Hello all,

I'm 20 yrs old and currently a college student, I'm hoping to get in the track with my 04 Mini but I'm aware that I will need an instructor and some training before geeting to compete with others... I'm located in Boston so NH motorspeedway is where I might start..
I have most of the safety equipment, but my car remains stock as of now, I'm planning to AutoX it under G-Stock.

Can anyone recomend a thread or website that could serve me as guide?

 

Have you done any track driving? HPDE (high performance driver education) is a good start to work out what's what. Find your local tracks and see what organisations offer track days.

If you want to get race licenced, see what the requirements of the organisation you're planning to run with are. If you're thinking SCCA they usually want you to do one of their regional race licencing schools. If you're thinking NASA they want you to be running in their HPDE 4 group before you go on to racing. (To get to HPDE 4, you're probably going to need 10 or 20 track days.)

There also tend to be professional driving schools at the various tracks, they offer courses leading to a race licence. Out here that's people like Skip Barber or Prodrive. I don't know what you have out your way.

Edit to add: You mention NH Motorspeedway, they list track days: http://www.nhms.com/schedule/open/trackdays/ and racing schools: http://www.nhms.com/schedule/open/schools/

 

Also, you say:

What safety equipment do you have. To race, you'll need a full roll cage, race seat and full harness and fire extinguisher. Are you sure you want to race, not just drive on the track. HPDE is non competitive and lots of fun. It doesn't require all that.

 

Come to Devens on August 18th? New England Region SCCA is running, and not only might you have a lot of fun, you would also be surrounded by folks that can answer that question and many others!

http://www.ner.org

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

Charlie's suggestion is a good one. Devens is a nice AX venue and a good crowd. I've never been there myself, but have been won-over by all the positive posts on car forums.

The next step would be the HPDE (track events) where you can drive your car as it is (assuming it passes inspection), and learn from an assigned instructor. Not racing, but you can drive as fast as your skill level, your car, and your instructor allow.

Compared to track events, racing at any level is expensive, and will test the discretionary time and pocket depth of most college students. See if track events will satisfy your need for speed first. It worked for me.