I love motor sports and if you are reading this posting the chances are that you are a motor sports fan also. As much fun as it is to watch our favorite professional motor sport in person or on TV, we all have a longing to get out on the track and show those guys that we have the right stuff to drive at their level. But to get out on the professional track takes time and money that most of us do not have to dedicate to a full time racing career. Rich people can buy a ride from the depth of their own pocket, but more often aspiring professional race drivers need to spend the majority of their time beating the bushes looking for sponsors.
For us enthusiastic amateurs there is a wide variety of motor sports opportunities that welcome beginners through talented wannabes. Everything from "run what ya brung" events at the local drag strip, to Autocross events in a large parking lot, to "open track" events at road course tracks scattered around the country. There is no reason that anyone with a valid driver's license, an approved helmet and a car in sound mechanical condition can not find a reasonable safe and well organized amateur auto sports event within a day's drive of most towns. Check the Internet and ask at your local speed shop for details about an event near you.
My level of comfort extends to Autocross and Open Track events. Autocross (racing one car at a time around a course marked by traffic cones) is very accessible to everyone, These are strictly amateur events and there are classes for everyone from beginners in completely stock cars to experienced drivers in trailer transported race cars. Racing speeds rarely exceed 30-40 mph and the emphasis is upon precision driving rather than raw speed. Beyond some squealing tires it is nearly impossible to do any serious damage to your car or yourself.
The next step up is the Open Track events available at most road courses. This requires a slightly higher level of driver skill and contains an equally heightened level of danger to the car and its driver because track speeds can easily exceed 100 mph if your car is capable of it. Organizers often welcome beginners with some level of instruction and run groups divided by driver experience.
But there are two events that are not offered as far as I know and I would love to see them available as a way for enthusiasts to test and ultimately improve their cars. The first event that should be offered to amateurs is a skid pad test. Using a standard 100-foot circle, competitors would determine exactly how much corning power their cars generate by computing speed and vehicle weight. The space required would be far less than the minimum of 10 acres smooth pavement most autocross events require and the hard information of a standard sized skid pad would allow people to compare their numbers with anyone else competing on a similar skid pad.
The other event that would interest me would be a zero to sixty-mph and then back to zero contest. A competitors would line up on a standard drag trip, but rather than run all out for a quarter mile the cars would get up to 60 mph as quickly as possible and then stop quickly as possible. This would be real world indication of your car's ability to perform within street legal conditions and would emphasis stopping as much as going.
This type of event should be particularly attractive to drag strips looking for new events to interest local competition and allow half sized 1/8th mile drag strips to offer an event that could be compared any other drag strip.