This came up last night. I've done a bit of car racing, mainly the 24 hours of LeMons Detroit-ish race in September. Here's a youtube link for our summary video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X5l_wfpHlE, and here's a bunch of in-car video from around mid-race: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=586629414017.
So… comments/questions?
Here's some pre-baked answers:
1) How do you get into this? Find a race, find a car, enter it.
2) How do you get into serious racing? Far as I know: get an actual racing license such as one from the SCCA (LeMons doesn't require one), find some races, find a car, enter them.
3) How do you become a big-time F1 driver? Start go-karting in competitive leagues before you can even walk, and win them by enormous margins until you get a contract driving single-seat racers.
4) How much does it cost? LeMons ended up being about $750/person for our 6-person group, which isn't bad for 4 hours of track time apiece.
5) But that's a lot!: Cheaper alternatives are Solo 1 (time-trialing on a track, but not directly racing) or Solo 2 (autocross at an airfield or parking lot, which is like $30 per day and is real fun)
6) Is it dangerous? You're driving on a track with 60 other 2-ton hunks of metal on it. The rollcage, harness, and fire gear will keep you fairly safe, but racing (especially wheel-to-wheel racing) is never completely safe. 3 cars rolled over at the most-recent LeMons event in California. Time-trialing is a good bit safer, and you'd have to try fairly hard to hurt yourself at an autocross.
Ever since you told us about the LeMons me and my friends have been considering doing it in up coming years.
Where are the Solo 1 and Solo 2 usually located?
Solo1: Find a local car club that does Solo 1, prepare your car to the rule spec, and race. Last year it looks like they were all run east of Toronto (Mosport and Shannonville). However, for a cheap way of getting your on-track jollies, I'd recommend pay-per-lap at Shannonville. It's a long drive to Belleville, but it is worth it if you know your car/tires/brakes will survive as many laps as you want to do.
Solo2: Find a local car club that does autocross. There are lots of these, and to my knowledge the closest one to Waterloo is HADA, which does it in bramptom parking lots. Actually, it looks like HADA does Solo 1 as well.
And as far as doing LeMons in the future, the most expensive stuff is the fireproof gear and the race entry. If you can borrow a trailer and tow vehicle, it could be down into the $300-$400 per person range.
Another beater-racing option is oval-racing at your nearest oval track, which will have races for crapbox cars with fairly low safety requirements. They might not even require fireproof gear, depending on the class of racing.
GRAN TURISMO 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!