Introducing my daughter to racing

H

hjsmith00843

New member
My daughter has gotten the bug. She is 11 and has always loved going to tracks with me to various motorsports.

She will be going to many track practice sessions at the track we will be racing before I let her on the track with more than a few other drivers.

To save a few $ would it be wise to just put a cheap stock motor on the kart until she gets the feel for it. I was thinking of getting a harbor freight motor and just putting a header on it. SO she can be accustomed to the sounds.

With this motor she can run many laps and I will not worry about it. I would hate to wear out a race built motor just on practice sessions. My engine builder is not exactly cheap but he has very high quality engines.
 
Sure, A stock clone or predator with a big pipe and governor removed will actually be faster than the plate motor she would probably race with. You might need to slow it down with some type of throttle limit. Not sure if you can run the stock gas tank and air filter on there, never saw anyone try.
 
Going through the same right now with my 11 year old daughter. I have no problem with her running the blue plate flathead- it's not beating that up much for sure. Bigger issue: CLUTCH! I pulled the Tomar off after one session and put on an old noram shoe clutch with heaviest shoes possible and lightest springs. She's run two sessions of open practice, We'll keep doing this for rest of the year and get her on the track next year.
 
While I don't really disagree with this, there's so much difference between a stock engine, and a out-of-the-box prepared engine, it makes me wonder. I realize it's going to take her some time to hone her driving skills, but an out-of-the-box engine is going to be so slow, compared to the competition, it may discourage her. You've got yourself in a real pickle!

You mentioned, "practice sessions" and if that is all it's going to be, no problem, but if you are going to enter her in races, that's a different story.

From the desk of Al Nunley
Comments compliments criticisms and questions always welcome.
If the data does not support the theory, get a new theory. (Al Nunley)
 
Ohh she will be on some type of shoe clutch until she learns how to keep the clutch cool when under pace lap speeds. Norams can be bought for pretty cheap too. Just practice sessions for the remainder of the year. I often see kids and adults racing when they have no business in a competitive environment because of the lack of practice.
 
If they have a dedicated "rookie" class, put the stocker on, and let her race with them. Might as well see if she has any natural talent, and or the desire to mix it up in traffic.

I think that generallly speaking young ladies race to please their father, and it may, or may not be a natural choice. Parent expectations throw many a kid off the track nature has more or less designed them for.
What else does she do? Play piano? Great scholastically? Will racing, which is a hobby, nothing more, downplay other, far more important, and in the
long run, more rewarding aspects of her life.
Racing is overwhelmingly time consuming, and expensive. Be sure of your priorities.

Old dad here!! ;)
 
What PD Power said !! My daughter raced because I raced. She wanted to tell me for a couple of weeks that she was ready to quit but hated to do it. Turns out she wanted to concentrate on soccer........ Shes smarter than me !! Her college education is being paid for by soccer.... not racing.
 
If she does it and does not like it ohh well. I will either find a driver or sell hers. She has been driving a pulling tractor for a while now against adults and making them look bad. She wants to race, I ask her over and over again to make sure. Not worried about cost. ;)
 
I've started so many rookie drivers over the years (child and adult) that I've lost count. In my experience the first hurdle you have to get over is trusting the kart to turn and go where you steer it (without pushing into the fence or spinning out). Few rookie drivers are talented enough to extract every ounce of power out of their engine from day one. And you should teach them how different chassis adjustments "feel" on the track, which can take a lot of laps. So I prefer to use a reliable workhorse engine and save my better engines for actual races. As long as the workhorse has reasonably comparable power to the actual race engine the rookie driver shouldn't have a learning disadvantage. After I've worked with a rookie driver long enough to feel confident that they can handle the real race engine then we practice some with it too.

Go ahead and start with the Predator. I'd leave the governor intact - that power limitation will help teach conservation of momentum, which is important when driving in the "stock" classes. After she looks good with that engine, and you've practiced different chassis adjustments and she seems to be getting a feel for those too, then go ahead and mount your race motor and let her practice with that.

As far as when to actually start racing you might want to wait until she's comfortable with a few other karts on the track with her, and when her lap times are in the ballpark of the lap times her competitors turn. Even then I prefer to start rookies in the back until they've driven a few races, so they learn how to handle starts and find the racing groove. Don't forget Dad that you are also on a learning curve about how to set up her kart to her liking.
 
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