A pair of youngsters, Riley Barnes (8) and Rhett Burton, battle in the junior limited modifieds class at Rocket Raceway Park. The division aims to get kids started in racing and create racers for life.
“This is the key that is going to be necessary for dirt oval racing to go forward,” Kevin Sustaire, owner of Rocket Raceway Park in Petty, Texas, said. “We must get young drivers involved.”
Why Modifieds?
Traditionally, kids could only race divisions such as go-karts, .25 midgets, Bandoleros, and micro sprints or sit on the sidelines and watch. Proponents of the class said junior limited modifieds offer a platform that truly prepares kids to race higher divisions when they get older.
“It makes sense to get used to driving a rear-wheel-drive car early,” said Sustaire. “Young drivers will develop skills earlier.”
Josh Landers, co-promoter of Hunt County Raceway in Greenville, Texas, echoed Sustaire’s sentiments.
“I see this division to be like planting a seed and watching it grow,” Landers said. “[The drivers] can have 5 years of experience when moving up to eco-mods, sport mods, or B-mods. You see the growth later on — it’s not an immediate thing.”
Better yet, the junior limited drivers can use their same cars as they graduate to other classes.
“The cars are full-size modifieds,” said Landers. “They can move up as they get older and more experienced without changing much on the car — just the carburetors and rev limiters. You can enter into the division with a front-running used car for under $10,000. There’s one on Facebook right now — they are asking $8,500.”
As far as lap times, the fastest junior limited modifieds can run competitively with the eco-mods as is, according to Roy Capps, whose 15-year-old son Kason races in the class.
“He’s already turning times as fast as the top eco-mod drivers even though his car is limited to 6200 rpm and has a smaller carburetor,” Capps, of Grayson, Texas, said.
Competing in Junior Limited Modifieds
The junior limited modifieds run at several Texas tracks. Among them include Hunt County Raceway, Kennedale Speedway Park, Rocket Raceway Park and Heart O’ Texas Speedway outside of Waco. The division gets cars, too, with Heart O’ Texas Speedway having 21 entries in mid-April.
The age requirements vary among those facilities. For example, Rocket Raceway Park will allow kids as young as eight years old. However, when parents approach the track to have their youngsters race there, it requires children to participate in “training days” on Sundays.
“The young drivers cannot race in the division until I see they have the necessary car control and can make several laps at speed,” Sustaire said. “We walk them through the process and give them as many laps as we feel they need to be prepared to race on a Saturday night. Some drivers will have three or four one-day sessions before being allowed to race.”
The class has brought newcomers to the track, not only for the junior limited modifieds, but also other divisions.
“I never raced until three years ago,” Aaron Barnes, father of junior limited modified driver Riley Barnes, said. “I bought a car [for eco-mods] that year and let Riley try driving it — he was nine.”
The next year Riley had his own car. Aaron had to raise the seat and put extensions on the pedals for Riley to use it, though. However, this season Riley is now 6′ tall and wears size 13 shoes.
What Racing Teaches Kids
“[Riley] comes home from school and works on the car,” said Aaron. “He washes his car after the races. He checks ride heights before the races. If there are gears to change, he knows how to do it.”
Aaron said the class teaches his son valuable lessons for the real world.
“He’s learned responsibility, investment — he puts his own money in,” Aaron said. “He learns respect on the track [and] respecting equipment. He knows how much goes into it having a race car.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
Photographers
In 2010, Stacy Kolar started in photography to capture her sons and their friends playing sports. She then moved into race photography in 2017 and covers dirt tracks in the Texas and surrounding areas.
