How to become a pro race car driver?

Question

I just started karting at BeaveRun in PA this year. I am 13 years old. I have only drove 3 or 4 times and I am already running just as fast as the leader or even faster. This guy John Walko charges 20,000 dollars for expierience drivers to race a star mazda for one weekend. I don't have that kind of money in my pockets. My parents together make about 130,000 dollars a year. I just want to know how to make it big time and earn a living off of it. I prefer open wheel or road-racing.

Thanks, Zack Knotts

Answer 1

you have a ways to go before you can become a professional driver,keep in karts for a couple more years then move up to SCCA racing into the formula classes.after a couple years in SCCA you can send your resume to some formula atlantic teams and hope they look at you and your record,untill then keep learning as much as you can and remember seat time,seat time,seat time.

Answer 2

If your planning on going all the way, and I MEAN all the way to Formula One than you'll be spending around £6m (around $8m) on team funds and insurance.

(Apologises for not knowing the EXACT £-$ exchange rate so I haven't included them. :-( )

Let's start from the bottom:

Karting will set you back around £250k per season with a top kart because of costs to running the thing and of course all competitions have a entry fee as well.

Next up, as you prefer open-wheel, would be entry level single seaters. Over here in Europe, we have Formula Ford, Formula Renault and Formula BMW. You'll certainly have the latter two as well as Formula Mazda. These championships, with a top team, will set you back around £500k a year on running the car, entry fees and insurance.

After this is where it gets fuzzy in US terms for me, so I'll just explain it through what I know: Over here, the next step is Formula Three or the Renault World Series which will set you back £1m every 2 seasons, with a top team - the expenses are the same as before.

Up until now, you've spent around £1.75m on racing alone. Next, assuming you don't go for a season of the World Series if your in Formula Three, is GP2: Formula One's feeder series. A single season will set you back a million pounds because of the expensive machinery your doing.

Now, if and only if your good enough, will you even be considered for a test with a Formula One team, It'll set you back at least £2m for just a days worth of testing. Not only that, but you have to add on the fee to a Super-License to even be allowed to drive the car.

Still, let's recap: Karting-Junior Formulae-Formula Three or Renault World Series-GP2-F1, got that? :-P

Hope this helps.

- Phillip Roberts