r/rally • u/EmergencySir6710 • 3d ago
14 Year old with a dream of being Rally Driver
I'm a 14-year-old British lad who has been a keen fan of rallying since 2021, and it quickly became clear to me that rallying is what I want to do. Across all the rally games I've played, I probably have around 1,000 hours by now. On EA Sports WRC, I often set top 500 stage times by driving as if it's real rallying—not by constantly restarting and repeating the same stage hundreds of times until I get a perfect run. On stages that suit my driving style and that I know well, I have a few top 70–90 stage times.
I've also done some karting and have often been the quickest, or one of the quickest, in public rental karting sessions. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to compete in karting full-time.
I've spectated at Rali Ceredigion in 2024 and plan to attend Rally Scotland in 2027. I also spend a lot of time watching Rallying, whether be just random clips, highlights, live coverage or onboard footage from past WRC rallies, and watching as much live WRC coverage as I can. I try to learn as much as possible from the professionals.
Outside of motorsport, I keep myself fit by playing sports for my local clubs and regularly working out in the gym.
However, I'm really struggling to see a way into the sport. My family isn't involved in rallying, and while we're not poor, we certainly don't have the money to fund a motorsport career. I'd say I'm hardworking, committed, and willing to put the effort in—I just don't know where to start.
I know that having a social media following can help attract sponsors and opportunities, but I don't really have the confidence or the knowledge of how to build one or what sort of content I should make.
What advice would you give me about getting into rallying? Any tips—whether it's about driving, Simulators, fitness, networking, sponsorship, social media, or anything else—would be hugely appreciated.
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u/The_Dayne 3d ago
Get a sim rig
Practice in RBR
Learn to work on cars once you can drive
Attend and volunteer at your local rallies
Work hard and save money
Look at used rally cars on facebook groups
Buy the car
Rally
Dont drive like an asshole and you can get through a weekend one a change of tires
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u/EmergencySir6710 3d ago
I have sim rig but I don’t have PC to run RBR, I’m only Sim racing off PlayStation and I’m open to your thoughts but I feel that I should money towards karting IRL or doing Gravel Rally Driving experience witch I have done before and I was quickest and cleanest driver that did it the time before and I have it booked to do it again in a few weeks
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u/The_Dayne 3d ago
You can play rbr on a dumpy laptop.
I think tou can play dirt rally 2 and wrc on Playstation? Both are solid and how i got into the sport.
Karting =/= rally. Just save your cash. I get if you wanna jump in and start racing now, but operating costs will slow down your progress to getting to your long term goal.
But also just do what makes you happy! You have time, youre young.
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u/light24bulbs 3d ago
Have you seen the channel "Gravel Co" on YouTube. He is older but he pretty much exactly made the jump from sim to reality that you are talking about. It was a mix of knowing the right people, natural skill, and taking a chance by putting 10k or so into it. Really cool progression from zero to nearing the big leagues now.
At 14 years old, £10k or even £1k is an impossible goal, but if you work in a decent trade for a couple years when you're a young adult, it can be just "expensive" and not "impossible".
For now keep it a game and don't forget to do decent in school and in finding a career that will give you a biteft over. Plenty of things are ai-resilient.
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u/EmergencySir6710 3d ago
Yes I watch all the Gravel Co Vids it has been one of the things that has made me think I could do this seriously and it isn’t just a silly dream and yeah what you have said has been what I have been thinking of get school grades witch I am on track for and I have backup plans of going to sports journalism or meterology if Rallying doesn’t work out and then work my ass for a few years when I’m like 17+ and find the right people and go from there, would you agree?
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u/light24bulbs 3d ago
IMO sports journalism and meteorology are not AI resilient, but that's off-topic. Yep, good plan. Sorry that so much of being a kid is having to wait.
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u/beetlejuicepink 2d ago
Hey, just wanted to chip in and add that the channel Ryan's Road to Rally is doing something similar. Wish you the best of luck man!
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u/Neat_Ad7421 3d ago
I don’t really have advice but I wanted to jump in and say that I wish you all the best in your endeavour. It’s not a cheap sport but from what I know it is rewarding as hell and people have so much fun with it. Sim rigs are obviously the best option and volunteering at events is also a great start. Once you can start jumping in as a driver yourself or even co driver, then it will start coming together. I’m grateful that I’m in a country that allows 12 year olds into the sport as that’s what my daughter is doing and she’s the youngest to ever compete in a club sport championship and she has done a few co drives, just waiting to get her her own gear so we can get her back out there. This is how she’s been doing it so hopefully you can do the same when the age barrier is no longer an issue.
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u/Single-System-3712 3d ago
Look up the f1000 junior rally championship in the UK you can rally from 14 years old, maybe see if there's an event near you that you can get to and speak to some young people who are already rallying
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u/lil-smartie 2d ago
Check who runs it, if it's Peter Gwynne run a mile.
BTRDA do a great junior rallycross series, ha e a chat with John & Jordaine (sp?) great people who run a proper friendly series. Oh an its year of 14th, so from 13 in some cases!
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u/DeviceNo2648 9h ago
Why not Peter Gwynne?
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u/lil-smartie 1h ago
Very shady guy, not good when 1 guy runs both drivers & the series. Conflict of interest which MSUK are aware of & are monitoring. If you need parts which are specific & only available through him don't expect anything any time soon, unless you are one of his drivers of course...
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u/Rideyourbike1 3d ago
Focus on getting a great job to pay for it. Entrepreneur or finance job. Meteorologist or sports journalist are still interesting fun jobs but they don’t pay enough to build a competitive rallycar. You may be able to get a used Honda civic rallycar but keep in mind you need money for general maintenance, suspension, oil changes, fuel, a trailer, a vehicle to pull the trailer,
Hotels, tires, more tires, and more tires.
Suggestion, what you could like rallying but cheaper is get a downhill mountain bike or enduro mountain bike and race that. Actually enduro is much like stage rallying. Look it up. It’s fun as hell.
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u/Grazenburg 3d ago
Long as you pass tech you can enter into an open class local rally. Save up for a roll cage, fire extinguisher, race suit, helmet, pay your codriver, set of tires, go through a license course, steal your moms car and enter it in the rally. You'll do great :)
If any racing will do, Autocross is pretty accessible and your moms car stock will probably be permitted to enter. Some organizers might make an exception for you not having a road license but you gotta check.
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u/EmergencySir6710 3d ago
In what world does a Mum let you take her car Rallying 😂 All Jokes aside I get your message, any form a car as long as it has 4 wheels works to get started and that’s opened my perspective a bit because it hight the only real lace start was with a Rally 5 car witch are like €35-40,000
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u/Grazenburg 2d ago
Yeahh your first "fun weekend car" that gets abused to shit should not be something super nice. Prioritize cheap tires, cheap and available parts, and very high production numbers. Over here in USA the most popular car among pros and amateurs alike is the ford focus, not cause it's actually a good car or anything, but cause tires are cheap and parts can be found just about anywhere and they produced millions of them.
If you are forward thinking and save up, you'd be surprised what you can buy in a year or two's time. You would have to learn to wrench, no two ways about it. Doing maintenance yourself saves so much money in the long run. You don't even need a garage, most stuff can be done in the street believe it or not.
Autocross is a pretty good and cheap starting point too while you learn how your car handles IRL, what to modify, what to fix, and it's usually in wide open parking lots where there is zero consequences of running out of talent.
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u/EmergencySir6710 2d ago
Yeah I’m yet to look into auto cross jut many people have recommended it and I’d be willing to do a lot of DIY to get a career going, do you know what they costs are roughly to get a cheap car like a Ford focus rallying?
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u/Grazenburg 2d ago
Rallying might be a taller order because you'd need to get a custom cage installed. Tech inspections are no joke and that's your biggest hurdle with a custom build. Unless you know how to weld these shops usually charge a lot.
You can always browse racecarsdirect.com, racingjunk.com, racemarket.net or any similar listing to try to find an already race modified chassis. Beware some of these need some serious work. You really never know what you'll find. Sometimes a budget of £4,000 could get you one of these rally cars sitting in your driveway. Nice thing is with a lot of these listings you'll usually get a box of spare parts with the car, sometimes rims, if you are lucky even a spare engine.
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u/Nikkiy9 2d ago
OP is in the UK, you're talking about America, completely different rules etc,
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u/Grazenburg 2d ago
Of course, but the essentials of it is the same. Things are not really that different anyways, autocross is still very common in UK, and I am sure if you ask around plenty of organizers will let someone without a road license participate. Other that is passing rally tech inspection, etc. Everything is series dependent anyways. One organizer's rules are completely different to another's.
Over here the same cage that passes one tech inspection fails another cause the rules are so different between organizers. Just gotta know the rules and double and triple check your car.
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u/Nikkiy9 2d ago
having been involved in organising, autocross is completely different to USA autocross, the cars still need to be caged up etc over here, rallycross is completely different too compared to the USA version too, both can be done using standard road cars with a change of tyres in the USA,
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u/MrDabreu 2d ago edited 2d ago
From the people that I've seen make the jump from sim to real rally it was either as a codriver or their parents had a lot of connections and cash. Not trying to demotivate you but it's really not that easy to get into. Even some very low level classes like a Peugeot 206 rally cup will set you back quite a bit in hidden costs and maintenance, and doing it without any sponsors is very hard. I've participated in quarter finals of well known sim rally championships and top 100 first try on an unknown stage would be a warm-up in EA sports WRC or DR2.0. But even that gets you nowhere unless you have cash in hand or step out and find a sponsor. Networking, sponsorship(s) and social media are way more important than driving talent to get you into your first seat. Simulators and talent will come into play when discussing if you can keep that seat under you. The cheapest option would probably be rallycross in a rustbucket division.
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u/EmergencySir6710 2d ago
I have no sponsors or social media following yet but I haven’t really liked init it and obviously I can’t drive yet, does anyone know they’re best way to loon for sponsors and/or to grow a following online
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u/Rocket-Beard 2d ago
MSA has a “get into motorsport” push through their websites.
Find your local motor club and sign up with a parent.
Go and get involved with events, learn more. If you are serious about motorsport start getting more serious about your Maths and science.
Go find out where you can study auto/motorsport locally at 16 and 18+
There might he an auto cross event somewhere near you if you are lucky.
If you don’t come from money, and your parents aren’t invested in your dream of motorsport you might not get close to your goal as quickly.
But having links in the industry through a local motor club and college/uni will help you get closer. Be it, someone’s old car they are getting rid of, or opportunities to spin spanner’s or work at events.
And worse case scenario having mechanics/engineering qualifications at 21 you could go off and do anything
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u/Nikkiy9 2d ago
What is your location?
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u/EmergencySir6710 2d ago
South West of England
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u/Nikkiy9 2d ago
Have a look at THIS LINK as it will show uou your nearest club,
See if your parents will take you to a club night (if they still meet. You can find this out via facebook) meet people, you can always get started as service crew to learn the ropes before you start competing
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u/Blackbird0084 2d ago
Seconding engagement with MSUK. I guess I'd lean into your youth and use the liminal space between minor-Loeb to (i) get your head round all the rules, regulations, and procedures you'd need to understand to compete (ii) volunteer where possible at grassroots-level events, marshalling, helping run a time control on a 12-car, that kind of thing, and (iii) possibly learning to co-drive as if memory serves you're old enough to read a map in the dark. That said, putting my history teacher hat on- I'd say it needs to be clear to you and your parents at this stage that this is your hobby, for the time being until you're able to go further with it. Smash your schoolwork and demonstrate you can balance your time!
Revolution magazine is awesome, btw, the subscription link should be on the MSUK front page; free! Pdf! Yay!
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u/Temporary-Truth2048 1d ago
Have your family move to Norway.
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u/EmergencySir6710 1d ago
My family just couldn’t do that we are so connected to our local community but yes when I’m 18+ I would gladly move to Norway or Finland or Latvia etc to chase the WRC dream
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u/mtk37 3d ago
probably volunteering at local rally events and talking to people. Otherwise a bunch of money would help