jakefrench.com

My name is Jake French and I am 11 years old. I am in the 5th grade at Armstrong Elementary located in Sachse, Texas. And this is me……………

I have never been a ‘typical’ boy, liking typical boy things. I have never been interested in action figures or cowboys and Indians. I like things real and real fast. Give me something with wheels on it and I will be content for hours. I started riding a two-wheel bike when I was just two years old. Boy, did we draw a crowd on 6^th Street that day. Before then the crowd was always interested in watching Daddy on two wheels. Now I was in the lime-light and I have to say I liked it.

Curbs became my next challenge and after conquering them I moved on to anything that would make a ramp and anyone that would lay in front of the ramp so I could jump over them. I’ve jumped wagons, bikes and even Mommy. And yes, I made it every time!

In 2003 when I was 6 ½ Daddy got a nitro-powered R/C car and took me with him to the track. I have always loved R/C cars but every car I ever had was destroyed in a few months. Not this one, it was the real deal and I wanted in. Finally after much begging Granmommie and Pop got me a battery operated Monster Truck and I raced that for a while. I did pretty good with it so we traded it for a nitro-powered Monster Truck that I race during the fall and winter months. Daddy says I’m a natural. I’m not sure what that means but I have won a couple of trophies and a crowd always gathers when I’m out on the track.

In the spring of 2004 Daddy asked me if I wanted to drive a go-kart. I thought to myself, alright we’re going to speedzone. That’s not exactly what he had in mind. One afternoon the whole family loaded up in Daddy’s truck and went to a large parking lot with some other people and their go-karts. This was no speedzone. To be honest, I didn’t want to sit in it or be near it while it was running. Daddy coaxed me for about 30 minutes until I finally sat in it. It was another half hour before he got to start it. I decided to give it a try and took off around the parking lot. It wasn’t so bad, in fact IT WAS COOL!

Daddy asked me what I thought about racing one of these, if I remember correctly I just shrugged my shoulders not sure exactly what I was in for. My main question was, “do people fall out of these go-karts when they crash?” Now, I posed this question to lots of people always getting the same answer, “NO WAY!”. So Daddy, myself and some of his friends went out to the go-kart track in Denton on Saturday night to watch some races. And what do you think I witnessed before my little 8 year old, very concerned eyes? A crash during the Junior II (12-16 year olds) race sent a racer flying out of his kart suffering a broken leg. Needless to say, it was very quiet while Daddy called Mommy.

Daddy bought me my own kart on May 9, 2004 and I spent the next two and a half months driving it on the weekends. My first race was July 11, 2004. I raced regularly at our home track averaging a 6^th place finish. In October we went to the Texas State Shootout in Waco. This was my first time to experience a different track but learning it came easily to me. I brought home a third place finish! I learned a lot during my first season as a kart racer. The season was over in November and we put the kart away and focused on R/C cars. We started the 2005 kart season late but strong. I am definitely more ‘into it’ this season. I really want to use what I have learned and do my very best each race.

Puttin’ the pedal to the metal………I’m outta here!