When NHRA introduced the Jr. Drag Racing League, I was 11 years old. Like any 11-year-old that ate, slept and breathed racing, I pestered my father until he built me one. Thankfully, it didn’t take much pestering!
So I guess I always assumed that eventually I’d be a Jr. Dragster Dad, too. And, for the most part, my two boys have been just as demanding as I was with my father that I provide them that opportunity. Initially, I have to admit, I was torn about just how excited I was about it. If you’ve never Jr. raced, you cannot comprehend how much work these little things require – I joke that I never realized I was getting a miniature competition eliminator car (much less two)!
As you can probably tell by my writings here, I’ve grown to love Junior Dragster racing, and Junior Dragster “Dadding” more than I ever could have imagined. It’s awesome. So awesome, in fact, that in addition to raising my own two little racers, I embarked – along with Justin Lamb and Kris Whifield – to add a junior dragster program to ThisIsBracketRacing.com. Over the last two and a half years, we’ve worked directly with more than 300 Jr. Dragster families within ThisIsBracketRacing Jr.
The peak of that experience is what we like to call Jr. Fest – it’s an annual live school where we get to work hands-on with a couple dozen members on the race track. We just completed this year’s Junior Fest a couple of weeks ago, and it really provides a microcosm of everything I find so intriguing about Jr. Drag Racing.
At Jr. Fest, we introduced a pair of young drivers to the sport. They were first-timers. We spent time with them in their race cars on the starting line without their cars running to detail the staging process and emphasize the importance of a consistent routine. I think that’s always the funnest part – I’ve obviously done it with my own boys as well… You’ve got this innocent kid, who is half scared to death, and you get to take the time to walk through it all – one manageable step at a time. And you see them develop, and work to do the things that you say. And you watch those fears begin to vanish, replaced almost inevitably by a huge grin that breathes not only relief but this contagious newfound confidence because that little guy or girl has managed to control something that just hours ago seemed uncontrollable. I think ultimately, that’s what fosters and then reinforces this addiction that most of us share to the sport of drag racing.
Jr. Fest also included some really seasoned, uber-talented Jr. drivers. That’s one thing that I don’t think I realized prior to getting my boys started in Jr. Dragster racing – just how competitive it is and how good these kids get. It’s no surprise that drivers like the Isenhower brothers, Cory Gulitti, Braden Bowden, Jesse Fritts, Anson Brown, and so many others have enjoyed seemingly immediate success after transitioning from Jr. Dragsters to the highest levels of our sport. As crazy as it sounds, the level of competition at the marquee Jr. events really isn’t much different from the level of competition at a big dollar bracket race or a national event. No, these kids are the real deal!
So Jr. Fest runs the gamut – we’ve got some new kids, and we’ve got several experienced drivers developing incredible skill sets. Kris, Justin and myself work to challenge them. Every driver at Jr. Fest gets stretched beyond their comfort zone. In two days, our goal is to beat them down and build them back up. I start the session by telling them that if they could execute every exercise we ask of them the first time through it, there would be no need for them to be there in the first place… We expect them to fail. Our job is to help them learn from it.
It’s amazing to watch the drivers grow, learn, and build confidence. In just two days, EVERY racer left better than they came – and in most cases it was OBVIOUS. I saw it in my own boys. My oldest Gary has been racing for four years now, and he’s got a pretty good handle on race strategy. As a parent, I asked Kris to challenge Gary – I thought he was getting a little complacent with his staging, and specifically his finish line strategy. After two days, not only was he flickering the stage bulb every lap, but in the following events he was much more proficient and aggressive at the finish line. It was like I was racing with a different kid!
And my youngest Jack, although he’s only been racing for a few months, he’s got the advantage of being the younger sibling. I’m constantly amazed at how much he soaks in from big brother’s experience. Justin challenged Jack to pick out different points on the race track, and empowered him to drive the finish line (really for the first time). Two runs later, my little guy is spun around in the car, pumping the throttle like he’s Jody Lang!
And it wasn’t just my kids. Light bulbs were going off all over the place, and you could just see understanding, the confidence that comes with it, swelling. The on-track results alone speak for themselves: nearly half of our attendees went out and won within the next two weeks! It’s amazing how a couple dedicated days on the track with amazing parents, and caring, intentional teachers can move the needle.
That’s why I say it’s a microcosm for the Jr. Dragster experience. Maybe an accelerated example, but an example nonetheless. We think that we’re teaching our children the basics of racing, and stoking their passion for this sport that we hope they love as much as we do. Whether that’s really the case or not, what we’re doing is empowering them to prove to themselves that they’re capable of things they once thought impossible. That builds a confidence that is hard to manufacture. And that’s a confidence that can be applied far beyond the 660’ of a race track.
Looking back, that’s what racing did for me (on some level, it still does). I was always uber-competitie, but if I’m honest I was never much of an athlete. I was fairly smart, but it didn’t feel cool to be good in school. I didn’t really know where I fit in. But when I found racing… I found something that was obviously hard, but I could do it pretty well. Now, in retrospect, I see how much that confidence spilled (and continues to spill) over into other areas of my life. It helped me realize what I’m capable of.
I don’t spend time and money on my boys juniors, or time and energy with ThisIsBracketRacing Junior members because I’m trying to create the next Scotty Richardson or Jimmy Hidalgo, Jr. in a lab. If these kids aspire to be that, and they work hard at it, the sky is the limit – but most of them will eventually turn their focus to other priorities. My hope, and all of our hopes as parents, is that we can provide them with the tools to succeed at whatever their passion becomes: confidence, will power, character, optimism, and more. There are a lot of ways to go about building these traits. I’m not sure any are more effective than strapping them into a Jr. Dragster.
