How Young Is Too Young in Racing?

They start racing long before they’re old enough to get a driver’s license. Teen-agers like Sarah Fisher and Casey Atwood have reached the highest levels of the sport with dizzying speed.

But the death of 19-year-old Adam Petty raises the question: How young is too young? In a sport where some drivers might not reach a peak until their late 30s and early 40s, are some kids pushing the accelerator a little too quickly?

Fisher, only 19 herself, will race today in the Indianapolis 500. Atwood, also 19, signed up Thursday to drive on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit next season.

Petty was planning a limited Winston Cup schedule this year in preparation for a move to the big time in 2001.

His dream ended May 12 when he was killed in a crash while practicing for a Busch Grand National race in New Hampshire.

“It bothers you all the time when you see something like that,” said Brad Sorenson of Peachtree City, Ga., whose 14-year-old son, Reed, is a budding star even though he won’t be able to get his driver’s license for another two years. “We want to try to do everything right. We’re not pushing too fast.”

Reed was only 6 when he started racing quarter-midgets. At 12, he received a special exemption to move into the Legends division, smaller-scale replicas of 1930s and ‘40s coupes powered by motorcycle engines.

He has won hundreds of his races in his young career--a couple paying $10,000. At this rate, he might make it to the Busch series before he graduates from high school--even though the 5-foot, 100-pounder looks as if he should be racing horses, not cars.

“You learn a lot more when you start out young,” said Reed, an honor-roll student at Atlanta’s prestigious Woodward Academy. “You’re already ahead of the game.”

The sport seems to be getting younger and younger. A split in American open-wheel racing has created two series, CART and the Indy Racing League, leading to more opportunities for drivers like Fisher, who might otherwise have spent a few more years in racing’s minor leagues. Dodge is getting back into Winston Cup racing next year, creating one of the openings that will be filled by Atwood.

It’s conceivable that team owners, desperate for marketable drivers who will lure sponsorship dollars, might be tempted to overlook experience in exchange for a bright, young face who looks good in front of the TV camera.

Fisher, who has been racing since she was 5, insists talent is the primary reason she got her break with Derrick Walker, who compared the teen-ager with four-time Indy winner Rick Mears.

“If Derrick Walker didn’t believe in my abilities, he wouldn’t put me in such an expensive piece of equipment,” Fisher said of the $500,000 car.

In a race at Las Vegas, however, she made a rookie mistake while running near the front and took out 44-year-old Eliseo Salazar, a veteran of Formula One. Afterward, he said the teen-ager was out of her element.

Salazar has toned down his criticism at Indy--”We all want to be 19 again, so maybe we’re a little bit jealous”--but he still wonders if some youngsters have any business running at these speeds.

“Experience pays off in the long run,” he said. “Maybe there needs to be a little more control.”

Salazar suggests requiring drivers to demonstrate success at each level of racing before they are allowed to move along. “Now, you can run a few midget races and come straight to the Indy 500,” he said.

Brian Barnhart, director of racing operations for the IRL, said those safeguards already are in place, though nothing is formalized in the rules.

Fisher had five feature victories in 23 midget starts last year before moving up to the Indy cars. Atwood was hired by Ray Evernham after winning twice and capturing five poles in 56 Busch races.

“Sarah meets the requirements,” Barnhart said. “But we would never do something like saying you have to finish so high in the points or win X-number of races.”

He pointed out that a lot of factors go into determining the success of a driver. The most talented driver in the world isn’t capable of winning if he doesn’t have a fast car and good crew.

“At what point do you kick Michael Waltrip out of Winston Cup?” asked Barnhart, referring to the driver who has failed to win in 16 years on NASCAR’s top circuit.

Petty, the gangly grandson of seven-time Winston Cup champion Richard Petty, suffered fatal head injuries when his car brushed the wall at close to 130 mph, then smashed sideways into the concrete. Who knows if someone with a stronger, more developed body would have survived the crash.

Dr. Jerry Punch, a TV analyst and a former emergency room trauma specialist, noted that today’s racers put more emphasis on cardiovascular development than brute strength.

“You look at some of the drivers in the old days and they had forearms like Popeye,” Punch said.

But there’s no common thread running through fatal crashes -- on or off the track. In February, Geoffrey Bodine hurtled through the air in a fiery, disintegrating truck at a race in Daytona, but lived to joke about it. A few years ago, Grant Adcox hit the wall in Atlanta in a seemingly routine crash but was dead when rescue workers got to the car.

While many younger drivers lack the strength, body development and experience of their older counterparts, they do have some advantages in crashes, Punch said. They are more flexible, cutting down on the chance of torn muscles and broken bones, and younger blood vessels are able to cope better with the trauma of being inside a tumbling race car.

“The flexibility of youth should actually be an asset in an injury crash,” Punch said.

That’s good, because drivers like Jeff Gordon have lowered the bar for everyone. He became a full-time Winston Cup driver at 21, won his first race a year later and was only 24 when captured the series championship. Still more than two months from his 29th birthday, he is a three-time Cup champion with 50 victories on his resume.