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Originally Posted by Jordan
How does one learn whether one would enjoy racing without having to first buy a race spec car, a trailer, a tow vehicle, etc., etc., etc? I'm at a point where I need to decide whether to put more money into my nice still pretty new street-HPDE car that I love (e.g., roll bar, harnesses, race seats), or instead take the racing fork in the road. Storage and space is a major limitation for me; I have a two car garage townhouse, so I'd have to find somewhere to store the trailer and track-race car- but that's a separate question. For starters, I'm just wondering how one gets their license and finds out if one wants to go down that road before buying all the toys.
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First of all it is very difficult to "dip one's toe" into racing. More like an entire leg and then some
Getting your license varies with different organizations. Probably the easiest is SCCA or NASA. It requires attending their school for a full weekend successfully and that's pretty much it. You can also attend a professional racing school like Bertil Roo or Bondurant (if they are still around) and I believe they will honor that. PCA requires you to work your way up through the DE ranks until a senior instructor will sign you off for a racing license. If Porsche is your thing there are plenty of shops that will rent you a Spec Boxster with full support for about 5k for a weekend. If I was to start over again that is most likely where I would begin. As others have said Spec Miata is the least expensive way to go racing and there are plenty of rentals right at Summit Point.
All I can say is once you experience the adrenaline of the start of a race I can't imagine there's anything more addictive.