By Bob Bondurant (5/5/2001)
Okay, so you watch The Indianapolis 500 every year, you can't watch enough NASCAR, and of course, you go to as many races as you possibly can. Now you want to put on the helmet and gloves, get behind the wheel and go racing. But just how do you become a professional race car driver?
The hard truth is - and don't let this discourage you - there is no cut-and-dried system for breaking into professional auto racing. Unlike many other sports, talent alone does not ensure you will some day be a champion driver.
Today, auto racing is big business. In practical terms, that means you not only need to know how to drive well, you also need a strong business sense. First of all, you need to know how to market yourself. Not only do you need to sell yourself as a driver, but also you need to represent your team, and very importantly your sponsors as well.
To help illustrate this, let me explain how the typical professional motor racing team operates. It's important to keep in mind that the goal of any business is to make a profit - and professional motorsports is no exception. A team must create value for its sponsors or it will simply not stay in business.
Don't be fooled, racing doesn't come cheap. A professional racing team, such as a CART Team, NHRA Team, or NASCAR Team will easily spend millions of dollars to run a car for just one season. This includes money needed for spare cars, motors, parts, research, development, testing, transportation, airfare, crew salaries, hospitality, marketing...and the list just keeps on going and going.
The money to pay for all of this has to come from somewhere, and this is where the driver and sponsorship come into play. In many cases, professional racing teams actually RENT rides to drivers. By this I mean a team will charge "X" amount of dollars for a driver to run their car for a race, season, or whatever. The most qualified driver to bring the specified amount of money to the table is the one who will get to drive the car.
Now unless you're independently wealthy, you're going to have to come up with a high paying sponsor to buy your way onto the team. A sponsor may be interested in you because they want to be associated with motorsports, or realize the high demographic and advertising value that motorsports has to offer, or need a high-profile spokesperson for their company.
Whatever the case, as a race driver you must create value for your sponsor. That means drawing attention to the sponsor, either by your performance in the driver's seat or as a spokesman - or both. This is where your need for business, marketing, and public relations skills will come into play. It's expected that you will be available to promote the sponsor and the team, as well as yourself.
You will also need to learn how to invest some of the money to make a living. A good percentage, if not all, of the prize money from races goes to the team, depending on what you negotiate with them.
There are some instances where fully funded teams will scout for qualified drivers, and pay them to drive for the team. Drivers with these types of arrangements have proven themselves through years of experience as competent drivers and representatives.
So where do you get started? Well, this is where a professional driving school, such as The Bondurant School, comes in. By going to a professional school, you'll find out if you have the skills and desire to continue on, at a relatively inexpensive price. You will also learn skills that would otherwise take you years of experience to figure out on your own.
In four days of racing school, The Bondurant School can provide you with training that will give you the equivalent of about two and a half years of racing experience. The training teaches you what it feels like on the track, and when you're driving on-line or off-line. It also gives you knowledge of what can cause a car to slide and what to do to recover when it does. Our training methods have proven to be the most thorough of any driving school in the United States for the past 30 years.
Bob Bondurant, racer and entrepreneur, owns and runs the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Phoenix, Ariz. For more information on classes and schedules, click over to www.bondurant.com or call (800) 842-RACE (7223).
