Clio Cup Scholarship, worth it?
Discussion
I love the idea of getting into motorsport but there's no way I'd be able to fund it myself, so been toying with the idea of trying out something like the clio cup scholarship: http://www.racestar.tv/
You turn up with a load of other people, they choose the best driver over 3 rounds who then gets a seat in the Clio Cup for a season. However I was put off the idea a bit when I watched the video of last years final, pretty much all the finalists had been karting for years. I haven't had that same level of experience, so I'm wondering if it's worth bothering if I really do have very little chance of getting particularly far in the competion. It's £300 for the first round, and £300 if you get into the second round. I can't decide wether to go for it or not, so just interested to hear other people's thoughts on it?
You turn up with a load of other people, they choose the best driver over 3 rounds who then gets a seat in the Clio Cup for a season. However I was put off the idea a bit when I watched the video of last years final, pretty much all the finalists had been karting for years. I haven't had that same level of experience, so I'm wondering if it's worth bothering if I really do have very little chance of getting particularly far in the competion. It's £300 for the first round, and £300 if you get into the second round. I can't decide wether to go for it or not, so just interested to hear other people's thoughts on it?
Racestar.tv said:
Open to everyone 17 years of age and over, except MSA 'A' car race licence holders or above. Entrants with a National 'B' car race licence must not have competed in more than 6 races
I've been considering parting with 300 big ones myself to enter this - seems karters of any experience can still enter, but i think thats fair enough. If anything, it gives you a good barometer of your performance if you can compete with them. And lets face it, if you can't, you wouldn't do very well in the Clio championship anyway!The footage on the website is from the 2007 competition, won by Andrew Bentley who i beleive had raced in formula ford and formula atlantic in the US. This year was won by Rob Boston, an experienced karter but no experience in cars, i think.
team underdog said:
The footage on the website is from the 2007 competition, won by Andrew Bentley who i beleive had raced in formula ford and formula atlantic in the US.
So presumably the rules were different then? Unless he'd competed in less than 6 races overall. I see your point about the karting experience thing, I suppose if I failed miserably I could just blame my parents for never giving me the money to go karting when I was younger 
Edited by norman156 on Sunday 9th November 17:30
I did it ages ago and got through round two and asked to come back... then was offered a job out in Dubai that I would have been daft to turn down.
How far would I have gone? Dunno but I seemed to be right up there - Interestingly, all the sessions I did were in terrible weather - lashing it down, but made it more fun (and much more of a challenge).
Give it a go if you can afford to.
At least you'll know - I never got the chance to find out in the end.
How far would I have gone? Dunno but I seemed to be right up there - Interestingly, all the sessions I did were in terrible weather - lashing it down, but made it more fun (and much more of a challenge).
Give it a go if you can afford to.
At least you'll know - I never got the chance to find out in the end.
norman156 said:
team underdog said:
The footage on the website is from the 2007 competition, won by Andrew Bentley who i beleive had raced in formula ford and formula atlantic in the US.
So presumably the rules were different then? Unless he'd competed in less than 6 races overall. I see your point about the karting experience thing, I suppose if I failed miserably I could just blame my parents for never giving me the money to go karting when I was younger Edited by norman156 on Sunday 9th November 17:30
team underdog said:
Not sure if you're being sarcastic about blaming the parents
I was, I think its too much to expect your parents to shell out that amount, especially when they arn't that well off. I'd have tried to pay for it myself but £50 a month on my paper round back then wouldn't have gone too far in karting...norman156 said:
team underdog said:
Not sure if you're being sarcastic about blaming the parents
I was, I think its too much to expect your parents to shell out that amount, especially when they arn't that well off. I'd have tried to pay for it myself but £50 a month on my paper round back then wouldn't have gone too far in karting...Mate, only do it if you can afford it. Don't skint youself, the odds will be very much stacked against you.
The truth is, there really isn't a cheap way in to motorsport. I had to beg and borrow my way through my tuition and the start of my race career.
If you do go for it, good luck...
The truth is, there really isn't a cheap way in to motorsport. I had to beg and borrow my way through my tuition and the start of my race career.
If you do go for it, good luck...
team underdog said:
norman156 said:
team underdog said:
Not sure if you're being sarcastic about blaming the parents
I was, I think its too much to expect your parents to shell out that amount, especially when they arn't that well off. I'd have tried to pay for it myself but £50 a month on my paper round back then wouldn't have gone too far in karting...norman156 said:
Asterix said:
At least you'll know - I never got the chance to find out in the end.
That's the kind of sentiment that's making me want to go for it, I'll always be wondering if I could have managed getting into motorsport otherwisewww.f1shootout.com
Depends how old you are though, I'm 26 so I'm probably too old (how depressing!).
team underdog said:
norman156 said:
Asterix said:
At least you'll know - I never got the chance to find out in the end.
That's the kind of sentiment that's making me want to go for it, I'll always be wondering if I could have managed getting into motorsport otherwisewww.f1shootout.com
Depends how old you are though, I'm 26 so I'm probably too old (how depressing!).
RapidoJW said:
Jack Blag said:
Get some karting practice first. You'll stand a much better chance of succeeding in the competition than if you just turn up thinking you're a great driver (just my opinion, I'm sure you're a very good driver!)
I agree...norman156 said:
Cheers for the link to the thread, I'll give it a look later. As for the doing a bit of karting plan, sounds like a good idea. Alternatively I could just give karting a go properly, but isn't 21 a bit old to be doing that?
It depends what you want to do. To be an F1 driver, yes. It's important to be realistic though....To become a full time racer you basically need lots and lots of cash. Look at it as an expensive hobby rather than a career.
(Very few racers earn money in motorsport.... it is really only at the very top level ie. international level.... where by sponsorship and teams then 'want' a particualr driver and are prepared to pay for them).
I know a few people who have been in the Clio Scholarship and heard the same thing over and over again. If you have not already had good karting experience or the money to have had lots of track time then you will always be up against a difficult goal.
Each year entrants include race license holders who may not have had more than 6 races but have had PLENTY of track time in various cars to gain experience in one form or another. And then there are always the rich kids who have been karting since the age of 8... who also have had plenty of proper car training since turning 16.
I think it was something like 2003 where the World Karting Champion won the Clio Scholarship for example. I remember one guy telling me that they felt the organisors had already chosen the winner in round 1 of the 'competition'.... and that the rest of the rounds were just to gain the money they wanted from people.
So if you are not familiar with track driving then I would say spend your hard earned on a number of track days.
Or even better.... do what I did a number of years ago and go to Silverstone and do their 5-day race course. You will get so much more track time than with the Cio 'competition' and you will gain a race license at the end of the course.
(Very few racers earn money in motorsport.... it is really only at the very top level ie. international level.... where by sponsorship and teams then 'want' a particualr driver and are prepared to pay for them).
I know a few people who have been in the Clio Scholarship and heard the same thing over and over again. If you have not already had good karting experience or the money to have had lots of track time then you will always be up against a difficult goal.
Each year entrants include race license holders who may not have had more than 6 races but have had PLENTY of track time in various cars to gain experience in one form or another. And then there are always the rich kids who have been karting since the age of 8... who also have had plenty of proper car training since turning 16.
I think it was something like 2003 where the World Karting Champion won the Clio Scholarship for example. I remember one guy telling me that they felt the organisors had already chosen the winner in round 1 of the 'competition'.... and that the rest of the rounds were just to gain the money they wanted from people.
So if you are not familiar with track driving then I would say spend your hard earned on a number of track days.
Or even better.... do what I did a number of years ago and go to Silverstone and do their 5-day race course. You will get so much more track time than with the Cio 'competition' and you will gain a race license at the end of the course.
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