On the last post, I was talking about how to get into racing, and cost behind it. Some of you might get discouraged, and maybe not want to go into racing.

But there are ways to hopefully make racing more budget friendly.

You can volunteer your time with a track organizer for corner work, or whatever they need you for in exchange for free track time. Organizers always need volunteers since renting out a track for an event can get expensive, and probably don’t enough money left to pay for additional staffing. Personally, NASA offers free track time if you volunteer your time to help out. Volunteer you time for a track weekend, and you’ll get track credits for upcoming events.

Another way to get free or discounted track time is becoming an instructor. But to become an instructor you do need to have track experience under your belt, or better yet have MSF (motorsport safety foundation) accreditation. This option, you’ll have to pay initially. The MSF level 1 cost $50, then to get to level 2 you’ll pay $500. Once you become an instructor, you get the free or discounted rate for the race weekend. Again, you’ll give your free time to instruct, but you will have your own session tracking. The downside is, if your have car issues, you might have very little time to fix it. After your session, you’ll be instructing, and then go out racing shortly after, depending on the schedule.

What about getting sponsored? Yes, you can do that, but I think its very hard to get 100% sponsored. I have sent sponsorship proposals to companies that I have used their products on the AE86. Only 2 said yes, and was very small discount. I got 10% off my order, and in exchange, I had put a sticker on my car. I think the only way sponsorship works for the benefit to the driver, is if you have a big media following. If you do get that big sponsorship, you’ll be in some kind of contract with that company to plug them in the media. That what I’m thinking since I’m not sponsored in a big way. But the pro drivers I see racing, that do have the big media presence seems to have the big companies logos on the car and race suits. If they are on TV or streamed, obviously people will see the company logos. For me, I just don’t have big social presence, but I’m working on it to hopefully make it grow.

Regardless, you’ll still need to put in the effort. No one is going to hand you a free track day. I hope his article helps you. See y’all at the track!

Links:
https://www.motorsport-safety.org/
https://drivenasa.com/