One of the great things about sports is the ability for young athletes to use it as a ticket to another city, state or even a continent.
Aidan Keel found out for himself earlier this month.
Keel, 12, was invited to compete in Race 1 of the 2014 Rotax Max Euro Challenge — part of a seven-month, country-wide series of four race events for the best of the best. This particular event was held in Genk, Belgium. It’s been a busy year for the young driver, who just moved into the Juniors age group and recently placed 11th at the Florida Winter Tour.
This race, however, was nothing like anything Keel had competed in before.
“All of the best kids from Europe go and race at this race,” Keel says. “It’s over 80 drivers in one class, and it’s a pretty cool race. They do four races all over Europe.”
He was accompanied by members of the Andersen Racing Team, of which he is a member, and they joined forces with a European team to field a group for this race. When the team arrived in Belgium, they learned quickly how different the racing scene was from what they were used to in America.
BEASTS FROM THE EAST
If you ask Keel — or anyone tuned into the racing scene here — they’ll tell you that the 10 best American drivers in any given race will be separated by a few 10ths of a second. After that, the gaps widen. In Europe, though, everyone on the track is separated by a few 10ths of a second.
“They (Europeans) accept racing a lot more than here,” Keel says. “They know what racing is, and they want racing to be a career for them — not just a side hobby to something else. They all have the mindset of wanting to win, if they’re coming from the back or if they’re first.”
Fiercer competition leads to rougher racing, in some cases. And differences in the European track make it easier for the drivers to go harder than they would on an American course.
“The track has a lot more grip, because there’s 80 drivers going around on one compound every day for a week,” Keel says. “Here, it’s a few drivers going around different tire compounds — not very good for the track. But there, the grip never leaves. Even if it’s raining out.”
There was “a lot” of bumping in the races, with Keel both taking and giving them to hang in there. Although it was legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. who said, “Second place is the first loser,” the Europeans seem to live by that phrase even more than some American drivers.
“They never have a thing where they’re thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll come in second,’” Keel says. “It’s never that. It’s always, they have to win.”
Keel says he did well in practice but recorded a DNF in one of the heat races. This meant he had to place well in the last-chance qualifier to make the main race, but he crashed out.
Even though he didn’t finish as well as he had hoped, Keel still looks at the trip as a great experience.
GOING AROUND GENK
Spending nine days in Belgium meant Keel got to see much more than just the racetrack. For someone who had never left the country before, it was a memorable experience.
The first thing that came up was the food, which he claims is “a lot better” than what he has stateside.
“A lot of the food there is Italian,” Keel says. “I’m not sure why. But spaghetti and lasagna were two of the biggest meals.”
As most people with smartphones do, he snapped a picture of his favorite meal — a penne dish — and sent it to his parents.
One would think that, in a place as racing-crazy as Europe, the cars would be worth checking out. Not so, says Keel.
“The cars there — they’re all small hatchback cars,” he says. “You never see a big truck anywhere.”
When the team wasn’t at the racetrack, the members toured the countryside. They checked out an old train museum and a World War II monument and marveled at all the old architecture. Because wind power is popular in Belgium, the team got to see the massive wind turbines that power the city of Genk. Many of the buildings were more than a century old, something that caught Keel’s eye.
The people were friendly and largely multilingual. Keel says some people were fluent in Dutch, French and English — impressive, yet maybe a little odd for a country that serves so much Italian food.
At the end of the visit, though, Belgium seemed much more like rush hour on the Howard Frankland Bridge, in Tampa.
“The first day we landed, it was fine,” Keel says. “But going back, it was two hours of traffic. It’s supposed to be a 30-minute drive. You had to check in at 9:30, and we got there right at 9:30, but I guess they had people with standby tickets. And by the time we got there, I guess they had already given our seats away, so they said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re too late to sign in.’”
Still, despite missing his original flight home to Plant City, Keel says he is pleased with the experience.
“I would go back,” he says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.