How can a Canadian guy become a European racer?

Question

I live in an area of Canada where there is no racing whatsoever. I do however have a great deal of experience with rally driving on dirt tracks made in farmer's fields.

I want to go to Europe and become a racer. I am interested in rally and touring cars. I don't care if I never get to the top. I just want to make enough to keep going out there and racing.

How can I find places to show my talent and improve my skills with an old banger over in Europe? And what will it take to get into professional racing?

I am not interested in the "It's impossible and you will kill your self answers" I just want useful answers.

Answer 1

If you only want positive answers then I fear you are not going to get many answers

I am not talking about the "kill yourself" aspect as that is entirely your business, but being completely practical, to allow you to move to Europe and earn an income (doesn't matter if it is a fortune or just to tick over) you will need a visa other than just a tourist visa, and this is where it becomes difficult

In the last years (in a similar fashion as the US and Canada), immigration laws have tighted up generally, due to large influxes of immigrants and movements of people within the EU

Therefore unless you hold an EU/EFTA passport it is very difficult.

You will either need to be (a) self-employed and show evidence of a thiving business (b) a highly skilled migrant with skills/experience which are in demand in Europe (and usually already receiving a high salary in your domestic country) or (c) sponsored by a company - and this is only normally done in the case that they cannot fulfil the job from the pool of labour within the EU or that you have specialist knowledge/experience

There are small differences but there generally the policies are very similar and restrictive for all EU countries, but I do not know about the non-EU ones.

The best thing to do in order to get accurate info including viability & time is to contact the embassy of the country you are interested in. They can provide you the official information and then you can go from there

Concerning the racing - well I'm no expert on this, but there are bound to be clubs and groups, that tour.  If you research these and contact them, then they can give you first-hand advice based on experience

Best of luck to you