Wheels Turning

Something that has been on my mind a lot recently is bonding opportunities with my son. Sharon brought home a flier the other day for a local youth sports activity and asked if we wanted to get Fulton involved in something similar like T-ball. My first reaction was “sure, why not”. After all, it’s great for making new friends, exercising, being outdoors, the endless practices, etc. Then she added the remark “and you could coach, too.”

Hold on, slow down.

Coaching youth sports is not something at which I excel. I do not know enough about any one sport to be of any benefit to a youngster – much less to satisfy his parents’ expectations seeing as they invested a good amount of time and money for little Slugger to be under my tutelage. Now of course, my outlook may change if Fulton were involved in something in which I had extensive knowledge and passion.

How about racing?

Okay, now we’re talking. Fulton does in fact show signs of interest in the sport: 1) Lightning McQueen is still by far his favorite animated marvel, 2) He loves toy cars, and 3) you can find him every Sunday by my side watching NASCAR… even though his primary concern is knowing the position of “the M&Ms car” (I’ll have to work on that; no son of mine will ever favor Kyle Busch). So how could a young boy get active in racing?

RC Racing

I think remote control cars would be a good introduction. It’s a small enough investment for a hobby that a boy and his dad could enjoy any day of the week. There’s even a dirt track raceway just a few miles from our home. But if we want to take it to the next step, we’re talking gas-powered RC kit cars for on-road racing. Yeah baby!

Soap Box Derby

I’ve never actually took part in or witnessed a Soap Box Derby race, but they’re still out there. The closest one to us would be in Houston. I’m thinking however that there is probably more fun to had in building the car then the actual race itself. Not to mention that the youngest age allowed is 8, so that’s at least 6 years out. Surprisingly, Fulton would be closer to try out…

Karting

Believe it or not, kids can start out practicing on 50cc karts at age 5 here in Austin at the Ironrock Raceway. They start competing in organized races when they reach 8.

I spent a bit of time with Karts in the Purdue Grand Prix and it was a lot of fun. Karting is pretty intense but as you can imagine it does take a bit of investment upfront to get into the game. We’ll have to play this by ear as Fulton get’s closer to age, but we’ll certainly make our way out there sometime to get a feel for the atmosphere and gauge his interest.

All in all, I think this can be quite a bit of fun. There are other things to do from a spectator level such as visiting the Thunder Hill Raceway in Kyle, TX and take in a NASCAR or IndyCar event at Texas Motor Speedway.

And besides, I think “Crew Chief” is more my style than “Coach”.

And a bit of fun…

“When it comes to Mike Wallace, the story ends with me putting him in the wall.”

Classic.