If you're just getting started in racing and haven't been through our Getting Started In Racing section, I highly recommend reviewing that first. It gives a broad overview of the different types of racing you can get involved in and how to get started doing so.

If you've got some racing under your belt, but haven't gotten your racing license or are ready to take your racing to the next level, attending a racing school is a logical next step. It's always a good idea to get some school experience early in your racing career so that a professional can observe your driving and correct any major issues before they become long-term bad habits. It's kind of like building your house on a solid foundation verses in the sand.

As far as which school to go to, there's a bunch of them out there for just about every form of racing. Fortunately, a couple of racing-school-specific web sites are available to make your search for a racing school much simpler. Of course, if you live in the North Texas region, I have to put in a plug for Texas Driving Experience at the Texas Motor Speedway [TMS] were I work as an instructor in our Z06 Corvettes. We’ve got a number of programs from taking a few laps around the road course at TMS to an all day Introduction to Road Racing Class. Check out this cool video of some laps around the 1.5 mile oval at TMS.

  

Raceshools.com and RacingSchools.com both provide a great deal of info on various schools around the country and can assist you in making a decision on which school may be best for you based on your racing experience and where you live. Click on their respective links above to see their sites.

Another great resource for racing schools is the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). The local SCCA chapter will generally hold a racing clinic or school at least once per year for its members (and most anyone can join - its not very expensive, and their racing schools are generally less expensive also, especially if you already have a race car). Since many racing series compete under SCCA sanctioning, it's the SCCA racing license that is needed anyway. Check out the SCCA Driver's School web page for more info.

Racing Sims

Professional race car drivers do it, professional airline and military pilots do it, and astronauts do it! Train in a sim, that is! Simulators are fantastic for practicing procedures and honing skills. The airlines have enough faith in simulators that once a pilot completes sim training, their first flight in the actual jet is with passengers on board! Think about that next time you take a trip somewhere. Don't worry though, that's why there's two pilots up front! Just kidding. Usually, that pilot already has thousands of flying hours, so the simulator training really is for practicing the procedures for that specific aircraft and honing skills.

With today's latest generation PC and gaming boxes, state-of-the-art racing simulators are available to you for very little cost. There's no better bang-for-your-buck way to hone your basic racing skills than in your own racing sim. Instead of millions of dollars for full motion simulators like the airlines use, you can set up your own PC or gaming sim for as little as a hundred bucks if you've already got a PC or game box. All you need is a good force feedback steering wheel with brake and gas pedals along with whatever type of racing simulator software you like.

If you want to get fancy, a number of manufacturers offer racing sim setups that include a chair and frame mounts for your monitor, steering wheel, and foot pedals - it all just depends on how much you want to spend. Or if you get creative, you can come up with something like we did - for free. Banged the wings back into shape on a wrecked Formula Mazda nose (we dug it out of a trashcan at a local SCCA race), attached steering wheel and a shelf to hold a monitor, set some old slicks next to it, put a seat behind the wheel, and presto - instant racing simulator. It works anyway.

When it comes to racing simulator software, you have a multitude to choose from. However, for developing and fine-tuning racing skills, a program that simulates the type of racing you do is probably the best choice. EA Sports has some great racing software from NASCAR to Formula 1. The NASCAR ones you can get most anywhere that sells gaming software, but you'll probably have to hit eBay or do an online search for any of the old F1 games. F1 Challenge '99 - '02 is an excellent one if you can find it.

The online gaming community also has some phenomenal sims. rFactor.net is probably one of the coolest ones out there and has a variety of racing venues with road course racing being its mainstay. If you're into straightline racing, drag race online against live players at RPMworld. Their Flash game allows you to build and tune a virtual muscle car. You can challenge other live players to a quarter mile drag race. There are 40 cars to choose from, and you can trade cars and parts with other players.

Its free to try, you get 25 races to check it out. If you enjoy playing they will give you 300 credits (races) for just ten bucks! If you like street racing, NHRA, IHRA, or NASCAR, you have to try this. After your first purchase you get access to the chat room, where players will sell you tricked out cars, and give you some pointers on winning races.

There's millions more out on the web. All you have to do is put "racing sim" in Google and get about eight million hits. Don't waste a whole lot of time looking for one though. Just find one you like and get practicing. Try one of the ones above or see what's recommended at some of the online race sim communities like TotalRacingSims.com or Race Sim Central.

If you've read through this section and haven't visited the rest of our site, the vast majority is about how to fund your racing addiction. See our free, online Racing Sponsorship manual for all about sponsorship. Also, whether you're a racer or race fan, check out these other ways to fund your racing addiction besides sponsorship. Thanks and see you at the track!