How To Get Into Racing In Your 20s, 30s and Beyond
While most open wheel drivers start competing when they are young, not only is the sports car world open to racers with a later start behind the wheel, it's almost as if it was created with these types of drivers in mind.
From sprint racing with SCCA and NASA, to the amateur endurance leagues of Champ Car, Lucky Dog and AER, to the growing World Racing League, and all the way into professional sports car racing in SRO and IMSA Racing, all ages and backgrounds come together in sports car racing. Drivers compete together and against one another on the racetrack.
With so many options and different series, where do you even start?
Our panel for this event is here to help and guide you.
Whether you're looking to start doing track days, graduate into racing for the first time, or you're already racing and want to find out what the next steps could be, we're here to help.
Lynn Kehoe: Following a long career in finance and real estate, Lynn entered the world of motorsport in 2013. She competed in her first race in 2016 (on her 56th birthday, proving you're never too old to do something new) and in the same year founded Shift Up Now. Proud of the trajectory of Shift Up Now, she transferred majority ownership to the next generation of motorsport athletes in 2020. Lynn continues to support the management of Shift Up Now and still occasionally gets behind the wheel of a race car.
Erin Vogel: Erin Vogel starting racing in spec Boxster on the West Coast after several years of taking part in HPDE track days, and is advancing through the professional sports car ladder. In 2021, she became the first female athlete to win an SRO America GT3 Pro-Am race with teammate Micheal Cooper at VIR, and she has ambitions to one day compete at the Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona.
Mandy McGee: Mandy McGee didn't discover her love for motorsport until she attended her first HPDE event in her 30s. She worked her way up from a novice to the advanced run group, and then started racing with the Champ Car Endurance series. She has since received her competition license through NASA and continues to compete in club racing events across the US.
Pippa Mann: Pippa Mann is one of the Athlete Leaders of Shift Up Now, and while she did start racing at a younger age than the rest of our panel, she currently works in several of the amateur and pro-am endurance series as a coach and co-driver for her clients. Some of the drivers she works with are looking to climb the motorsport ladders, while others just want to be competitive and have as much fun as possible during their race weekends.