By C. J. Carter
Eight year olds driving? Fast?
Seriously, they do. At more than 100 drag strips around the country, kids from 8 to17 drag race. They do it in little half-scale dragsters that sit low to the ground, look like something from outer space and most often are painted with outrageous designs. More than 5,000 kids participate every year.
If you are like many people, when you think drag racing, you think about the movie "Grease" or about dangerous illegal street racing. Legal - and much safer - drag racing occurs at officially sanctioned drag strips where safety measures are paramount - which is not to say that drag racing is completely safe. lt's not. But legal drag racing leaves illegal street racing in the dust as far as safety goes.
Legal junior drag racing has a near perfect safety record. Rollovers do happen, and kids do get hurt, but not often, and sanctioning bodies require strict compliance to both manufacturing specifications for the race cars as well as to rules of racing.
Why would any parent consider letting their child get behind the wheel of a car and drive an eighth of a mile at speeds up to 85 mph? Well, says one former professional drag racer, "Kids are attracted to becoming mobile. There is a transition from tricycles and Hot Wheels to bicycles, first with training wheels and the big day when the training wheels come off. Most of us can remember wanting to be the fastest kid on the block. The notion of speed and winning comes early. By the time kids are around 7 years old, an interest in cars has begun. To think a kid could actually drive a fast car in competition would have to appeal to many children. When the drag racing sanctioning bodies introduced the category Junior Dragster, the door became wide open for kids to become interested in drag racing."
Though there has been no formal study, experts say there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that kids who have drag raced legally are better, safer drivers when they get their driver's licenses. They seem to have more respect for what can happen, observers say. And, many junior racers say that they feel safer on the track than on the road because when they are racing they are on the track with one other car, and, generally, they know where that other car is. On the road, there are many more variables.
One professional drag racer knows the perils of driving all too well. His two sons were killed in an automobile accident. As a result, he started an organization that teaches safe driving techniques to teenagers. Three thousand teens (and their parents) have gone through the school since 2008.
They learn about anti-lock brakes. There is a distraction course, a lane-change exercise, a wheel drop off exercise to teach the teens how to right their car if a tire drops off the shoulder of the road.
As for safety on the drag strip, this professional racer recommends the following for junior racers:
• When you're first starting, get another junior racer or a parent to come over and look at the car. They might notice, "Hey, the steering doesn't look that good or that tire doesn't look good."
• Before you race, be familiar with the car. "Sit in the car and visualize what you're going to be doing. OK, you're going to start the engine. You're going to roll through this water and spin the tires to clean them off a bit. Then you're going to stage the car and get used to how the brakes feel, how the throttle pedal feels. Visualize going down the track and what it will feel like. What are you going to do when you get to the end of the track? How do you get back to the pit area?"
Besides learning to race, this racer notes that junior racers learn about dealing with others. They learn about rules, following the rules. They might have to read the rule book and see how all of their equipment matches up to the rule book. He says there's a lot that can be learned from junior drag racing; maybe not just things that will help with drag racing, but with life in general.
By C.J. Carter
C.J. Carter is the author of "Junior Dragster Dreams: How Sam Found His Own Ride." ( http://juniordragsterdreams.com )
Eight year olds driving? Fast?
Seriously, they do. At more than 100 drag strips around the country, kids from 8 to17 drag race. They do it in little half-scale dragsters that sit low to the ground, look like something from outer space and most often are painted with outrageous designs. More than 5,000 kids participate every year.
If you are like many people, when you think drag racing, you think about the movie "Grease" or about dangerous illegal street racing. Legal - and much safer - drag racing occurs at officially sanctioned drag strips where safety measures are paramount - which is not to say that drag racing is completely safe. lt's not. But legal drag racing leaves illegal street racing in the dust as far as safety goes.
Legal junior drag racing has a near perfect safety record. Rollovers do happen, and kids do get hurt, but not often, and sanctioning bodies require strict compliance to both manufacturing specifications for the race cars as well as to rules of racing.
Why would any parent consider letting their child get behind the wheel of a car and drive an eighth of a mile at speeds up to 85 mph? Well, says one former professional drag racer, "Kids are attracted to becoming mobile. There is a transition from tricycles and Hot Wheels to bicycles, first with training wheels and the big day when the training wheels come off. Most of us can remember wanting to be the fastest kid on the block. The notion of speed and winning comes early. By the time kids are around 7 years old, an interest in cars has begun. To think a kid could actually drive a fast car in competition would have to appeal to many children. When the drag racing sanctioning bodies introduced the category Junior Dragster, the door became wide open for kids to become interested in drag racing."
Though there has been no formal study, experts say there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that kids who have drag raced legally are better, safer drivers when they get their driver's licenses. They seem to have more respect for what can happen, observers say. And, many junior racers say that they feel safer on the track than on the road because when they are racing they are on the track with one other car, and, generally, they know where that other car is. On the road, there are many more variables.
One professional drag racer knows the perils of driving all too well. His two sons were killed in an automobile accident. As a result, he started an organization that teaches safe driving techniques to teenagers. Three thousand teens (and their parents) have gone through the school since 2008.
They learn about anti-lock brakes. There is a distraction course, a lane-change exercise, a wheel drop off exercise to teach the teens how to right their car if a tire drops off the shoulder of the road.
As for safety on the drag strip, this professional racer recommends the following for junior racers:
• When you're first starting, get another junior racer or a parent to come over and look at the car. They might notice, "Hey, the steering doesn't look that good or that tire doesn't look good."
• Before you race, be familiar with the car. "Sit in the car and visualize what you're going to be doing. OK, you're going to start the engine. You're going to roll through this water and spin the tires to clean them off a bit. Then you're going to stage the car and get used to how the brakes feel, how the throttle pedal feels. Visualize going down the track and what it will feel like. What are you going to do when you get to the end of the track? How do you get back to the pit area?"
Besides learning to race, this racer notes that junior racers learn about dealing with others. They learn about rules, following the rules. They might have to read the rule book and see how all of their equipment matches up to the rule book. He says there's a lot that can be learned from junior drag racing; maybe not just things that will help with drag racing, but with life in general.
By C.J. Carter
C.J. Carter is the author of "Junior Dragster Dreams: How Sam Found His Own Ride." ( http://juniordragsterdreams.com )
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