Amanda Vincent: PBS documentary chonricles journeys to potential NASCAR stardom

Most top professional athletes in most sports got their starts in their respective sports at a very early age. Stories abound of an almost-toddler Tiger Woods picking up golf clubs for the first time, and so on and so forth. Auto racing has become the same.

Gone are the days when drivers strapped into a racer for the first time at the age of 18 or 21. Nowadays, NASCAR team owners are looking for the next great “young gun,” and future NASCAR stars are embarking on their racing careers and younger and younger ages.

Sure, drivers have to be so old to strap into a a full-size race car, but some drivers at NASCAR’s top levels have admitted to bending the rules a little with fake ids, etc. In those cases, though, the drivers had to at least be old enough to physically pass for someone old enough to race.

Drivers who are even younger aren’t waiting to get started on careers in racing by climbing into racing go-karts to hone their racing skills, so much so that go-kart racing has become a pretty big deal.

How big of a deal? It’s a big enough deal that young go-kart racers have caught the attention of Oscar-nominated director Marshall Curry, a handful of executive producers including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and PBS series POV producers. As a result, “Racing Dreams,” a documentary following three youngsters with NASCAR ambitions as they race their go-karts at speeds of up to 70 mph, racing for trophies and a possible future on the NASCAR stage, is slated to air nationally on PBS later this month.

Although the show hasn’t yet aired, it’s alreay an award winner, taking the Best Documentary Feature Award recently at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The PBS feature follows junior division racers Josh Hobson and Annabeth Barnes and senior division competitor Brandon Warren through one full season of World Karting Association competition. It documents the three drivers’ quests for national titles, experiencing financial ups and downs from not having enough money to continue racing to hosting fundraisers to support budding racing careers, and transitions into late model stock cars.

“Racing Dreams” is slated to hit the PBS airwaves at 9 p.m. ET on Feb. 23, but check you local listings to make sure of the time in your area. It’ll also stream on the POV website—www.pbs.org/pov/racingdreams—from Feb. 24 through March 24.

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