Numbers in Racing

How do the drivers get their numbers in racing series? All professional series are applicable.

Depends on the series, SCCA and IMSA are the most common. I believe Speed World numbers are registered through SCCA.

So do the drivers choose their number?

In F1 the drivers get thier numbers based on their (or their teammate's) performance from the previous season.

What about Nascar? Everyone's identified by their number and they've had them for a while right?

in Nascar the owners of the car own certain numbers, so the driver gets whatever number the owner has. there are some cases where the owner can choose multiple numbers when he has extra. like Richard Childress still owns 3 but he chooses not to use it out of respect for earnhart, unless dale jr. comes to childress it will never be used again.

In a lot of racing you can "buy" a number. I bought and paid for #191 a while ago for hillclimbing. You buy a number for one year and then you have first-rights of refusal on that number for the following year.

I joined this online sim racing league and I got my number 13, the unluckiest number. It used to belong to an admin of the league but he races under a paying sponsor's number so he said I could have it. I wanted it because I feel you gotta be brave to drive 13 and go against the superstitions.

http://www.simcarracing.com/2007/index.php

They have certain rules, such as you can keep your 'hard' number while you are the champion but you must use '1' when you race. the number 99 is retired and never allowed to be used. You can't use a sponsor's number but if a members drops their number, or they're inactive, you can take it.

I also decided on the number 13 because I know a guy that races an australian series supersports, where he uses 13, and his father who raced in the 60's also used 13. Now I only wish I could get the opportunity to use 13 in real life, might be too popular.