# I think I want to race



## smolck (Jul 2, 2007)

Hey Guys,

I used to drag race 5.0 mustangs in my late teens and early twenties, loved the fun of seeing pure exceleration in a straight line. Nitrous and superchargers lost the appeal to me, and I guess I kind of grew up and lost interest. When you are 25 and looking to get your career going, turning wrenches every weekend because you blew up your daily driver gets old. 

I spent yesterday at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL for the Porsche 250 Races (Rolex Series) and the first race featured some BMW's similar to mine. Actually in that race the BMW's finished 1 and 2 from Turner Motorsports, beating some stupid, nasty sounding ricers from Mazda, Toyota, Acura, and Honda in the process, GREAT JOB BMW!

Since I live 20 minutes from the track I thought it would be fun to race my car, I saw a BMW car club that did some stuff a few months ago on the track website. 

Anyone know how to get started in this type of racing?


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## AttendandSeeTo (Jul 10, 2007)

A friend of mine told me about a track in West Virginia called Summit point, it actually has three tracks. I am about to graduate college and I am asking for a high performance driving course for my grad present :thumbup:

From what I gathered it is reasonably priced. 3 hours of class time and 3 hours of track time (if you bring your own car) is probably about 400 dollars. 

I am from virginia and I have a friend who goes out to the track bi-monthly. I don't want to do it competitively though, I just really want to put my driving skills to the true test on a tough track.


Good luck on your search I know AL is pretty far from WV/VA



-Nicky


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## KrisL (Dec 22, 2001)

http://www.bmwccaclubracing.com/Information/GettingStarted.aspx


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## crowz (Oct 28, 2006)

Huntsville has an excellent autocross event you might want to check out, Im sure Birmingham has tons of them right where you are. Your probably wanting something faster by the sound of it but it would be a good start learning to handle your bmw in the twisties


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## smolck (Jul 2, 2007)

Thanks for the info!


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

1) If you want to do something with your street car, you want to do DE events, not race it. A race car is not suitable as a daily driver. Very hard to get in and out once you put a lefgal and safe roll cage in it.

DE events are track events that let you drive at your own pace and speed but without the passing in corners that can lead to crashing.

2) Summit Point runs a program called Friday at the Track (FATT). You take your car and run on the track. Same as a DE but they allow convertibles, and all marques. Info at www.bsr-inc.com

I teach out at FATT. They seldom run the Jefferson circuit due to the short length, which tends to pack up the cars.

3) For high performance driving course, my personal favorite is Roos Racing (www.racenow.com) 2 day course. VERY worthwhile. Skip Barber 2 day driving course is also good. The BSR 1 day Accident Avoidance course has proven results, especially for teen drivers.


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## 200mph (Dec 26, 2005)

I agree with Terry, and also suggest you attend an SCCA, NASA or BMWCCA event as a spectator, and offer to volunteer as crew for a BMW entered there.
.
No one will turn down an offer of free help, and you'll learn a lot about procedures etc, and get an idea of costs and necessary level of prep.
Mike


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

If you want to race, then do a pro school (Roos, Barber, etc) racing school. They will have you driving a real race car, on track, and include starting and passing drills. The top schools will qualify you to get your license and go racing, but I HIGHLY recommend doing a racing school for the organization you plan on racing with. If for no other reason, than you learn how things work at the track on race weekends.

As for cars, best to try renting cars for a while. You can rent Spec Miata, Spec Racer Ford (what I race) and many others. Some peopel like door slammers, others don't. Realize that racing costs MONEY. Building a race cars costs more MONEY than you will expect. And, in general, used race cars are not worth anywhere near what was put into them, and anyone you buy, in general, will take a LOT of work to get it going, safe, and reasonably fast.

Going racing is a LOT of work. You have prep work on the car before the weekend. You have all the stuff during the weekend (oil, tire pressures, gas, torquing, etc, etc, etc), plus driving, and then there is the repair work after, plus prep for the next race. And if you do it yourself, there is loading, towing, unloading, etc at the other end, and repeat to get home. Things break more often on a race car. Consumables don't last as long (tires, bearings, shocks, brake pads, etc).

There are exceptions to the rules. A used Spec Racer Ford price is pretty stable, and there are some good cars out there.

But, there is nothing like the rush of taking the green flag in a large field and having a great race. Heck, even bad races are a lot of fun.


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## Its13oclock (Jun 30, 2007)

good luck. i'd like to get involved as well when i get a little older. it really looks like a lot of fun.


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## Hammerwerfer (Aug 8, 2003)

Like the Nike ad said, Just do it.

Racing is a lot of fun, and you can get involved at a level to suit your budget. It doesn't matter if you are in a really fast and expensive car or a little banger. You are racing. In fact the competition in the lesser classes can be a lot closer than in the more expensive classes.

Give it a shot. You only go around once.


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## beewang (Dec 18, 2001)

Racing??!!

The stuff OP is talking about is known as "Tracking". Racing means you are in a competition to win and beat others. From what I read, OP is looking to drive his car on the race track. That is known as "Tracking".


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