'd been doing it for over a decade. As part of his job, he regularly track tested electronic features of cars - not just JLR made either.

One of his "assignments" included QC testing the car that Batista put into a river in Spectre. Another included a two week long trip to the Algarve Circuit that they use in the F1 because it was cheaper to send him there than it was to send a dozen cars with electrical faults to his office in Gaydon.

There are plenty of opportunities out there to be in and around cars for a living.

TTony

TimmyO said:

Very likely to go similarly, or even less well, but what you gonna do, not bother? 

Absolutely - got to go for it and see what happens.   

Great to have a dream, and be making progress towards it.  No qualification is ever worthless.

fretmeister

TimmyO said:

fretmeister said:

That's brilliant news!

Living the dream.


(Obviously if I weighed as little as he does I'd be faster. #fatboyexcuses) 

I'm.sure he'd be happy to ballast-up at Daytona and see? 

Can you fit 7 stone of ballast on a kart?

Jalapeno

Best of British to you both !

monofin

Exciting!!
Good luck

TimmyO

Posting this from Silverstone pit lane waiting for his first one-track stint in a BMW M2.

One of the other participants is 17 and owns an F3 car lol 

stickyfiddle

Good luck!!! 

mrkb

TimmyO said:

Posting this from Silverstone pit lane waiting for his first one-track stint in a BMW M2.

One of the other participants is 17 and owns an F3 car lol 

Remind him not to use his indicators and tailgate the car in front . Good luck!

YellowLedBetterMan

Go on the lad. Good luck!

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Best of luck!

TimmyO

:-/ based on first stint he thinks he'll fail - struggling with changing down coordination - came past frighteningly fast though lol