The insurance companies will answer the question. They'll set the limit, and that will be that.As for injuries, ask BC,and he came back just as fast and fierce as ever.The hard thing for me would be parental guilt if something happened.Why did I strap my kid into a race car 4? It would be hard to live with if your child paid the ultimate price.

It is a dangerous sport as we all know. My only question is ,does a 12 year old really understand how dangerous it is ?

In southern California there is a quarter midget track. The Light "A" cars are going around in less than 5 seconds. These are 10 and 11 year old kids that have 6 years of driving experience already. The kids that have come from these tracks would think that a 15 second sprintcar lap is slow and boring. That is until they slide into Lawrenceburg turn 1 at 125 MPH!

today you have very few hired guns out there! Its no longer drivers starting in b-circuits my first race car i drove was a 1941 hilligas v8 ford 60 midget! NO ROLL BAR NO CAGE NO WING WITH A HAND BRAKE! HOW MANY WOULD PUT THERE 12 YR.OLD IN THAT? Maybe a $800 race car! Where a usac offy midget back then cost new bout $6000 in feb 1963 a nascar race at sunshine speedway st. Pete fla. Now all this kids are trying to get to nascar!!!!!!! I started there!!!!!!!! The car was from new york and he did not have a driver i told him i was racing midgets in in. Ill ohio and he said ok! He would give me a try! Oh ****! Ask any driver over 50 how they started back then in some old ******* that looked like a million dollars! I tell you if the greatest drivers we have seen like parnelli aj unsers dickson bigelow beale bettenhausen carter ward rathman herk hewitt and many more! Had to start today as a 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 old you would have never heard of them! Cause they where not rich kids that there parents got them a $100000 dollar race car to start in! I had no money my father died in 1957 and my mom rasied 5 kids! I don't give a damm how people spend there money but its killed open wheel racing! No b-cars or circults for guys to start in open wheel! Put a $3500 claim on midgets engines and $7500 on sprint engines so a guy could own a car and hire somebody to drive it!

That would be a great idea! If it could only happen....dare to dream

and the have all been in a serious accident before they was 16 or younger..jmo...not bashing
Posted via Mobile Device

As the father of a very young driver this is a topic I struggle with as well.

When TJ began racing QMs as an 8 year old you started out slow and worked your way up to faster classes......not any more. People are putting their kids (very young kids) into cars that are way too fast for their experience level. How fast does a little kid need to go around a QM track?

I was never very nervous about watching my son drive a QM, with the possible exception of the World Formula class that was just lights out fast around the track. TJ seemed to take to it so naturally and ran so well that I was always pretty comfortable watching him run. We had our share of wrecks but he always jumped right out of the car. The Stanley's know how to make a damn good QM.

After 4 years of successfuly running QMs (numerous feature wins and a Senior Honda championship) we decided it was time to move on to something else so we bought a FOZ car and TJ started running Mini-Sprints with the AMSA. I'll be honest, my boy was only 13 and I was somewhat concerned that I was not being a very responsible parent by allowing him to race a Mini-Sprint around the fast, high banked corners of L-Burg Speedway. We have had our share of ups and downs during our first full year but for the most part he has done fine......although there is always that voice in the back of my mind asking me 'what the hell are you doing' when I strap him into the car before a race. Then I watch him run and it's like it was something he was born to do.

TJ is 14 now.....I cannot picture him in a midget or a sprint car, although I am sure he could see himself in one. When that day comes I will be in the stands loaded up on Miller Lite and maybe a valium or two.

I have seen some young drivers that are every bit as good as some guys that are twice their age. Much of it has to do with experience and maturity. My kid has done pretty well so far with a father/car owner that doesn't know crap about racing. The important thing is that you move them along at the right speed. There is no reason to put a kid into a car that they are not ready for. We've all seen it.......the kid in the car that his father bought that he is woefully ill prepared to drive. Situations like that are bad for the kid and everyone else on the track. I know I could not live with myself if I put my boy in a car that he was not ready to run and something happened to cause serious injury to him or someone else.

Part of me is hoping my kid will get his license in a few year, start chasing girls and give up this racing mess so I can relax again. I have always told him that when he is done I am done........there is no pressure to keep racing when the day comes that he decides he doesn't want to. Unfortunately I don't see that day coming anytime soon.

I don't think the issue is fully with the age of the driver.. it is more of how ready the driver is. I know several drivers who have shown some talent and move up to sprint cars, then there are others that don't belong anywhere near a mini sprint, let alone a sprint car. Part of the issue is moving a driver up too fast; before they have earned it or have shown that they can handle a sprint car. If you can't win in a mini/micro sprint, or a tq, then you don't belong in a sprint car.

How about using this for the age limit......

If you don't feel comfortable that your child is old enough to properly strap himself in to a sprint car, your child is not old enough to race a sprint car.

I have literally seen kids crawl into a sprint car then watched their dad lean in and tie their helmet for them..."Here's your sign"

I am a parent so I totally understand making sure your kids safety equipment is used properly but surely it takes more maturity to run 125 MPH than it does to hook up some belts.

Yes a mechanic should cinch a drivers lap belt....yes a HANS device goes on quicker with a second set of hands but come on...

Here is where I contradict myself........ I saw Clausen kick the crap out of a bunch of MEN in a micro at age 12. I saw Clausen in a sprinter at age 14, and I was at Wheatland, MO the night the front stretch fence tore Clausens cage half off the car and he got the neck injury......

I HAVE NEVER SEEN B.C. LOOK LIKE HE WAS IN OVER HIS HEAD!!! And I am quite sure Tim has been in the game long enough to know when Brian was ready for the next step, no matter how big that step was.

I am a 47 year old man and I've raced for 20 years. My father raced from the time he was 18 until he was in his 60's. I have always been around race cars and except for when I was very young, it has always been sprint cars.

I watched my father win a feature at Bunker Hill Speedway when I was six years old and thought it was greatest thing in the world.

I saw Rick Ferkle win an Austrailain Pursuit in less then half a lap at I-96 Speedway and right then I knew I had be be a sprint car driver.

I worked two jobs for two years to buy my first sprint car (a '79 Shores) and I'll never forget the feeling the first time I fired it up.

I lived a life long dream by starting and finishing the Little 500.

But I also broke my leg in a crash that should of never happend, but did because I was too stupid to get out of a ill handling car.

I watched my 65 year old father flip a car and have to be airlifted out.

I stood by by best friends hospital bed as they adjusted the halo he was wearing from a broken neck recieved from a sprint car crash.

I stared into a fellow drivers eyes as life ebbed from his body.

And I watched the anguish on a fathers face as his son's blood ran accross the track. I wonder how he would feel about this thread?

Tom Paterson

Driving a Sprint Car is a privilege. It should be seen as such. I am not saying a kid from 12 to 15 can't stand on the gas. I'm saying that the maturity is not there in a kid compared to an 18 to 20 year old man. I agree with Leader's Edge it should be 18! You should have to wait until you are mature enough to respect the vehicle you are driving and respect the people whom you are competing against. I even asked one of my heros, Kevin Briscoe and he agreed Sprint Car racing is not the same now as it was back in the 80s or 90s or even when I started in 2001. This is due to lack of respect on the race track. I have raced with his son Chase and watched him as well. He is one of the very few young kids that know how to respect their competitors. This is because he has learned from the best his Dad and his Grandpa.