How to Get Into Car Racing on ANY Budget (From $1K to $50K/Year!)

Thanks for this video, very interesting

how old were you when you started getting into racing IRL?

I’m trying so much to get into it. I turn 22 this year and I need to achieve my dream of being a pro driver I live on my own and am saving in attempt to go to skip barber racing school but I’m worried about actually getting started after that and figuring out how to network / meet people makes me nervous

“Quickest way to become a millionaire…” that line took me out 😂

Hi
Do you know an affordable racing school in New York?

What a fantastic video. Thank you for making this.

I’m thinking about making a simple roadmap based on my exact path into real racing. It would cover the decisions, mistakes, and lessons that would have saved me a ton of time and money.
If you’d want that, comment 'Ready to race'.

I really enjoy hearing people offer motivation around earning the money to race. I understand things can be difficult but we should all strive for more and turn our attention to what we can do when we get ourselves together. I hope everyone here exceeds their limits! Please do not comment about how it's so out of reach, there is enough of that. Let's hear the positivity!!

Great vid! That helped me out a lot as I'm looking at getting into spec miata. I couldn't decide if I should Kart, sim or Miata. My plan now is to just do it all lol.

could i do this as a hobby more than a serious career!

Buying my first race car this Saturday I’m excited 😎🤘

This was actually extremely encouraging...I AM BUYING MAZDA SPEC MIATA 4 CYL... DON`T BRAKE EVER UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO... THEN HIT THE PEDAL TO THE METAL... GOOD LUCK BRO...🏁 🏁 🏁 🏁 🏁🤎🤍🤎🧡

I started with Arrive and Drive rental kart series at Gateway Kartplex, then moved up to Lo206cc race karts after I won their heavy class championship in 2022. Couldn’t agree more with arrive and drive as a great $1,000 budget option. Both sim racing and my Lo206cc kart series fit within the $5,000 annual budget. Though my recent work change has made that a lot more difficult than I expected. Nonetheless, I appreciate you sharing your insights on how to get into racing with any budget, both small and large.

I'm 16 years old and I am going to join my local karting club and as well as start low level sim racing. I am going to have a youtube channel of my journey so I can get exposure as well as grow my budget. Thank you for the video!

Lemons for life!!!

Curiosity is a big one. Start exploring early and let things unfold naturally. Don't wait 10 years before going to a race track, buy tickets and go as soon as you can. Youtube and simracing only gets you so far!

Im trying to reach F1 but first I'll start getting a racing license, racing local, and hopefully I get noticed. (I'll also reach out to some F3 or F2 teams to see if they'll give me a chance so I can work my way up. I just don't know how I'll get that much money quickly, don't know how much you get paid from the local races or from NASA)

You sire are my spirit animal. Glad I found this video as I'm hoping to head down this pathway...

this inspired me to start. thank you.

a question for cheaper "sim" options, is getting something like a steering wheels and paddles for my normal gaming rig worth it? it'll probably be far from realistic but i wanna somehow get into it while still in college

First thing you buy for your car is an Accusump to keep it from running out of oil on the turns. Lost an engine in my daily driver 50 years ago due to oil starvation on the turns, and never got back into it. Maybe it's time I give it another try before I die of old age.

Love how he put karting as cheaper than sim racing

I live 6hrs from Austin

What circuit are you on at 6:06? It looks beautiful!

Recently got into RC racing and it’s on par with sim racing at about ~5k per year but much more fun getting outdoors and meeting new people. Sim racing cost drops significantly and you don’t have to travel so time commitment is far less. Time on the track is key so whatever you can find the time to do is probably the best way to go.

There’s also drivers club memberships. The prices for these can vary widely depending on the track but my local north florida track the firm is under $3k a year and the best money I ever spent. Totally addicted and try to go every week. Tire budget is pretty crazy but love it too much to ever give it up. It’s also totally ruined sim racing for me.

Thank you

Good breakdown and arrive and drive karting in league is lowest cost for sure. I also do track days,however this is defniately more than 1000k a year. (4 track days = 4 new tyres normally, oil changes between and the event cost itself - (maybe 2500k usd a year). And sim racing can be much cheaper, logitech on the ps5. ~1k with a cheap frame.

It certainly is possible to race on much less than people think. It just means you're not going to be in major national or international championships. It's also possible to do it for way less than you say. First thing to say is I'm British and Britain is much more compact than the USA so some costs will be less. Even so...... I sim race these days. Converting £UK to $US I set up for sim racing for about $1000 and spend no more than $200 per year. I use a cheap Logitech wheel. I mechanic for my brother in MX5 (Miata) racing. It's probably slightly more than $10000 per year including towing costs and accomodations. Obviously, I'm unpaid but my brother does provide beer and food. I used to race on same sort of costs. I think the ultimate cheap racing I once saw was by a fellow Jim Russell Racing Driver School pupil back in the 80s. This guy was a student. His daily driver was a beat up old Hillman Imp (not available in US - it was a tiny 11 foot long car). He put in roll cage and extinguisher system to meet race regulations and away he went. Drove the car to race meetings, made a little pile of his tools etc. in the paddock. Most racing people are decent so no-one stole his stuff when he was on track. Where there's a will there's a way.

Pay for an entire car each year? Nah man. Just screw it entirely. Get a street legal car and make it fun but legal. Just as fun as spending many grand to get access to a race track, because it isn’t free for entry. Best done for us budget enjoyers.

I’m probably need to hold a mech e job for a minimum of 10 years before I get into track racing. I’m excited for that day to come, and hope the tracks here today stay intact and aren’t replaced by overpriced housing.

You will spend 40K to 50k if you go karting. A good kart will cost 15K, spair motors are 7500 to 8500 min. We would have a 1000 tire bill per event weekend. Concision karts are a joke.

Would love to get a car and just track it but I’m about 5 hours from the nearest track. I just can’t imagine being able to get there often enough to justify it.

My local track is only 40$ for unlimited time, I'm 8+ years deep already, total cost was 40k$ top including the car, mods and admission fees, the other track is 250$, so I go less often, still it is cheap for what you get.

Owner karting does NOT cost 20k a year, the only time you see figures like that is either a shifter series or nation/international series. At club level it costs around 3-5k a year if you do your budgeting right

I've had good expierences with RC car onroad touring. You can commit if you really like it or backoff and put the stuff in storage for another year. RC parkinglot racing will show you racers are a different breed. As an introvert few times have I felt safer than chatting at a RC race track. More humble and sportsmanship than greedy and boastful in the true racers. Let's make it across the finish line not blow the car up into a wall type mentality. It takes alot of learning and patience though. Sometimes it shappens and your car wont get through the race. Some stupid servo horn breaks or you forgot to put enough torque on your dang wheel. But you learn, you get a reliable car maintained, and you learn to clean pass others. Rubbing is racing. But I'd imagine with real cars, you'll have some words...

I'm a girl in what's considered as a "developing" country. In tears rn. Actually. I am very stupidly and probably delusionally confident that I will be a professional racer, although people around me think (and say) otherwise. They either don't take me seriously or say that "it's not for me", "you aren't made for it", etc. So thank you for confirming for me that it's really achievable. Thank you for proving them wrong. Thank you for encouragement and, well, validation.
I know it's even harder for me (or seems like harder), but you showed that it's not impossible. And that's the most important thing.
Thank you!

Id love to start! Ill rewatch this again once i graduate college and have the time and hopefully money to start.

I would like to add that HILLCLIMB races at least with SCCA, don't require any special licensing. You're just a novice for your first 5 events with a regular drivers license.

This is what I did this year, I just started racing for the first time ever. Check out the videos on my channel to see my car build and race vids!

Nice job. I race for less but 50k is a good budget to start with in a Miata or SRF especially if you have some help. A video on safety gear and how it fits people differently might help the new comer.

You forgot rc car racing. Probably about as expensive as kart but you get to learn about mechanics and set up as well.

I just started a 6 year career. Hopefully, once I'm out, I can make 150k min and throw a lot of it into racing. I'll be 29 but fuck it I don't wonna be begging for sponsors if ima race, ima figure out the finances myself.