COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tons of kids across the country grow up playing soccer, baseball or football, but it’s not often that you hear of kids driving race cars.

What You Need To Know

  • Kamden Hibbitt has been racing since he was just five years old 

  •  In 9 years he won over 120 races, and then moved on to driving the big cars, where he was selected to represent Mazda and drives for Williams E-Sports in the Prodigy P3 Championship

  • Hibbitt said his end goal is to be able to race professionally and make his lifelong dreams come true

There is one central Ohio teenager who fell in love with racing while he was still in diapers. 

“The first lap is all about building your rhythm, getting comfortable,” said Kamden Hibbitt, a sophomore at Big Walnut High School.

Hibbitt fell in love with racing when he saw his first NASCAR race on television when he was just two years old. 

Then, when he was five, he began his racing career when his parents formed the family-owned race team, Hibbitt Motorsports. 

“My dad never got a chance to race, but my family does have a history of motorsports. My great grandpa, my grandpa raced so a little bit of history in the motor sports world,” Hibbitt said.

Hibbitt began his racing career driving quarter-midgets. In nine years, he won over 120 races, and then moved on to driving the big cars, where he was selected to represent Mazda and drives for Williams E-Sports in the Prodigy P3 Championship.

“For the Mazda scholarship driver, there’s three kids in the country and the world that got to represent Mazda, as a scholarship driver last year so to be one of those drivers is a really big deal and something that I’ve never overlooked and always grateful for,” Hibbitt said.

Now, at just 15-years-old, Hibbitt is still too young to get his driver’s license, but he can drive race cars that reach up to 135 miles per hour.

“High school is an interesting place for a race car driver to say the least,” Hibbitt said.

Hibbitt tells me he’s traveled all over the country for racing, and one of his favorite tracks to race on is Road Atlanta. He even has the ability to practice tracks he races on at home with the simulator he built himself. 

“I have a very high level sim here to be able to train on,” Hibbitt said.

The simulator replicates the actual racetrack. You can feel the seat vibrating and see what it looks like racing that track.

Hibbitt said you have to be in great shape to be a race car driver because the sport is physically demanding and can be dangerous.

“Leg strength is something most people overlook. Some cars don’t have power brakes like you do in your street car, so if you can’t deadlift 400 pounds then you can’t get 400 psi of brake pressure,” Hibbitt said.

Hibbitt said his end goal is to be able to race professionally and make his lifelong dreams come true.