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How to get into car racing: a real beginner's path
I'm a dad with the kids now in college, in his late forties, with no racing background — working my way from autocross to a wheel-to-wheel license in Northern California. This is the exact path I've taken so far — what each step cost, and what I learned.
01
Go watch, and decide
Cost: Free – a day ticket
Before I spent anything, I went to Sonoma to watch. Seeing Adam Bomb Racing race up close, and a friend's freehand drawing afterward, made me realize fear was the only thing holding me back.
Less talk, more action. The decision is the first step.
02
Start with autocross (SCCA Solo)
Cost: About $60 per event with an SCCA membership
SCCA Sacramento runs Solo events at Thunderhill. You drive your own street car through a cone course, one car at a time. They even have loaner helmets. I was the slowest in my group — and that was fine.
"You got to trust the car." Seat time in your own car is the cheapest coaching there is.
03
Your first track day
Cost: $277.00 for my Taste of the Track day
Taste of the Track at Thunderhill West was my first time on a real circuit, in the 1994 Cobra. The car wasn't set up for the track, the tires were too hard, and I needed confidence.
Tires matter more than almost anything. Go anyway — you learn what to fix.
04
Pay for real instruction
A private day with a professional instructor: classroom, lead-follow, then student/instructor laps at 100%. I found the limits of the tires and went off. They got me new tires and sent me back out.
Instruction compresses months of guessing into one day. It feels like drinking from a firehose.
05
Learn the race weekend from the inside
Cost: Free — volunteer
I helped a team in the pits at a Sonoma enduro, then worked as a pit marshal at the 12 Hours of Thunderhill. You see the rules, the crews and the effort that goes into every car.
Volunteering is the best (and cheapest) education in racing.
06
Buy your safety gear
Cost: $2,557.80 for helmet, HANS, suit, gloves, shoes, hood
Once you move toward wheel-to-wheel, you need certified gear. I bought mine in person so everything fit.
Buy gear that fits — try it on before you buy.
07
Get a race car (I bought one, I didn't build one)
Cost: $15,000.00 for a new-build BMW E36 Spec 3
Marc Freire of Adam Bomb Racing built my E36. It had shakedown sessions but had never been raced. Buying a sorted car from a builder got me on track faster than building one myself.
A known, spec-class car lets you learn the driving instead of chasing problems.
08
Run NASA HPDE
Cost: $1,221.29 for my Buttonwillow weekend
High Performance Driver Education is the path toward a competition license. My first weekend at Buttonwillow started with a car that stumbled and ran hot, a fellow Spec 3 driver handing us parts, and HPDE 1 with an instructor.
Things will break. The paddock will help you.
09
Next: a competition license and wheel-to-wheel
Cost: In progress
That's where I'm headed. Follow along — every step goes in the journal as it happens.
Keep getting faster.
How much does it cost to start racing?
You can start for about $60 at an autocross. Everything after that is on my running ledger, line by line, with receipts.