Benjamin Smith, Age 12 Glenmoore, Pennsylvania Benjamin Smith didn’t adapt quickly to two wheels. He started out on a little quad, a Suzuki LT50 that his father, a former WERA road racer, bought for him. “I think I was about three,” says Smith. “At probably the age of four, I got a PW50, but I was never really into it–I stuck with the LT.” That changed when Smith and his father had their first encounter with mini road racing. Since then, they’ve been enthusiastic regulars with NJminiGP, competing at New Jersey Motorsports Park with the mini road racing series, taking home trophies and good times. You can blame a friend of Smith’s father. Said friend mentioned to Smith’s dad that kids were racing mini motorcycles with NJminiGP. Smith and his father checked out the organization’s website, and they liked what they saw. So toward the end of 2011, Smith donned his motocross gear, hopped on his Honda CFR100, and headed out onto the track. “I remember the first session, going out there and knowing, this was going to be amazing,” Smith said. “And I loved it.” Unfortunately, there were no more track days scheduled for mini motorcycles for the rest of the year in the area. Fortunately, there were races. So in an attempt to get a little more track time, Smith entered the MiniGP class at one of the NJminiGP meetings. “I got a little more competitive than I probably should have,” Smith says. “I remember in my first race, I stalled the bike on the line and someone came running out from the side of the track and started the bike–I think it was Ryan (Fleming, organizer of NJminiGP). I came from the back and I wound up winning the race.” In 2012, Smith had an excellent season. He started out racing in the MiniGP class and took four wins on his way to the class Championship. He also moved up to the more competitive Stock 100 class, where he took a second, and the Formula One class, where he took a pair of thirds. For 2013, Smith plans to compete with NJminiGP again, as well as trying his hand on a Kawasaki Ninja 250 in WERA and CCS competition. Initial impression of the Ninja? “Big. Heavy. Definitely heavy,” he says. For Smith, racing is a mental game, and the reward is in the challenge of thinking about what he is doing during a race. “Having the competition, and the adrenaline rush, and the thinking about how you’re going to make the pass, how you’re going to make it stick–the goals that are going through your head,” Smith says. “That’s the best part.” And when you’re a kid racer, when you’re still having fun, there really isn’t a downside. “I think it’s all great,” Smith says.