Not a bad idea… as a Dad I raced with my son. It was something that was approved by my spouse as she could see the benefit.
This doubles the cost, though, and may make things more difficult, depending on wether the resistance is financial or “this racing is a pita I don’t want to deal with and if dad takes over I’m ok with this, yay” - (mom)
Answer is simple: find a wealthy significant other!
You can marry for love, or you can marry for speed.
Do you have an allowance? Maybe do some extra chores around the house to make a bit more money. Make a commitment with your parents for 6 to 12 months to save all of your allowance and extra earnings as part payment on a used kart and then have your parents pay for the rest. The 6 to 12 months commitment of savings will demonstrate how badly you want to kart. Your mom may not believe you can uphold your side of the deal, so she might go along. Buy the kart, don’t rent and work on it yourself with your dad.
Don’t give up, just keep coming up with proposals.
IMO not more than 200
That’s low, even for a club race, unless I don’t have to touch/think about the kart or worry about the driver in any way.
Stand in front of her & tell her you won’t breath until she relents, then hold your breath, make your face turn real red. Scares them.
Now, if she still holds out, up your game & take yourself hostage & demand payment (In kart privileges. Also cash, because why not?). It worked for the Iranian regime.
On a more serious note there have been some great suggestions. Two items I would reinforce from above:
1: you need to have skin in the game. Have a proposal of how you will earn money to help pay, do chores/job around the house, or do work to reduce costs of karting.
2: you need to have a proposed budget for what you want to do for a season including renting or buying a chassis, ongoing maintenance if needed, number of races, entry fees, tire/fuel costs, and repair costs. In order to do this properly you need to establish where you’re going to race and get quotes from people involved.
If you put time and thought into the above work, that will show your mom you’re serious and how much it means to you. Otherwise it’s just another thing kids ask to do that’s crazy expensive. Realize you’re asking a large money and time commitment from your parents and respect that.
I have a couple of questions to add to this discussion.
How old are you? This will factor in on if traditional employment is an option for you. If possible a part time job after school will show ambition toward your goal. If you are too young for that, you could try to find odd jobs around your neighborhood. Cutting grass, cleaning up around houses or painting walls/sheds. Also, if you are still growing significantly from year to year your equipment will need to be updated to fit properly. All of this goes into cost. Equipment (kart and gear) has value when new or used. It can be resold when needing to replace it. Make it clear that these are not empty costs, but rather can be recovered expenses when needed. Unlike league racing, when you spend your money, it belongs to the track and them alone.
You stated your coach said the top 4 drivers run both league and sport karting. Is it your plan to do both as well or just move to sport karting only? Asking to do both will more than double the budget you are getting for league racing. When putting your budget together for sport karting, if you can show the fractional difference of moving over would be, you may have a better chance of getting the buy in. Buy in cost and running costs are two very different things. When talking numbers, separate these costs. Buy in cost is for equipment and that holds a certain amount of value into the future that can be recovered. Running costs are consumables that cannot be recovered. Calculate the total running cost for a season of sport karting and the amount of seat time you will get over the season. These numbers are important, because when you compare them to the cost of league karting they may actually be lower per hour of seat time. League racing is a business and likely do not take a loss to operate.
You then use this data to show your mother how you are trying to maximize their investment in you. This will accomplish two things. It will show your mother that this is not just a passing desire. It will also show that you respect and appreciate their time and money given to you and that you are not trying to take advantage of that.
When talking expenses, try to stick to averages. Break down the cost of the 6 league races to a per race cost. Depending on how many sport karting races there are in a season, break those down into a per race cost. Most league races offer a specific amount of seat time per race. Sport karting generally allows more seat time with practice sessions proceeding the actually racing. Further break down the costs of each type of racing to cost per hour. Sport karting will likely be lower in the LO206 class.
Depending on the karts you are racing in the League versus the Sport Karting, you will likely be racing a faster kart with less weight and more agility. Let it be know that you want to challenge yourself with the move up. You want to better yourself. You can compare it to moving up to the next age group in traditional sports. Talk about the things you will learn from the experience. Mechanical, Computer Analysis, problem solving, sportsmanship (winning modestly and losing gracefully) and of course spending more time with your dad (hopefully he we be committed to helping you with the kart and be at the track with you).
Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.
True and not true… i have worked my ass of (and my dad) to get funds to race at high level. I also search for sponsors everyday witg around 4 new every month…
If you are goof at marketing. Good at providing values to sponsors so that they are willing to give you money.
At the same time developing your driving skills and knowlage. You can and will be able to go up to bigger classes…
And yes. Many say ohh i will start karting to be the next f1 driver or i will drive 
f2 just from karting. Thats not realistic. Whats realistic is to work slowly (not to f1) yout way thrugh the motorsport levels.
Start karting and you have 3 main ways to go. 1: some type of singekseater formula entry series. 2: more gt style like aquila 1000 or renult clio cup (nxt gen electric cup in sweden) or you can go for some sort of dirt/ rally.
Im going for the gt style. My goal is porsche cup. Wich is realistically speaking availabe in the next 3 years. I have alot of contacts in porsche cup allready. I know a team boss etc
So i would say its 100% a way to go bigger (if you have the power willpower to proceed)
IMO
Oooh lemme find you video of the amazing Trenton Estep. A really good kart racer with this amazing run at Nats:
And he races Porsche now:
This is sound advice. Also on a serious note, this is kind of tough because it is her money. Do you have a PT job of some kind? If you can propose a combinef contribution arrangement to fund your karting, then maybe that would appeal to her.
PCs are great (I’m currently in the process of builung another myself), but so is getting out & working with your hands & learning hands-on skills. Seems Mom could stand to learn about that side of it. It’s not just all driving around a track. There’s a fair bit of academic relevancy in racing sports, & karting is probably the most/only accessible format for us average Joes in the world to be able utilize it. Learning happens outside the classroom, too.
My plan is to buy the test session with my money and show my parents that this is something worth investing into.
Thanks for the long response, i am 14, nearly 15. and if i manage to convince her i will only do Sport karting.
Yeah, definitely keep it simple for now. Money is a factor in racing. The factor sometimes. But karting is about as accessible as it gets. As you start acquiring your own income, you can expand on it some more. Also good to start developing relationships with others in the sport & the business. Bigger things can take time to grow, but you’re young, so you have time on your side.
Remind me to not underestimate you or any other teen.
“I just don’t know what to say to her, now.”
Well, don’t. Have a think on it.
How can you connect with your Mom and get her attention so that she understands you want to have a serious conversation with her?
Maybe start there…
Mom, I want to talk to you about something that’s important to me and I need your help with. I’m not sure how to ask because I don’t know if it’s even possible… wether it’s something we can afford to do as a family.
I have an opportunity to step up in my racing. The coach suggested I do X, and I think it’s something I really want to do, if possible.
Here’s what it entails… what can I do to find out if we can do this? Here’s the information I have so far… etc.
Etc.
Hello, Ben!
I think that the best arguments to help you persuade your mother to let you race are the following:
I have two teen sons and a little 5-year-old godson and we are just getting started in kart racing. The pointers that I’m giving you in this thread were important to me when I decided to get involved.
Good luck!
Here’s a little video I made for my son. We were applying to competetive boarding schools and my son wanted to showcase his racing and how it helped him grow etc. I bet it was a different spin than most application essays/packets.
Success! He got into a bunch of schools (no idea wether the karting helped but it seemed to catch interest).
Just saying that if you are in a family with college expectations you do need to have passions to stand out.
Here’s a school project he did:
In short: racing likely wont be a career… but… the social/personal/work skills you acquire as a competitor translate directly into real-world experience/learning that will come in handy as you age and enter work force.
That’s, I think, what Mom needs to arrive at: that karting is worth it for your personal development…
Racing teaches self-confidence. It’s incredibly useful for young people who aren’t developed yet. You are put in a high-pressure situation that has real consequences for you and the others around you when things go sideways.
You have to learn to roll with the punches and how to adapt to the fluidity of a race weekend. You will find yourself facing challenges in the pits and incidents on track. This teaches you adult skills in an adult environment but one overseen by adults.
You will learn to apologize, to win, and, more importantly, how to lose. You will learn how to self-advocate. You will become much more mature because the sport will require it from you. If there’s a way for your mom to see that, that might help bring her round.
Great idea! I totally agree with you, Dom.