Post by Kasey Kagawa

Back when I was sixteen years old, all of five years ago, my biggest concerns were passing Japanese class and studying for the county Academic Decathlon competition. For Max Chilton, he’s got a few other things on his plate, like passing strategies, trail braking and tire degradation, as one day after his 16th birthday, he raced in his British Formula 3 competition at Donington Park in Leicestershire. Similarly, seventeen year olds Kris Hall and Ella Flynn will be boning up on their opposite lock application and pace notes for their position in the 2007 Yokohama 205 Challenge rally series.

Nick Trott of Top Gear had a few comments about that on the Top Gear motorsports blog. He says that there are two sides to this issue; on one hand, racing is a very athletic activity, encourages competitiveness and social skills, and requires discipline and grace under pressure. He also points out that the odds are your kid will be too busy worrying about driving technique to be smoking everything that they can find. On the other hand, you’re sticking your kids in a hunk of metal that’s flying around a track and potentially through the air at very high speeds, being propelled by a highly flammable liquid that could turn the entire contraption into a rather spectacular fireball.

Now, as far as I’m concerned, getting your kids into racing is an amazing thing to do as a parent/child activity. It’s a very unique activity, something that your kid will definitely be able to brag about. It also teaches good car control and driving skills, and is something that will allow you to work directly with them in their interests. Of course, forcing your kid to do any “fun” activity is a bad idea, but if they’re genuinely interested (or you hook them early), it would be a great idea.

That said, how rich must these kid’s parents be? I’m currently getting a 1990 Miata ready for SCCA autocross, and with the cost of the car and the parts, it’s going to be $6000-7000 before I even hit a track. I talked to a guy who converted a Dodge Neon sedan into a championship-winning stock-class rally car, and he said that it cost him around $10k to build the car and $5k to run for a season. I know that they’re not being entirely financed by their families, but they had to be racing previously, and rally isn’t cheap, let alone semi-pro Formula racing. Karting and autocross are about as cheap as serious racing gets, and even they can easily run into five-digit figures. It’s a great activity, but certainly not a cheap one.

Kids hooked on speed: a good thing? [Top Gear Motorsport]