tnz5106

I am wanting to get into racing and take my 12 year old son with me. I thought about getting back into drag racing. I raced back in the late 70s early 80s, but I think I would get bored again with that.

Since I have owned c6s the past year, I have really fell in love with road racing. My son and I are both much more interested in road racing vs drag racing. I have my '05 mn6 coupe and my '07 z06. Does anybody think it would be a good idea to start tracking my '05? I would be willing to make mods to the car, suspension as well as engine. I would like to drive it to the track, but later maybe put a cage in it and more serious mods. Trouble is, I know NOTHING about this type of racing. Are there tracks within a couple of hrs from east tn? How do you get started in road racing? Is there a forum I can go to and learn like I have here?

Any help would be appreciated........

wmk32

Best thing you can probably do is go take a class at Spring Mountain or one of the other advanced driving schools.

Webz

I would suggest Henry Gilberts school. In his schools you will be driving corvettes so you can get used to your car. He is having one at Putnam Park which is probably 6 hrs from you or he also has them at Roebling Road. Here is a link to a thread on his event at Putnam.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1861217

I would think VIR which is a great road course is probably within 3 hrs of you. Here is a link to their website.

http://www.virclub.com/vir/

If you want to jump right into using your car on a track with an in car instructor then I would suggest an event with NASA. NASA is holding an event at VIR in February. Some links NASA and the VIR event.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1886487
http://www.nasaproracing.com/

Road courses are a great place to experience your car and meet a good group of people. It's very addictive.

Have fun!

KCHOTBOAT

I autox with our 12 year old. He spends the day riding with several people in all the heats. We are now building him a car autox.

AU N EGL

Perry

Do you want to get into actually wheel 2 wheel racing or doing High Performance Drivers Events / track days?

There is a difference.

actully racing will require many modifications to your car, ie it wont really be streetable after the roll cage is installed.

If you wish to get into W2W racing, there is the SCCA.com and NASA

http://www.nasaracing.net/ Mid Atlantic region.

If you looking at getting into track days, there are many car clubs that off these events. NASA is one, PCA, BMW, and yes even the National Corvette Museum has HPDEs.

For either one you have come to the right place. Lots of good info here
in these forum

tnz5106

Thanks for the info guys, very helpfull. As far as two wheel, I am only interested in road racing or maybe autocross. Did I use a term that sounds like bikes? If I did I have shown my ignorance...........thanks everyone.

btw......is there no tracks that support road racing in east to middle tn? All of these carolina tracks are at least 6 hrs from me........thanks

Ralphie

The question was do you want to race Wheel to Wheel. Meaning you are in a competetion against somebody else. Or would you rahter just do HPDE classes?

If you think crack is a expensive habit, you will be amazed at how much road racing will cost you.

Lancer033

what about autoX? All you need is a big parking lot, so there's got to be someone in Tenn to run with. There's less of a chance to hit stuff when you mess up and a good way to learn car control that will translate well to Roadcourse work later on if you like it.

73-84 IMSA Widebody

Many of the best racers here started in autocross offered by many clubs "locally". That in conjunction with a school would be your best start. Don't do anything to the car other than check everything and go over maintenance. You will have the opportunity to blow alot of money down the road if you want to get real serious but for now start at the beginning and have fun.

varkwso

I have run the "Roval" at Nashville, Little Talledaga near Anniston, Barber near Birmingham and Road Atlanta in Braselton. Knoxville has converted their track to dirt. Memphis runs events on their roval also. North of you is Putnam and ORP (formerly known as IRP).

Both of my sons have been brought up in the paddock - nice place to hang out with your kid. I had the chance to spend a lot of time with them that way. Of course get prepared for eventually getting beat by them...

Look into track days and autocross to figure out the cost of the addiction.

AU N EGL

Eastern Tenn has Thousand Suns race track that is planned. Dont know the status of the new track at Oak Ridge, Tennessee http://www.thousandsunsmotorsports.com/home%20page.htm

and to find other tracks

http://www.trackpedia.com

Good Luck

varkwso

Not real soon - HAZMAN has the inside scoop being local to the area....

Independent1

Here is a site that lists all the racing tracks.

http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/

I would definitely go to one of the driving schools as others have said.

Before spending a lot of $$ modifying the vette have you considered buying a used race car? In the long run it could be a lot less expensive and more fun to drive. You can get used race cars that you can take to HPDEs for a lot less than it takes to modify your vette, not to mention the damage you will do to your vette if you do a lot of HPDEs.

Good luck.