Since I'm so fond of driving and cars. I think I want to start some training and become a racing driver. It takes lots of dedication and resource, but I want to find out what are some of the steps. I know in UK there are racing driver license, is there such thing here in the US? and Would a Track day be a good start to get a feel for racing? Also are the pro-driving schools any good? I live around the Big Apple, so theres nothing except for street racing. I think the nearest Track with track day events is in Jersey, with a requirement to join the club first.
First, how old are you?
That's the money question when you first start out. Your age is going to determine what level or area you have a realistic chance of getting to. For the record I'm ignoring ovals. I have basically no knowledge of what it's like to try for a career there.
If you're older than 25 you can forget about it. Unless you have enough money to buy a pro or semipro seat outright ($100,000 - $600,000 per year) and even then you'd have to win a number of races in your first season.
If you're under 25 but still over 20, realistically sports cars are your only option. You're not going to Indy unless you're an instant superstar. Do a racing school, get into NASA or SCCA, do a couple of seasons in tin tops (spec Miata, Spec E30, something like that with a large grid size), and see how you stack up. This is going to cost you at least $30,000 for your first season, if you drive someone else's car (pay to play), including schools and licensing. If you stack up well enough (in other words, if you win everything), go after the sponsors like mad and try to get yourself into something on TV. MX-5 Cup or Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge would be what you're looking at there, with an eventual goal of Grand Am Rolex prototypes or American Le Mans. To do that you'd need a budget of about $70,000 for MX-5 and $120,000 for CTSCC in the ST class ($200,000 if you wanna race the BMW's and Porsches in the GS class). If you do not have a consistent record of finishing on the podium and winning most of the races on the calendar in club racing, the sponsors won't touch you for professional racing. Obviously you also gotta be a shmooze.
If you go that route, you'll need between $500,000 and $1 million in cash and about 6-10 years of your life (or more) before you get paid. When you do get paid, either driving for the dominant Grand Am Rolex GT team, or one of the top 3 Rolex Prototype teams, or as a factory driver in American Le Mans, you can expect a $100,000 paycheck if you're good. No doubt the economy will change drastically by then and those numbers are irrelevant.
If you don't have the natural talent to win that much that quickly, you need training. That takes time and more money. A season of 12 races in a Skip Barber regional series where you will have a team of coaches attending to you will cost you $20,000-$30,000 in outright fees, plus the fees for the 5 or so days of racing school you need to attend (about $6,000-$7,000). Don't buy the "$14,500 for a full season" sell. Yes, you can do it that way but you will get minimal track time and you probably won't develop enough talent to win any races. If you wanna go that route call the school and get them to spell it out for you so it's clear. You'll probably need to do at least 2 seasons worth, probably more. Seasons at Skip Barber happen twice a year, summer and winter. It's best to do this training in the Formula 2000 car. It costs the same, is faster than the Miata, and you'll learn a lot more. After you complete your training at Skip Barber try for the first plan. If you have enough money (double), do the National race series.
If you're under 20 you still have time to try some karting, or make your way up the formula car ladder. If you're good in formula cars you can be good in anything. That's what I'm doing.
But to come up with an exact idea of what you need to do we need to know your age, how much you can spend, and what you'd like to do. Nothing is impossible strictly speaking. Hell you might even be the next IndyCar star. But you gotta take it one step at a time and the first few are the most important.
The good news is, if you do find that you genuinely love it, two things happen:
1) you realize that you can actually afford to race in some way shape or form, on almost any budget.
2) you gain the necessary drive to make it. That's the biggest bit. Most of the guys that don't make it usually fall out simply because they don't really want it. A lot of times they want to be race car drivers just because they think it's cool, or they want to be rich and famous. If you genuinely love to drive fast, and have a fundamental need to do so, you'll probably find a way to make it work.