Hi guys,

I mostly hang out in the FI section, so sorry for barging in here to ask a question, but I think you guys can help my friend out.

My friend is going to the US to learn English and he happens to be one of the best professional racers in Korea. He professionally drifts, participates in GT and stock car races (Korean version of Nascar). He is only 22 years old!! While he studies English he wants to race competitively in the states as an amateur. As of right now, he plans to attend a language school in North Carolina, but if there is a better race opportunity elsewhere, he is willing to change the language school.

So, my question to you guys is which state has the most tracks, events and best amateur race scenes? He can drift, time attack, whatever... BTW, financially buying a race ready car and getting it regularly maintained by a professional shop is not a problem for him...

Another question is if he wants to focus on drifting, would it be wise for him to go to CA?

Thanks in advance.
Jay

 

I live in NorCal, and we have 6 "popular" tracks within a 4hr driving distance open year-round. I don't know where else it gets any better. Plus, he'll fit right in with not speaking English well.

 

North Carolina is probably best if he wants to get into stock car racing. SoCal for time attack/drifting.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. Do you guys have some website links where I can look up race events information in North Carolina and time attack and drift events in Sol Cal? I googled, but can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I already looked at the redline time attack website. Thanks much!!

 

nasaproracing.com

 

www.nasaproracing.com (as posted above)
www.scca.org
www.formulad.com
www.redlinetimeattack.com
www.d1gp.com

FYI... there's a large S. Korean community in Southern California and the tracks within an 8 hour drive are:

Willow Springs
Buttonwillow
California Speedway
Phoenix International
Infineon
Thunderhill (if you drive fast you can make it in 8 hours)
Firebird
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Laguna Seca

Both NASA and SCCA have large and active road racing regions in SoCal.

 

East Coast I would say Atlanta.

West Coast Southern California.

 

Agreed..Atlanta or Charlotte are great racing locations for all the events he is looking for..plus we can race almost all year long in the south...almost as much as SoCal

Note: Charlotte is THE place ot be for NASCAR.

However Atlanta also a has a big Drift crowd with regular events. Also plenty of race shops here to build/maintain cars..

BTW: I will live in Atlanta...and would be glad to help him out. We have hosted other Korea student in the past..and I do TT events today and plan to do NASA W2W racing in 2009

 

Thanks guys~!

Wow! Thanks! So you had a korean student live with your family for a while? That's great!

 

Spring Mountain Motorsport In Pahrump too.

We also have a few driving schools in Vegas.

Ahnyoung!

Socal would be really comfortable for him.

 

안녕~

Yeah, CA will be definitely comfortable for sure, but when you are trying to learn English, being "comfortable" isn't necessarily a good thing. If he goes to CA, he'll hang out with other Korean students and won't learn any English.

This was a very reason why I was sent to Lincoln, Nebraska back in 1991 to learn English.. Hahah~

 

Um, wow. I remember tutoring Korean Kids sent to the US. That sucked. They would keep speaking Korean. I'm like. I speak a no Korean!

The big thing about being comfortable- every Korean I have come across that was here to specifically learn Korean was ONLY here to do that. He will also be driving, so some creature comforts of culture are nice. And when I said comfortable- I was actually talking about his driving.

 

Yes, we had a Korean student stay with us for weekends/Holidays when he attended the same College my Son attended....However Jung Sup was very poor...at least by American standards...so he was very grateful to stay with us...and share our food with him....HECK...HE NEVER HAD A PIZZA OR MEXICAN FOOD BEFORE

That experience made me appreciate my life even more. It was big learning experience for all of us....

 

East coast location would be FL. We have no winter here so racing is all year round. We have Daytona, Sebring, Homestead, Moroso, and Road Atlanta is 8 hrs drive.

 

On the East Coast I would say Charlotte is the best centralized location. It has a very active Stock and Road Course Scene. It places him almost dead center on the east coast, there are many teams based there and the list of track within driving distance is huge. They include:

Summit Point
VIR
CMP
Roebling Road
Lowes MS
Richmond
Road Atlanta
Darlington
Rockingham
Daytona
Barber
Orlando Internation
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Memphis Motorsports Park
WATKINS GLEN
Martinsville Speedway
Pocono Raceway
New Hampshire Int'l Speedway (NHIS)
North Carolina Speedway
Brainerd International Raceway (BIR)
Nazareth Motor Speedway (NMS)
Talladega Gran Prix Raceway (TGP)
Nashville Superspeedway (NSS)
Gateway International Raceway(GIR)
Mid-America Motorplex (MAM)
Heartland Park
BeaveRun Motorsports Complex
Sebring
Moroso
Homestead
Mid-Ohio
Nelson Ledges
Lime Rock Park
Putnam Park
Blackhawk Farms
Shannonville
Sanair
Waterford Hills
Grattan Raceway Park
Calabogie Motorsport Park
Valley Motorsports Park (VMP)
Autobahn Country Club
new New Jersey Motorsports Park - Thunderbolt and Lightning circuits
(open 2008)
new High Rock International
(opening 2009)


But if he wants to enter the US National Drifting scene he really needs to be on the West coast around the LA area.

 

Great info! Thanks!