The Kids Are Alright: Inside the World of Youth Racing — Sport

It's so hot inside the tent that Mickey Mouse must take a break every 15 minutes to properly hydrate. An assistant leads His Mickeyness to a nearby but concealed location because, at Walt Disney World in Orlando, it is assumed that actually seeing the mouse head pop off and some dripping-wet cast member inside the costume guzzling Gatorade could be so traumatic for children that lawsuits may result. It has happened before.

By now, everyone is ready to go home, but the trophy presentation is an integral part of any United States Auto Club (USAC) national event. This is, after all, the first-ever Mopar .25 Nationals, a genuine big-deal motorsports event for quarter-midget-racing kids, many of whom are still young enough to put out milk and cookies for Santa. Since the racing was held at Walt Disney World — or, more accurately, on a vacant parking lot at Walt Disney World Resort — it was assumed that the Disney cast of characters would present trophies. Mickey Mouse must have drawn the short straw, because he is the only one who showed up.

These are tough, plucky kids — the best of 165 from as far away as New Mexico — who raced their way into the awards-ceremony tent by wheeling their quarter-midgets around the tri-oval racetrack that is 1/20th of a mile long. Since the 1930s, quarter-midgets — which are certainly larger than one-quarter the size of a regular midget race car but compete at speeds that are about one-quarter as fast, on a track that is one-quarter as long -- have been the launching point for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of racing careers.....
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