My son is a 20 year old who has become interested in the possibilty of
a carrer as a professional race car driver (with open wheel formats
ala formula 1 style being his preferance) and while i know his age
prevents him from going the usual route of go-cart racing i was
wondering if you could prehaps find a reasonable path that a late
starting driver could take to become a professional. i am picticularly
looking for good racing schools (with good reuptations, outside
unbiased reveiws would be fantastic) and entry level feeder series
that could be used as a starting point (also prehaps series that are
just above the feeder series). also, and i know this is a leap, assume
that my son has enough skill to be a professional driver (for the sake
of arguement). i have looked for all of this before but the world of
motorsports is very complicated and i would apreciate someone who
could sort it all out. if this requires too much work for the price
then simply say so in the comments and i'll see about adjusting the
price. thanks.

There are a bunch of options and I'll leave it to a researcher to
flush out them all and provide more details/links, but to get you
started the Skip Barber schools are excellent. They provide training
in various motorsport types (including openwheel) and have some Skip
Barber series in which you can pay to participate in actualy races
with actual prize money. They have a few different levels and races at
various locations. If you can show well in that series You might have
a chance of getting into a series like F1600 or something like that.

Beware though that you're likely going to have to front some
signifigant cash to get this off the ground. It will be a while before
your son can attract enough attention to get enough sponsorship to
cover his racing costs.

Good luck! Money was the reason I never tried to have a career in
open-wheeled racing :(

The Jim Russell Racing School at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma is very
good.  GREAT instructors, cars and feedback.