On The Debate Over Age Limits In Racing.....

My Saturday morning routine is to be up and coherent by 8 a.m. so that I can login to the Racin' Boys on the Live TV button and get set for two hours of information and entertainment from Scott Traylor, Kirk Elliott and their list of colleagues and guests that join them each week. In the past year the format changed from having the full two hours also on the radio at 810 WHB to now having the first hour simulcast on the Kansas City sports station and then having the second hour exclusively online. Since the change “the Boys” seem to cut loose more often in that second hour and things can get pretty interesting as was the case this past Saturday when the subject of age limits in racing came up.

Set aside about forty minutes and take a listen to the segment here . Or if you don’t have the time I can sum it up quickly as follows. While interviewing regular contributor Lloyd Collins, Scott makes a passionate plea for a universal rule at all tracks that would not allow children under the age of sixteen to race. Kirk and Lloyd take a different point of view and what follows is a sometimes heated discussion where both sides make some great points. At the end both sides respected the other’s point of view, I think, and now I’m ready to tune in again this Saturday to see if the discussion continues.

Two separate incidents have occurred this season that has made this a topic of discussion. The first was on my favorite message board IowaStockCars following the tragic death of a youngster in May at the Auburndale Speedway in Florida where the 12-year-old was competing in a Four Cylinder division with specific rules for kids that did not allow the cars to go more than 45 miles per hour. And the second, more than likely triggering the discussion on the Racin’ Boys, is the 360 c.i. Winged Sprint Car crash that seriously injured 15-year-old Jordan Creason during the Missouri State Fair race in Sedalia on August 19^th. Creason was initially in a medically induced coma and now faces a long recovery that we pray will be a successful one.

In both instances the gentlemen taking the lead on the argument to establish age limits feel that children’s bodies are not yet developed enough to withstand the force of impact in a crash and that children need to be protected from their parents who may be putting their child at risk for their own aspirations and perhaps putting their child in a position where they are taking that risk primarily to please their parents.

For some background on the subject I recently visited with a former promoter to ask him how he approached the issue and how the insurance companies that he worked with dealt with children racing. I was surprised to learn that the different insurance companies that he worked with over his ten plus years of promoting had no specific rules, terms or provisions in regard to the age of the competitor young or old. “If you are under the age of eighteen you are considered a minor and a waiver signed by both natural parents was required just to get a pit pass.” So this was just to sign the standard release form and be a part of the pit crew, a spectator from the pits, or a driver. I would have thought that the insurance companies would have addressed the age of the driver specifically, and perhaps some now do as I have heard rumors that a recently publicized debut by a young driver may have been subsequently nixed by the track’s insurance carrier. If true, could that be a sign that there will soon be a difference in coverage levels or costs depending upon the age of one or more of the competitors?

The promoter told me that when he was approached by a parent who wanted their younger child to race he would state that the young driver’s performance would be evaluated and if he or she could control the car in a manner where they would not be a threat to themselves, or others, then the young driver would be allowed to compete. When I said that he probably had that evaluation process in place for every driver regardless of age the promoter said “of course, but you have to watch the kids closer because the other drivers are going to more critical of any mistakes that they make because they are young.” And, no surprise, the grumbling from the other drivers gets worse when the kid beats them!

The majority of the young drivers that this promoter dealt with over the years were in the support classes where the presence of a young teenager driving may not be as much of a concern due to the lesser speeds than the premier divisions. “Working with IMCA they had age limits for different divisions, so as long as the driver was of age by their rules, and they were not a nuisance on the track, I was perfectly fine with it.” IMCA requires a driver to be at least 14-years-old for most of their divisions and 16-years-old to drive in their Late Model or Sprint Car ranks, but not all sanctioning bodies establish such defined rules when it comes to age limits.

One of the common charges made while pushing for age limits is that track promoters are exploiting the kids for their own gain. Now I obviously cannot know if it has happened outside of this general area, but not once have I seen a track specifically promote an event by saying something to the effect of “come on out this Saturday and watch 13-year-old Kid Fast take on the best Late Model drivers in the area”, so in my opinion a promoter is not exploiting the fact that they have a young driver in action.

Now do the driver’s parents “promote” their kids by pointing out their successes along with their age? Yes, some of them do, but not all and as long as they don’t make the age of the kid the focal point of every press release then I am fine with that. When Jake Griffin wins in both a Late Model and a Modified, I would expect to see a press release. When Bobby Pierce or Tyler Reddick score a big win against some of the best Late Model drivers in the country, I would expect to see a press release. And when Trevor Hunt scores the USRA Iron Man B-Mod title, and continues to post top ten finishes with the USMTS, I would expect to see a press release. I have though also seen PR put out about young kids where the release is obviously about the fact that this young kid is racing, and looking for sponsors, even though the youngster has not posted any kind of results on the track worth mentioning yet. Those don’t usually last for long.

Back to the track promoters, I feel that it is unfair to say that they are exploiting the young racers for their own gain if they are not actively promoting the fact that they have the kid racing there. And, as the Racin’ Boys debate seemed to end up at, I feel that every promoter should have the right to implement the rules at his or her track in regard to age limits as they see fit. Scott Traylor has recently started to promote some special events and if he wants to say that nobody under the age of 16 can compete at one of his events, then that is his right and the young drivers and their parents need to respect that. And for what I can see, they do. Russell Hunt, Trevor Hunt’s father knows where his young son can or cannot race based upon track rules and he has stated that he would never challenge such a rule. For instance, Marc Olson does not allow drivers under the age of 16 to compete at his track, Lakeside Speedway on the northwest edge of the Kansas City metro area and therefore the Hunts drive beyond the track that is closest to their Liberty, Missouri, home to go racing. And those trips have grown longer and longer this season, not because of tracks that do not allow the kid to race, but because of the success that he has had wherever he goes.

Knoxville Raceway is another track that has set an age limit of 16 and it is likely not a coincidence that both Lakeside and Knoxville are high speed half-mile ovals. At Knoxville some of the kids prove that they are ready to win at sixteen such as Carson McCarl who won the 305 Sprint track title his rookie year and when Puyallup, Washington, speedster Trey Starks finally hit his sixteenth birthday he went out and qualified in the top five in his first visit during this April’s World of Outlaws show.

There is no doubt that there is a ton of young talent out there right now, even more so than usual it seems. During the Racin’ Boys discussion Scott points out that NASCAR does not let anyone under the age of 18 compete in their top level series, but Kirk and Lloyd quickly reply that, in general, it is the fact that NASCAR teams are out there scouting that next young talent to come along and they are looking at younger and younger drivers in doing so. Let’s face it “Sliced Bread” Joey Logano did not earn his NASCAR license by waiting to race upper division cars at the age of eighteen. He was making his mark when he was the same age as Griffin, Hunt, Pierce, Reddick, etc., etc. And the kids are not just doing it in the dirt either as there were three 14-year-old drivers, and numerous other teenagers, in the starting field for the CRA All Star Tour race that I attended this July on the 0.6 mile oval at Lucas Oil Raceway Park. The kids were hitting speeds of over one hundred miles per hour on the straightaways and you definitely couldn’t tell that they were kids out there racing. In fact one of teenagers running up front was a young lady by the name of Kenzie Ruston who had won her first career Late Model race at this track last season. Heaven forbid that a female racer, young or old, suffers a serious injury as that would prompt the next major internet discussion. When actually what we should be praying for is that NONE of our racers get hurt, no matter their age or sex.

So let’s go back to the argument that a young driver’s body is not as capable of withstanding a crash as it would be if it was more mature. I’m not a doctor so I am not going to take that argument on, but I will say this. I would guess that an in-shape teenager’s body is likely going to have a better chance of handling a hard impact than someone like me whose body is out of shape, somewhat overweight and who has a family history of heart disease. And I see a lot of the guys in the pit area wearing driver suits that I still feel that I could beat in a 400 meter dash……or walk. So if having a physical exam someday becomes a requirement for driving a race car I am guessing that we would lose a lot of non-teenagers while the kids would pass with flying colors.

I do not like it when one side of the argument tries to draw a comparison to the danger that kids face when they play youth sports such as football, baseball, wrestling, etc. There are thousands and thousands of kids participating in those sports and yes each year we sadly hear of kids being seriously hurt or killed while playing them. But when this happens to one or two out of a couple hundred thousand, that is a pretty small percentage showing that the risk level of participation is quite low. In racing I don’t even know if I can say that there are hundreds of kids driving full-size race cars, so when one of them dies and another is seriously injured, that ratio is exponentially higher than the other youth sports proving that the risk level is incredibly higher and that is something that I am confident that every young driver and the parents are well aware of.

Are some of these kids being pushed to do something that they really don’t have their heart set on just to please their parents? I will say “yes”, but not any of the ones that have been named in this story so far and here is why. I believe that if a kid is being “pushed” to race against his or her will then that will prove out once they get on the race track. Mom and Dad aren’t in that cockpit to push down the throttle and there is only one person in there steering that car. I have been pretty closely involved with this sport over the past thirty years and I have seen MANY young drivers come to the track with a brightly painted, sharply prepared racecar either in a support class or right on up to the premier division and I would say that more often than not after a couple of weeks of driving slow and tentative, or after a few spinouts and a brush with the wall, that pretty car and that kid are no longer seen in the pit area. If you are, or have been a parent of a teenager you know that they have a mind of their own and when they get in the race car, if they are being “pushed” to do something that they are not truly excited about doing, then that race car is not going to go fast and stay headed in the right direction.

Kids who go fast and win races, or track championships, like “Lil Miss Dangerous” Emily Gade did at East Moline this year, WANT to race, there is nobody “pushing” them to do so. Do they have the full support of their parents, both spiritually and financially? Absolutely and to structure an argument that essentially implies that the parents of young racers have a total disregard for their well-being is more insulting than constructive. I went to the emergency room three times during my kids’ participation in activities. Twice for Morgan after breaking his leg in football and later after getting a concussion while diving after a loose ball in basketball and hitting his head on the bleachers. For Ashley it was, of all things, a ballet dancing accident where she shattered her left elbow so bad that they had to remove the radial head of the bone just to put it back into place. (There went the golf scholarship!!) And while Kyle was never taken to the ER for sports there were two nights following varsity football games where I had to wake him up every hour to check his eyes to make sure that he was not having more issues with a concussion.

Was I a bad parent for supporting my kids in these activities that injured them in the first place? And was I an even worse parent when, after having the doctors’ clearance, I allowed them to continue to participate knowing that the risk for injury could now be worse? Yes, I asked, but frankly, I don’t give a damn what you think of me as a parent because they are my kids and you don’t know their likes and dislikes, their hopes, their dreams and their aspirations or the values that we hold dear within our household. Nobody knows how to "parent" my children better than my wife and I, and it is for that reason that I take the stance that I do on this issue.

Each and every promoter has the right to establish an age limit for the events that they are presenting and all drivers and their parents need to respect that right. The same goes for sanctioning bodies and if insurance companies do ever decide that an age limit is appropriate in order to obtain coverage, or to get it at a more reasonable rate of premium, then we may just eventually have that “universal” age limit that some people are looking for. But until we do, I am going to put my trust in the parents of these young drivers to decide what is best for them. To make sure that they are properly equipped with the finest safety equipment possible, something that my ex-promoter said that you nearly  always see on the cars of the kids, and to make sure that they are racing in cars and on tracks that they are capable of handling. After all, if you can’t trust parents, who can you trust?

Will accidents involving young racers continue to happen? Yes, and with each one this debate will surface again. Let’s just hope that the next one is a long, long, long time from now.

Looks like we are going to have to bundle up for our racing action this weekend and I hope that this first snap of cold weather does not keep you at home as the season is quickly coming to a close. I am hoping to stay warm tomorrow night at 34 Raceway as the MOWA 410 winged sprint cars will be in action, where 16-year-old Paul Nienhiser will likely be one of the entries, and then on Sunday night I am looking forward to a return trip to the Quincy Raceways where the track’s regular competitors, including Jake Griffin, will likely again see some out-of-towners pull in looking for those valuable UMP Late Model or Modified national points with just a couple of weeks remaining in the points season. Both Kevin Weaver and Brian Shirley have been pulling to Quincy lately, Bobby Pierce was in town last Sunday night and Brandon Thirlby has towed all the way down from Michigan a couple of times. Will they and others be there this Sunday night? I intend to go and find out.

Next week we will head up to Knoxville on Thursday night for the opener of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals and on Friday night I think I still have an announcing date with the Sprint Invaders as they, along with the IMCA Late Models and Four Cylinders, take to the half-mile track at the Davenport Speedway.

Bring some blankets, dress in layers and perhaps I will see you on the Back Stretch.