I’ve made no secret of trying to brainwash my boys into loving cars. What better way than to get Shep on the path to be a real race car driver! I know, I know…you shouldn’t live out your own childhood dreams through your children. Where’s the fun in that!

For Shep’s 12 birthday we rented an indoor karting track and he had a blast racing with his friends. He was a natural and throughout the day got progressively faster without getting frustrated.

You need to be 14 in order to go karting at PGP Motorsports, but they have a training program for younger kids. If you can pass the program, you can get signed off to driver before 14. They only run the program in the spring so Shep had to wait all winter to take the course. The day finally came, on Easter Sunday, and Shep delayed the candy, we got up super early, and he suited up for a day of high-speed kart racing. You need to demonstrate car control, the ability to listen but most of all you need to show that you can be fast enough to not slow everyone down and make a mess of their real events. I’m proud to say that Shep made it with flying colors and his best lap of the day was 98 seconds. Not enough to win any races, but more than enough to qualify to be on the track.

Shep is hooked. He now has his own helmet with some unofficial sponsors (PNWR and Avants of course), racing gloves, and he pesters me every week to hit the track. He may not be the fastest on the track yet, but he is certainly the best dressed!

Practice makes perfect, and Shep is putting in a lot of practice time! He keeps chipping away at his best lap times, and is down to 85 seconds. Ideally he should be in the 79 to 82 range consistently before he starts to join more competitive classes, but I’m sure he will be there soon. When he isn’t on the track, he’s practicing at our new in-home racing sim. At least when he can pry the wheel away from me!

Here’s a video of Shep’s most recent adventure at the track. Mostly so he can see where he wants to improve, but it is pretty entertaining as well, at least to me.