Kyle Larson, 12, of Elk Grove has been racing since he was 7 and is approaching 100 victories on the World of Outlaw Sprint Kart circuit. He has qualified to compete this summer for a spot on the Red Bull Junior Racing Team. Sacramento Bee/Andy Alfaro

They aren't culture junkies or history buffs. There are no serious ambitions of visiting the Louvre in Paris or scaling the Great Wall of China.
Still, three area youngsters dream of touring the world.

After all, the Great Wall would make for one sweet Formula One race track.

Kart drivers Kyle Larson, 12, of Elk Grove, Alexander Rossi, 13, of Nevada City and Evan Genekoplis, 14, of Gold River have qualified to compete this summer for a spot on the Red Bull Junior Racing Team, which competes mainly throughout Europe.

In April's indoor kart qualifying at Sacramento's Race Place Motorsports, Larson finished first, Rossi second and Genekoplis third to advance to the Red Bull Drivers Search Run Offs.

Rossi and Genekoplis will race in the runoffs Aug. 9-11 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma; Larson, because of a prior racing commitment, will race July 19-21 at Boston's FI Outdoors track. Rotax karts, which hit speeds of 80 mph, will be the racing vehicles for the weekends.

"It's probably going to be the best summer ever," said Larson, whose mother, Janet, can be heard screaming in the background of his racing tapes.

Dawn Rossi, Alexander's mother, paces while her son races.  "I must say that it's the most thrilling and scary thing that I've ever been a part of," she said.

Five drivers from each runoff will advance to the semifinals in Sebring, Fla., where they will race Formula Dodge cars at upwards of 120 mph.
From there, a team of racing experts will select drivers to advance to the finals in Portugal, where judges will select U.S. members of the Red Bull Junior Team.

Beyond testing the young drivers' racing abilities, judges will look at their physical fitness and examine their nutritional habits at the dinner table. Rossi said he will order a salad.

The program's goal is to find young talent and eventually place a U.S. driver on the worldwide Formula One circuit.

Last year's Drivers Search winner, 14-year-old John Edwards, has moved to Italy, where he is racing karts. The 2002 winner, Manteca native Scott Speed, is on the verge of making the jump to Formula One, which hasn't had an American driver since Michael Andretti in 1993, when Larson was in diapers.

Larson turns 13 on July 31, one month before the Aug. 31 Drivers Search deadline. He found out he was eligible to compete just days before April's qualifying.

Being only 12 during last summer's Drivers Search, Rossi used a waiver to race at Infineon, where he reached speeds seven times his age.
Despite high speeds and frantic mothers, the kids are much more secure about their safety.

"Race cars are extremely safe," Rossi said. "Rarely does anyone die in them. Even if you flip, the entire body and casing you're sitting in is solid."

If he doesn't win the Drivers Search, Rossi plans on joining the Formula TR circuit next season. He will spend the summer interviewing racing teams with his father, Pieter.

"He certainly doesn't have the normal teen childhood going on, in terms of hanging out with friends and playing school sports," said Dawn, whose son sports a 4.0 GPA. "His whole life is racing and schoolwork."

"It's a wonderful thing for our family, as far as bringing us together."

Each father serves as his son's mechanic.

Larson, who has been racing since he was 7, is approaching 100 victories on the World of Outlaw Sprint Kart circuit.

"I've been going to races since I was a week old," Kyle Larson says. "My dad went there almost all of his life, so he just brought me into the tradition." Sacramento Bee/Andy Alfaro

"I've been going to races since I was a week old," he said. "My dad went there almost all of his life, so he just brought me into the tradition."
Genekoplis' father, Brad, spent $2,800 on a used kart for his son a few months ago. "It's not top of the line," the father said.

Nevertheless, the 14-year-old has quickly applied the skills he acquired at Sacramento's RPM Kart Track to the kart series in Prairie City and Davis, where he recently won his first race.

Genekoplis, who has the least kart experience of the three, said a background in bike riding and skateboarding makes him "fearless" on the track.

"I don't really feel like the underdog," he said of his Drivers Search competition. "That would be pretty insane to get all the way (to Europe). I'm always thinking about what it would be like to make it that far."

About the writer:
The Bee's Nick Lozito can be reached at (916) 326-5516 or nlozito@sacbee.com.