Racer

[Sinful]

Wow Ivan, you have some guts if you want to start grid racing straight up...It's a pretty nerve racking experience first time off..Not sure you are understanding the difference between proper door to door racing or just peddling a car around the track as fast as you can go!

There are club level race series that you would be able to get involve in....The main cost like the guys are saying is your car..

There is also licencing, logbook, racing apparel and most door to door racing requires the car to have a full roll cage so would be hard to have a steet driven car that you race..I reckon if that was the way you wanted to go

Maybe check out a few race and go kart days and have a chat to people/entrants and see if you can make your mind up which way to go..

Even super sprinting a car is loads of fun without the stress of guarding your position and line.

It's an expensive hobby but I wouldnt have it any other way

[Duncan]

motorsport is easy. just choose the right parents (ie enough money to pay your way throught the first 5-10 years).

sorry to say but the best drivers (ie most talented ones) are no-where near the top race categories internationally. they are working at maccas or something. you need money to race cars no matter how you do it.

I am lucky enough to earn enough to race sometimes, and due to sticking with it over the years I get about 20% of my total costs paid by various businesses (almost always in the form of discounts, not cash payments). I'm sure every single person on SAU pays between 80-100% of their total racing budget.

having said all that...you can still race without spending too much. you just need to stay within your budget and not do anything silly like borrow money to race. the best thing you can do is get together with some mates and work together to keep costs down and learn. pick easy stuff like improved production (cheapest is to buy a pre-bult car) and supersprints/hillclimbs.

but don't kid yourself. even at a state level, buying a race winning car will cost $50k-200k. tyres will be $2k a set, and you need new ones every single round if you want to win. entry fee for a state round is $500 + accomodation/crew/food/fuel. national rounds budget $2-5k each round + transport.

[Roy]

I would say that you should consider dirt stuff, classic rallying is cheap, accessible and learn a lot about spannering and driving...just need somebody for the crazy seat