Starting racing...Alone?

I started racing on my own this year. Bought a car and trailer and went through a season of 5 races (4 SCCA regionals and one local track). It took me four races to get the car running consistently as the transmission had to be pulled three times. I also essentially replaced every safety item on the car including hubs, brakes, suspension, multiple sets of tires, etc.

It's possible to do it all on your own but you need to be extremely motivated. The hardest part for me is unloading the car and unpacking everything after the drive home Sunday night. The more races I attend the more I fall into a routine and it seems to be getting easier. It's a 100% worth it but it makes me laugh a bit when coworkers that complain about changing brake pads tell me they want to start racing. 

You'll want a one-man kart stand and a trailer that you can load by yourself. 

went alone to my first, ten years later two of the people I met were groomsmen in my wedding.

I'm an organizer at a local club.  The following words are magic "Hi, I'm new at this. How do you...?"  General hints are look for the guys with the biggest hats, the most complete rain gear, and/or seem the most relaxed and open with the others.   Its almost hard NOT to make friends.

Met my neighbor at an autocross before I had met him in my neighborhood.   "Hey, that RX7 looks familiar... do you live??"  Within a month we were helping each other out with projects. 

A connection from autocross handed my resume to someone and I ended up getting my last job through that.  

Dont sweat it. Just check the ego at the door. 

njd said:

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I'm located in central Ohio just north of Columbus if there are any locals here.  

Man, I went to highschool up in Lewis Center...  Moved away before I started autocrossing though.  There are a few people on here from around there. 

Hey, I'm in Columbus! I started Lemons racing 10 years ago (!!) and met up with some people I had known through the Lemons forum and ended up with dozens of people I know in the Lemons racing circuit. I'm not racing at the moment due to two small kids but next year should see me back on a track at least once. I have also raced AER (American Endurance Racing) at Mid Ohio and that was a lot of fun, too.

In reply to enginenerd :

If I can ever get into club racing, one of the main reasons I would lean towards an F500 is because I already know someone who races one, so I can draw from his experience.  Settings, check lists, etc. 

Ian F said:

In reply to enginenerd :

If I can ever get into club racing, one of the main reasons I would lean towards an F500 is because I already know someone who races one, so I can draw from his experience.  Settings, check lists, etc. 

I would love to get into F500, but I am looking at a Club Ford (Mid 70's to 1980 Formula Ford) instead because it has more places to run and there are very few F500 cars locally from the look of it (Wash. DC)   Run as the only or at best 1 of 3 F500s or have a choice of fairly healthy groups at SCCA, FRCCA, VRG, etc..  

TL;DR: +1 on”you’re only as alone as you want to be”.

I drove my Fairmont to my first track day (PDX) with the DC Region at Summit Point. It turned out that the Shenandoah Circuit was too much for my un-cooled power steering system to handle, and it locked the pump up so firmly that it stalled a warmed-up 302. Not only did I have so much help pushing it back to it’s spot in the paddock that needed to manage people’s hand placement (Fairmonts are made of pop cans), but it got a 2.5 hour ride back to Altoona, PA from a guy that lived pretty close to the track. That whole day reinforced my perception that motorsports people are some of the best people. 

I started alone.  For a year or two I tried getting several of my friends involved.  Several went and raced with me, but none ever got involved on a long-term basis.  Then I gave up and just tried to be friendlier at events.  I made a bunch of friends quickly, which is unusual for me since I'm not a very outgoing person by nature.  The thing is, I suck at small talk.  The great part about racing at any level is the small talk is pretty much taken care of.  "What you running?", "What times are you turning?", "Is your car modified at all?", "Raced anywhere else this year?", etc.  Boom, small talk taken care of.  Many of my friendships that started with that kind of "small talk" have since gone way beyond racing.  

Another solution is to race with your kids, but I don't recommend having kids just to have a "racing buddy".  

Me and Kazoo Jr. from Saturday: 

At an HPDE/autocross I feel like it's very easy to make friends. It's a niche sport and people are only there for the same reason as you.

I often race alone in the sense that I build, prep, load and haul by myself most of the time.  However, I've never been at a track for more than thirty minutes before I felt like I was among friends. 

I showed up at a Mid-Ohio track day alone, and pretty quickly ended up with two guys I was chatting with, comparing notes with, talking about our cars with. It really is super easy with such a clear common interest to meet people.