When I was growing up getting your drivers license was very important. We all looked forward to passing the driving test so we could have some freedom. So we could get in our car and go somewhere, just get out of the house. Most of us worked on cars in the garage because we all drove junkers that broke down and it was a priority to keep that car running so that you kept your freedom.
Today our kids don't need a car nearly as much, they can escape so much easier now, they don't need a license. Teenagers can connect with friends and escape using social media and their entertainment options are much more varied. Fact is, they can escape without leaving the house.
That change in perspective provides a challenge when it comes to Motor Sports.
Fortunately some race tracks and organizations are changing with the times to help the youth of today acquire that same love of racing that we have.
Adam Brachle founder of Youth Impact Racing goes to local church parking lots with an enclosed trailer/shop and uses Radio Controlled Cars and Go-Karts to reach kids and teach them about Motorsports. "Young kids can race R/C cars and learn about the suspension, struts and tie-rods, its enough to wet their appetite in an environment where the liability is not so great" said Brachle. "We give kids the opportunity to use wrenches and learn about the four cycles of the motor and how brake calipers work."
All of the Youth Impact Racing events are free and usually take place on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings all over the Twin Cities. Plus special events at the Back to the 50's, the North St Paul car show, Elko Speedway and the Street Machine Nationals.
Many local drivers have participated in these events, displaying their cars and interacting with the kids. "I think what Adam is doing is amazing," says three time Elko Champion Conrad Jorgenson, "it keeps kids busy and out of trouble, I go to as many events as I can." Former Raceway Park Champion Jeremy Wolff echo's the statement "I think kids need something nowadays, not video games and not running with a bad crowd, they need something like what Adam is doing."
Last summer, Youth Impact Racing exposed Motorsports to over 2,100 students and that number will grow extensively this year with 16 different church locations on the ever-growing schedule thanks in part to some local sponsors including Cedar View Electric and the Key Guys.
This program seems to be working, kids are really responding and local racetracks will benefit from that as the next generation grows up. Maybe even sooner, lets hope that those kids will want to come to the race track and their parents will bring them.
"The kids love when we bring the race cars," says Wolff "they sit in it, they touch it and look in the car, it makes racing real for them." Jorgenson adds "it's a lot of exposure to racing that they probably wouldn't normally get, so that is really cool."
Not as many of our kids are growing up in the garage, a place where many of us learned some important life lessons and experienced some long lasting memories. His program helps fill that need for some and maybe it will be the spark of encouragement for others.
"Some of the neatest relationship building opportunities are when you are in the shop with somebody, working on something and you are learning and also talking, you share your burdens with each other and talk through real life situations" says Brachle.
Attendance at live sporting events has gone down across the country in the last decade. If auto racing is going to grow in the future, the marketing of our sport to the youth of today is going to have to change. This is a good example of how we all need to reach out and make it easier for kids to find out how fun all aspects of racing can be.
"For some kids, if it's not happening right now, it's just not happening for them at all" says Wolff. "Adam is right there, every week, and that's what those kids need."
I think the sport of Auto Racing needs this just as much as the kids do.
For more information about Youth Impact Racing go to YouthImpactRacing.org or talk to Adam Brachle after he does the invocation weekly at Elko Speedway.
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