I think it’s safe to say that anyone who’s into things with engines and wheels (or a hull, why not) has entertained the idea of racing that thing, even if only as a fantasy. I’ve been a racer myself on two wheels but with no motor (BMX, the mediocre-ist 16 Expert in New England) and on four wheels but not actually inside the car (because they’re radio-controlled).
Should I ever have the time and money to go racing “for real” (or just enjoy track-running a vehicle), keeping things small seems like the most fun to me. Kart racing looks like a blast, and that’s a dream I’ve harbored since kid-me hot-lapped parking lots with five Briggs and Stratton horses behind my right elbow. I suppose I could dream bigger, but if it’s going to be a hobby and not my life, being a casual kart racer feels ideal.
The other dream is motocross, with an actual motor, not just my legs. Back in my early teen years when I could be found aboard a Honda XR100 nearly every day it was above 40 degrees and not raining, I thought I could be a pretty good motocrosser. I was fearless and jumped higher and farther than anyone else I knew with a dirt bike, so I figured I surely would have been a natural. But I was already stretched pretty thin scraping together entry fees for BMX races, so managing to somehow get a proper CR80 to go racing seemed impossible. And even if I could, I doubt Mom and Dad would have green-lit me upping the two-wheeled danger level I already had in my life. But as an out-of-shape 58-year-old, maybe now’s the time!
What motorsport or auto racing class looks the most fun to you?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Was at Climb to the Clouds a few weekends ago, my first hill climb event! There is now a part of me that wants to try that …
I did motocross when I was younger, but it got too expensive too fast for me to be competitive and feel like it was worth pursuing. Plus I almost killed myself and decided, for my own survival, it was time to put the motorcycles behind me.
Kart racing is fun, but I had a friend who was a professional kart racer and holy crap is it expensive. He did get to try out for Indycar and a few other racing series, but the cost is just astronomical.
I think I’d like to try rally racing, probably in a SxS format that a friend participates in. Cost of entry is a bit high, as you need something decent like a high-spec Polaris RZR, but you can race in a spec class and not have to spend a ton more money besides maintenance and repairs.
I think for me some sort of “B-spec” racing with Honda Fits, Ford Fiestas, Mazda 2s and the like. Reasonably affordable and safe. Someone else mentioned the Renault Twingo TwinCup, love that idea as well.
Insane me really would want to be a world-class rally and hill-climb driver, but lack of talent and testicles made out of flesh rather than brass are definitely limiting factors.
I currently run B-Spec in a 2004 Mini Cooper at my local track. It is a blast! Reasonably inexpensive due tot he low weight and power, so consumables don’t wear out as fast. The issue is that a lot of these cars are old and parts are getting hard to procure.
I didn’t realize people ran older cars!
I guess it makes sense now that none of those cars mentioned above are even for sale anymore.
At one time I was looking at B-spec Yaris racing. That was over 10 years ago now, I suppose. It seemed like getting a few year old used one setup to race came in under the price of a new stock one, so not really a bad deal but more than LeMons or some other options.
Lemons racing looks like fun and the cost of entry seems to be about as low as it gets.
Demolition derbies could be fun. Bumper cars on steroids.
Luckily, the venn diagram for Lemons and a demo Derby are tangential (mostly).
I did an intro to Rallycross event this past spring and it was a blast, hoping to do more in the future. Highly recommend as a lower stakes alternative to stage rally.
The other thing I’ve always wanted to try but never quite gotten around too when I had the right cars was some “run what you brung” friday night drag racing.
I grew up doing the “run what you bring” Friday drags and it was a blast. I’m not sure how it is now, but back in the ’90s it was a chill vibe of humorous competition and if someone broke something everyone drained into the pit area to help chip in to fix it.
Yeh I’ve spectated Friday night drags at a few different tracks over the years and it’s always seemed like a pretty chill time.
Demolition Derbies always looked like a TON of fun to me as a kid. My family used to go Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine to watch it. Letting my inner redneck show. Has to be about the CHEAPEST motorsport, though not sure they still do it.
I would like to save up enough dough to participate in the non-competitive class of the Targa Newfoundland. it looks like an absolute blast.
I’m gonna go with bar stool racing. Relatively cheap, no need for a transporter, 1 or 2 person team, element of danger. Looks like fun.
I did motocross when I was young but got too big too fast to be competitive. It can get very expensive to be competitive.
I had to look that up.
It’s all right there in the name!
I first read about it 25-30 years ago. I’m still not sure how safe it would be for me with my height (6’5”) and high center of gravity. I’ve had to give up motorcycles and horse riding due to frequent unscheduled dismounts resulting in hospitalization. I find I’m really good at BarcaLounger racing (sitting watching racing events of the tube).
Midget car racing. Small vehicle mainly dirt track. Looks like a bast. There used to be similar dirt track mini truck racing that also looked fun.
Some tracks used to have same car and even same year races. Those always seemed fun. I haven’t seen or heard of one in years.
Any sort of powerboat racing does it for me. Seems to combine the coolest parts of car racing with the added challenge of an unpredictable surface.
Motorcycle side cars! I would love to be the counterbalance!
The motocross monkeys are the craziest monkeys!
I’d love to be the “asphalt tester” in the sidehack, as well. I’m not positive I’d be any use as a driver, but I’m very helpful!
As for Sidecar Motocross it looks like more fun, and is more fun to watch, but I’d be in a full body cast if I ever took either position.
Oh, combine two whack sports together and it’s a good thing I’m about 50 years too old for either one, let alone the combine! Wow!
Shiftercarts
Because I think I could conceivably do it. I like motorcycle track rides, but I recognize I will never be competitive. But my kids and I being hyper-competitive at Go-Karts have taught me anything is that we need to try Shiftercarts to seriously amp up our on-track conflict.
I am contemplating an older Yamaha R6 to take to trackdays. I don’t want a sport bike for the road (too dangerous), but to learn how to handle it on a track seems like the sweet spot.
Track days are amazingly fun events.
I would strongly encourage you to see if there’s a track local to you that offers race courses with their bikes.
Smaller bikes (sub-1000cc) are so much easier to handle when you’re casual and not trying to ride on the absolute limits. I had a blast years ago when I had a Supermoto on a trackday.
oooh, would be awesome to be able to rent a bike. Although I am thinking the expensive piece may be the leathers.
It’s been a very long time for me; at the time the bikes and gear were both available for rent for the course itself.
My advice: pay their insurance in case you bin it, and pick the SV650 if they have it (linear power delivery for learning is way easier).
I think the New Zealand Jet Boat racing looks pretty fun!
https://youtube.com/shorts/qYF1vy_x-FI?is=SwVrO2Mz3-B28cd8
Lemons realistically though sounds like a fun, and possible, alternate.
Looking at the bat-shit crazy NZ jet boat racing videos makes my butt pucker.
I’d most like to have a go at some kind of rally, but tbh “most fun” would probably be Lemons.
If only they raced here in the UK, and I could afford a £500 car (plus all the safety equipment)
LTDScott and I just did the Lemons Rally in California last week in my 1976 Volvo 66 GL. It was indeed most fun.
It was a blast!
It’s not stage rally but I dabbled in a non-competitive amateur rallycross event this past spring and it was a ton of fun and much lower barrier to entry than getting into actual stage rally.
The right regions do TSD rally with “brisk” assigned speeds on dirt and sand backroads and occasionally in the snow and ice
Motorcycle Flat Track
Totally…it is absolutely as much fun as it looks, maybe more. It’s hard to describe how good a perfect turn feels – things seem to slow down as you slide right at the edge of control yet everything feels completely locked in, as chaotic as it looks.
I love watching these races, but damn if I can’t get myself to think about hucking a motorcycle into a corner with no brakes.
I always thought the Nissan Micra Cup Series looked like a lot of fun.
I wish Nissan sold the Micra down here 🙁
BeamNG 😛
Is pretty fun.
At the Pittsburgh Vintage Gran Prix there is a class just for the original Mini. It looks like an absolute hoot.
I did 4 or 5 laps as fast as I could around the part of that park that is left open, at about 2 am, with 3 other friends, all of us on BMW motorcycles, so it wasn’t too noisy. We then got out of there in case anyone reported us.
The serpentine through the golf course? Yeah, a great drive. Shame they have had the hairpin and hill blocked to the public for years now. Won’t lie about running my old SHO a time or two.
I’m not a huge racing fan, mostly because I find all forms of motorsport extremely inaccessible. Since I have no interest in getting arrested or endangering the safety of others, I don’t see much of a point of owning a sports car or even a sporty-ish car. I think I might be more interested in motorsports if I could find a way to legally participate without spending thousands of dollars or dedicating many hours of my life to it.
If I could do one motorsports-adjacent activity, it would be a track day. Ideally, this would be the least formal track day possible. I just want to be able to show up with a safe-ish car and drive a few laps with said car at a fast but safe speed. So far, I haven’t been able to make this happen.
This is why people like MX-5/Miatas. You can have fun with them, without exceeding the speed limit.
Unfortunately, I exceed the size limit for a Miata. Those look fun, though.
And used to be old British sportscars, of course now pretty rare given none have sold new in USA since the early 1980s.
Kei cars like a Honda Beat or Suzuki Cappuccino as Mercedes has proved can be cheap(ish) equilivant.
Surprisingly quick search for the cheapest car sold in USA 10 yrs ago was the 2016 Chevy Spark starting at $13k new; which (another quick search) turns up the Spark as Also the lightest car sold in 2016 at 2245 lbs
Autocross is worth checking out; it’s very reasonably priced, you can drive there in what you race, the odds of vehicular damage are low, and it’s a blast to see just how capable your everyday car actually is. Spoiler – for most cars, it’s way more than we think, and for most of us, beyond our skills to access.
Agreed! Autocross is super fun and accessible, you can drive almost anything wider than it is tall, and it costs almost nothing to enter most events.
To the OP, if you want to do a track day, I bet you could run with Track Night In America. As long as your car is enclosed and safe, you can probably drive it on track. It’s very casual and accommodating to newbies. I saw a guy driving a new-ish camry at the last one I went to – though he was in the intermediate class and actually moving quite fast!
Twin’Cup It’s spec Twingo racing
Enduro Racing. The kind where you take all of the glass out of a slow crap can and go around a track bashing into each other over and over until only one car is left. That sounds like the absolute best time ever.
Stadium Super Trucks just look like a ball of fun.
How is this not the biggest sport on TV?!? The trucks leaning radically in corners and immediately flying off jumps! Violent crashes! Insane vehicle-to-vehicle contact! It’s complete madness.
Came to the comments to look for this answer. Had a conversation with a coworker earlier this week about how ridiculous these were.
I bet it’s actually grueling, but I think baja events like Paris-Dakar (or whatever it is now) or the Baja 1000 are amazing and look like a blast.
2CV ice racing. No question.
You know what looks like a blast and a half?
Monster truck racing.
Runner up: figure 8 racing, especially when towing a boat or camper.
The stadium freestyle runs do seem like a blast if you know what you’re doing.
Supermoto
Flat Track
And TT for those special times when I don’t care about my health.