I have to confess...I am a chumpcar racer.
Take a good hard look at the rules. They have a listing that shows you where your particular car will land you as far as a value. That will help you decide on a car and approximately how much you willhave to play around with. The A.I.V is like the bible. Do a lot of research to get your average of 10 below $500.
My team "Baghdad Taxi" has a 1990 CRX that we have run in LeMons, Used Car Racing, and Chumpcar. The CRX is one of those cars that is close to the limit, so we had to really work to get A.I.V below $500. At our last race "The longer, Longest day" we had 0 penalty laps. Do not let the penalty laps worry you too much as they are endurance races and it is all about the number of laps you finish with. We finished 7th in one of our races after starting with 19 penalty laps.
Start looking for a reasonable car and the safety equipment. Spend the off season getting it ready and go enjoy running it at your nearest race. You will have a ton of fun. The people are great !
