Racing With Your Kids

New experience this weekend. My son has been autocrossing with me for 5 or 6 years as a passenger. We've got pics of him in the passenger's seat his helmet just barely poking over the dashboard. He's already been my "racing buddy" for several years. This weekend, things got moved up a notch, since he's now the proud owner of a driver's permit and able to enter as a driver (at least at SCCA events). What a great day.

Things we learned (in no particular order): 1. Things can be scary and fun at the same time. 2. Tactically, he's learned a lot from the passenger's seat. He already knows how to approach a course, and sometimes makes better approach/line decisions than I do. 3. Depending on conditions, the same car can both understeer AND oversteer. 4. Keep calm and work the problem, even if the tires are squealing and the car is sliding. 5. It's not over til it's over. (This lesson was learned when he coned away his best run at the last gate) 6. He'll almost certainly beat me some day soon.

Sadly: 7. Always double check to be sure the SD card is in the video camera.

Next summer my grandson will be able to autocross with me for the first time. He has been talking about it for two years since I first mentioned it to him that he could.

When my twin boys were about 3 they told mom and grandma "dad always beats me". I got quite the stink eye until I explained that we were racing.

Son is 15 1/2 and absolutely dying to start autocrossing! I can't wait to have him as my co-driver......the question is how long till he can beat the old man.

I've been autocrossing with my kids for 10+ years. I've been beat by them fairly often. Three of them are of driving age and regularly show up to events.

Rallycross is a new thing for us this year and everyone has had a blast. Our family is regularly announced as the "(Our last name) Class."

The youngest one is who we stick in cars, to help people that get lost on course. At the last rallycross he made 42 runs.

Great times that will get better as he gets better.

KyAllroad wrote: Son is 15 1/2 and absolutely dying to start autocrossing! I can't wait to have him as my co-driver......the question is how long till he can beat the old man.

My son is 15 1/2 as well and currently on a restricted driver's permit. It's not exceptionally well advertised, but most SCCA events will allow them to run on a permit. Local clubs are about a 50/50 mix. Unfortunately, our primary club can't because of insurance issues, so he can't run there until he has a full license.

My son has been autocrossing a 50cc Comer/Gold since 5. We just got him a "big boy" Animal 206/TonyKart now that he's 8.

My daughter is ready to hop into the baby kart as soon as she turns 5 this year.

It's a great excuse because the whole family comes to autocrosses and I don't get as much E36 M3 from the wife.

They also both do ballet with her. Fair trade.

My son just turned 6 and is already saving his money for a car

Too bad SCCA RallyCross didn't let people with permits run at Nationals because of the "passenger" rule. Didn't matter that the passenger was a non-competitor.

DD#1 has been autocrossing with me since she was 16 or 17. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, we haven't been as able to be really integrated at events as we had been, but it's still fun, and I'm still proud of her. We used to be able to watch each other's runs and do ridealongs. We'd text each other critiques of each run while sitting in grid.

I've been amazingly proud of my kids and they beat me quite regularly. The youngest? I think I was most proud when as a non-driver he got a novice that kept DNFing .. through the course completely. I told the guy... He's 13 and he's been getting ME through the course... it's worth a try. He may be a full blown novice instructor before he's a driver at this rate.