Not me, someone else who wants to race. He already has a pretty physical lifestyle, but I worry about encouraging him given the potential for a hard impact. What does that do to a damaged heart and chest? Anything? No worse than anyone else? His doctor told him no, but then his doctor told him not to ski or climb mountains as well....
Tell him to talk to another doctor. I race SCCA and know several drivers who have had heart surgery.
You need to give them a completed physical and an EKG to get a license. If he is healthy it shouldn't be an issue and if he isn't... he shouldn't be out there.
EDIT: It isn't a hard impact that is going to be a factor - it's the stress associated with driving that is going to give him a heart attack. I'm 45, run 30 miles a week and still my heart rate monitor stays above 135 the whole time I'm driving in a race and probably a good bit higher during starts and the sort of battles that makes it hard to look at your hear rate monitor. You need to have a good ticker.
Why did his doctor say no? I'd look into that. There are many kinds of heart ailments, and many kinds of surgery. If he had a "simple" bypass, perhaps he's ok. If he had something more "serious" perhaps he's not. (quotes because ALL heart operations are serious)
A second opinion can't hurt, but there is probably a reason the doc is telling him not to participate in those activities. Usually if it's something common, once you are fixed up, they don't put restrictions on you......unless he isn't totally fixed.
If his heart isn't working well, he shouldn't be racing with others on track.
If you race with a bad heart, you're going to have a bad time.
About half or more of the fatalities I hear about on track these days are heart related and frequently not related to impact of any kind. I 2nd what GPS is saying above. It can be a lot more stress than you would think.
Get a 2nd opinion if he really wants to, but be sure he realizes what hes getting into with his heart. I know Le-chump racing has had a few people have hearts let go under the stress.
Had a fellow Lemons driver die of a heart attack at the September CMP race so yes there is always that chance.
However, the docs will definitely let their personal prejudices color their recommendations; a dirt biking buddy's son who is very active got hit in the back of the head with a soccer ball. Shortly afterwards he started having vision problems, turned out his retina had detached. There's some kind of laser? procedure which 'tacks' the retina back in place, he had that done. Of course he didn't play soccer etc for the 6 months or so that the retina was healing. So, at the final doc visit they asked what he could do. Swim? Sure. Run? No problem. Wrestle? Go right ahead. Play soccer basketball etc? Be my guest. Ride dirt bikes? Oh HELL no!!!! 
Why no dirt bike but soccer is OK (remember soccer is what caused this in the first place)?
'Too much vibration'. 
Interesting read on race drivers that includes heart rate.....
http://formula1.about.com/od/drivers/a/A-Key-To-The-Mental-Make-Up-Of-An-F1-Driver-Bravery.htm
I have been agonizing over this. It's my 13 year old son. He wants to race in the worst way and he deserves to. But he has a congenital heart defect that has been repaired. It works fine but it will never be the same as everyone else's. We never go easy on him and he has done some really stressful things in his life. But racing worries me more for some reason. For the record he has something similar to Shaun White.(the flying tomato)
Every case is unique, no way to answer without much more info about his case.
Had my first heart attack & didn't realize it during HPDE at Roebling Road 14 years ago. Continued driving thru the weekend & drove home to eastern NC before having the Big one a few days later. 6 weeks after that I had quadruple bypass & have had stents installed 3 times since that. No more infarcs since the Big one.
Bypass was in December. The next July I started doing HPDE again for another 10 years or so. Quit doing HPDEs because knee has gone to crap & doesn't do well with all the shifting required.
Having shared my experience, it's probably not very valuable info. I feel sure that the stresses of actual racing are much greater than HPDEs.
my angina started at a PDX … didn't know what it was .. the pain would go away as soon as the cool down lap would start … and I'd completely forget about it by the time I got back to the paddock ..
the following week … no symptoms …. that weekend, pain started again as I was walking the course at an a-x .. went ahead and competed (no pain while sitting, and a-x was too short to cause stress induced pain)
had 3 stints put in a week and a half later … after recovery the Doc said "no problem" with returning to the track
this is obviously different than open-heart surgery … but still heart related
I second the idea that he should get with his Doc and find out why the "OH NO DON'T YOU DARE" … if just personal prejudice, then yeah, a second opinion (be VERY SURE that all the pertinent facts are related to the new Doc)
I appreciate all the input. I think most of the medical negativity stems from the tremendous amount of time and money they spent on him. He is also a success story for that particular surgical team who still follow his progress. And they didn't have much success before or after him. He has hypo plastic left heart syndrome. Which means he has no left ventricle.
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