my cousin has 2 kids that are racing motocross and one that might next year- the oldest is 10 and pretty much owns the 65cc class at a couple of tracks and is solidly mid pack at other tracks where more kids with more money and better equipment show up, and his sister is 8 and just kind of rides around at the back of the pack on her brother's old 50cc KTM . their 5 year old brother just started riding this year, but he's always sitting on the bikes in the pits pretending to do all the tricks like the guys on tv and doesn't seem to have any interest in actually racing or even watching his brother and sister race. he just wanders from pit to pit and entertains people all day while they are at the track.
the oldest has crashed hard a few times and broke his arm halfway thru last season. he got second place for the season in his class because he missed a couple of races when his arm was in a cast.. 2 weekends ago, one of his friends got hurt really bad while they were racing- i think it was a broken arm and some fractured ribs or something when he tried to hit a triple that the bigger guys were hitting and didn't make it- but my nephew still races as hard as he can over every jump on every lap. this kid is almost a prodigy- he has the advantage of being smaller than the other kids he races against, and he's not trying to get big air all the time. he just tries to race fast and smooth.
is it abuse to let the kid race? some of our relatives think so, and my cousin's mother in law won't go to the track to watch because she thinks 10 year olds shouldn't be allowed to ride a bicycle more than a block away from home... my cousin and his wife never try to push him into going to the races, and they realized that he races better if he just tells him to go out there and have fun with his friends instead of trying to win all the time. if he doesn't want to go to a race on any given weekend, they don't go. but he also knows how the season points standings are affected when he doesn't race- he actually knows when he can skip a weekend and not take too much of a hit in the standings.
"In these circumstances, the law may be the best brake on runaway, thrill-seeking, fame-hungry, ego-driven, money-obsessed parents and organizations. "
If it can be proven that no one could reasonably assure a 13-year-old of anything like safety while racing at the speedway Sunday, then let the civil litigation begin. Maybe a successful action against the track and the Racers Union group would be noticed. Or maybe a dozen of Peter Lenz’s close friends could prevail in a suit against his parents. See, when parents abandon their proper role protecting their children, plenty of kids can get hurt—not just their own.
Dr. Keith Ablow
