Teen’s injury at Petaluma track highlights youth racing trend

Given all the restrictions on teenage drivers, it may seem odd that kids as young as 5 can be race car drivers.

The serious injury last week of 16-year-old Lassen County resident Chelsea Blevins at Petaluma Speedway highlight the risks in an inherently dangerous sport that nonetheless is popular with families and youngsters.

Blevins was traveling at about 60 mph in a sprint car on a straightaway on the oval dirt track when her tire clipped another car and she flipped end-over-end and crashed into a fence, her parents said. Emergency personnel had to cut away her mangled car to get her out.

Blevins suffered a torn spleen, cracked ribs and internal bleeding. She has since been released from the hospital.

A third-generation sprint-car driver, Blevins pledged to be back on the track soon.

The wreck has been the talk of local racing ever since, said Santa Rosa resident Richard Fatu, whose son Will was named Rookie of the Year at Petaluma Speedway last year.

Will turned 14 in March.

After three years racing go- karts, Will spent one season driving Outlaw 250 karts before moving on to mini stock cars at age 13. In his third race last year, he became the youngest main-event winner ever at Petaluma Speedway.

He is now racing a spec sprint car, a 1,500-pound vehicle with more than 560 horsepower.

Richard Fatu understands some people’s concern with that.

“I know it’s scary that kids are going 90 mph,” he said. “But these kids have been doing it half their lives. These kids have a talent and they’ve been doing it since they were 5-6-7 years old. It’s not like we just threw him in a 600-horsepower vehicle and said go at it.”

It’s important for casual observers to know, he said, that auto racing is among the most safety-conscious sports around.

“In race cars, we spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on safety, on neoprene driving suits, the top of the line helmets, HANS (head and neck support) devices, gloves, special knee protection. The seats themselves are $1,000,” he said.

“Sometimes we tell people William is 14 and they go ‘oooh.’ But this is safer than playing tackle football. You let 7- and 8-year-olds play tackle football with just helmets.”

Will Fatu has been in a couple of crashes, including one in a 360  wingless sprint car in which he hit the wall at about 80 mph after a spinout.

“It destroyed his car, but he was fine,” Richard Fatu said, although Will did suffer a minor concussion. “We put these kids in the best safety equipment on the planet.”

Still, swiftly moving vehicles can create dangerous situations. Local drivers have seen a number of tragedies.

In 2013, up-and-coming driver Tyler Wolfe, 20, of Redding died in a crash during a race in Calistoga. It was the first fatal crash at the track since 1983.

Six months later, Santa Rosa eighth-grader Marcus Johnson and a car owner were walking through the pit area at a Marysville track when they were struck and killed by a sprint car driven by Johnson’s cousin, Chase Johnson, of Penngrove, who still races. A faulty steering wheel may have caused the car to leave the track.

In 2004, track official Randy Clifton was killed at Petaluma when a car apparently malfunctioned and struck him on the raceway.

Marcus Johnson, also a driver, started young, like Blevins, Fatu, Wolf and others.

Typically, tracks have minimum age standards for young competitors, depending on the type of vehicle they’re driving.

But experienced young racers can present their resumes and be approved individually, as Fatu was last year at Petaluma.

The two largest motorsports sanctioning bodies, NASCAR and IndyCar, also have age limits, though there can be exceptions as well for talented younger drivers.

The IndyCar Series of open-wheel racing, which includes the Indianapolis 500, has created a development series similar to the minor league baseball farm system.

The Mazda Road to Indy includes three series that step up in difficulty: the USF2000 Championship, the Pro Mazda Championship and Indy Lights.

Drivers must be 15 years old to start with the USF2000, but a 14-year-old with experience can petition for approval, said Jason Penix, the director of the development series.

Pro Mazda drivers typically must be 16.

A.J. Foyt IV was the youngest driver to start the Indianapolis 500, at age 19 in 2003. Troy Ruttman was the youngest winner, at 22 in 1952.

Trevor Bayne became the youngest Daytona 500 winner in 2011 at 20 years and 1 day.

NASCAR has a similar development series with its Xfinity Series and others, while the GP2 is similar in the Formula One world.

Some racing teams also fund their own development teams for young drivers.

Of this year’s Indy 500 field of 33 drivers, 24 had experience in the IndyCar development series.

Penix said young drivers must submit their resumes before being considered for the development program, which is often scholarship-based.

“We get a lot of kids that come from go karting and other formula car series. We look at the resume and their experience, if they have the appropriate skill set and credentials to race at this level,” he said.

“It’s more heavily reliant on experience than age. We get folks who are 25 or 30 who want to do this but don’t have the experience.”

Over the past several years, NASCAR has reduced its age minimums for its lower-level series.

In 2010, the association dropped the age minimum for its entry-level circuit, the Whelen All-American Series, from 16 to 14.

NASCAR began allowing 16-year-olds to compete in its touring series in 2007, when Sprint Cup driver Joey Logano, then 17, won the Camping World Series East championship.

The minimum age for its touring circuits had been 18.

Logano, now 27, is competing at the highest NASCAR level now, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. He finished 12th at the Sonoma Toyota/Save Mart 500 in June.

In 2011, NASCAR lowered the minimum age for drivers competing in its regional touring series to 15.

The change aeffected drivers in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour and NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.

Last year, 13-year-old Carson Hocevar won a NASCAR-sanctioned super late model race, believed to be the youngest such winner in the history of Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan.

But once NASCAR got wind of the boy’s age, they suspended him.

Shortly after that, Andrew Molleur won an SK Light Modified race at New London-Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut. Paperwork said he was 15, but NASCAR determined he was 13 and suspended him as well. According to Molleur’s website, he is back to racing in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Lite division.

Will Fatu, who turned 14 this spring, is racing at Petaluma, Antioch, Placerville and Chico tracks this summer, with the blessing of his parents and raceway officials.

“Literally half of his life he’s been driving a race car,” said his father. “These kids, you can’t break their will, they have something special … Racing is a family thing, a close-knit community.”

Petaluma’s weekly summer racing series continues on Saturdays through Oct. 14 with winged 360s, wingless 360s, spec sprints, dwarfs, 600s, Western states midgets, super stocks, mini stocks and others.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.