Racing to the future, an 11-year-old finds grown-up drive, risks

It was March 2010 and Lance Fenderson was age 8. While most kids were kicking soccer balls or playing with Star Wars charactes, Lance was hitting 70 mph in his go-kart at the Florida Winter Tour, practicing the sport he'd taken up at age 5.

Tucked behind another racer, foot flat to the floor, Lance attempted to make a pass. At that moment, the leading kart lost grip and slid sideways. Lance clipped the kart’s exposed rear wheel, causing him to rocket skywards, up and over — flipping his go-kart at highway speeds. Lance’s father, Troy, watched in horror as his son flew through the air, while his mom, Christine, waited by the phone at home taking care of their infant son, Luke.

Luckily, Lance was fine, albeit shook up and sporting a fat lip. His race helmet, too, had a nasty chip on the front: “My dad and I immediately went to the store to buy a new helmet so we could make the next session,” Lance, now 11, told me. “The crash definitely made me feel a little nervous about what could happen, and it maybe affected me for a bit, but I’m fine now. I’ve seen worse.”

By Monday, Lance was back at school with his friends.

It’s a fine line parents must walk, allowing their children to chase racing dreams while keeping grounded and focused on education and just being young. As with many professional sports, starting young has become not just an advantage, but a requirement, often as soon as a kid's feet can reach the pedals.

Unfortunately, the chase comes with adult-sized risks. Three years ago, 9-year-old Taybor Duncan died from a crash during qualifying for a Colorado karting race; a grand jury later found a "perfect storm" of problems that led to the accident. There's no stats on how many children take part in amateur karting or get into spills like Lance's, but running an open-cockpit car on track always carries some danger.

And the challenges don't stop at the finish line; racing has its fair share of parents pushing their kids too hard in an attempt to resurrect their own dreams of glory. I started racing when I was 8 years old, and I’ve seen this firsthand: fathers punishing children harshly for their mistakes, kids terrified because of what their fathers will do if they don’t succeed. I only needed to see one father whipping his child with a belt after a race to understand.

The Fendersons, too, have seen this unhealthy competitiveness. It’s what drives them to ensure Lance races because it’s what he wants to do, and that the only pressure is the expectation he places upon himself: “It makes me uneasy at times,” Christine, Lance’s mother, says. “It’s not so much the safety side of things; I try not to think about that. And it’s not about the racing. It’s this other aspect that can be quite overwhelming.”

That pressure often turns financial: Who has the biggest million-dollar motorhome, or who sports the flashiest team truck becomes a contest amongst parents: “Lance will be invited into these massive RVs to play video games and hang out with his friends, then he’ll come back to our little trailer with no air-conditioning, and he’s sweating away eating and sitting on a cooler,” Christine says.

“I think it’s made Lance work harder. He’s very humble. He just loves to race. But it’s the impact this could have that worries me most.” Christine continued to say how she was initially fearful for her young son's safety, but as she became more knowledgable about the sport and the safety measures in place, that fear subsided.

Troy Fenderson, Lance’s father, concurs, stating that while there are of course inherent risks, safety has come a long way: “People see a 70 mph go-kart with no roll cage and seat belts and think it’s crazy,” he says. “But when we get home, the kids grab the Razor scooters on the driveway and try to jump something and bust a wrist. I think, ‘Man, we’ve just spent the entire weekend driving 70 mph, literally touching other karts, and we’re in the ER for this?’" He continued, "While you must always be prepared, incidents are very rare.”

As Lance progressed in his young career, winning everything on a regional level, Troy realized the importance of joining a leading team to help them compete nationally within the Cadet Sportsman1 class, the first true step on the ladder to turning pro for racers aged 8-12: “It’s been a big transition,” Troy says, as Lance competed as a rookie for the renowned Top Kart USA team in this highly competitive national series, battling upwards of 30 racers, all driven by the desire to one day make the big leagues: “Unless you’re running at the front, you’re not getting the best motors. Some families are paying $300,000 per season to race at this level; we’re doing it on maybe a tenth of that. So to move up the ladder, get recognized, and get the better engines, we really needed to prove ourselves on track.”