At 12 tears old your average boy is trying to master a skate board or get a high score on some video game and maybe mastering a curve ball. 12 year olds are at that age where they are still considered a growing child buy not quite a teenager or are they ready to drive a car. Will as we all know their are exceptions to every idea we think we have.
Twelve year old Jake Griffin is a late model driver, and I mean the real deal, no he does not run with a bunch of no bodies at a track you never heard of. Jake has been running at 24 Raceway this year with the ULMA, 750 HP motors on a 1/2 mile high banked track, not exactly for the faint of heart.
I met Jake Saturday night at CMS, I was just strolling by to check out this kid I had been hearing about. He walks up to me and I am pretty sure he did not have any idea who I am. Just like I was an interested race car fan who might want a question answered. In the first five minutes he won me over and I had not even seen him race yet. Once I saw him on the track I knew this kid and I hate to single him out because of his youth, was a real race car driver.
He showed a patience that you don't see in drivers four times his age, he did not make crazy decisions to try some fantastic move that was not really their, he held his line on the track and gave fellow drivers room to run on the track.
In my few years of doing this motorsports reporting thing if this racer, I just hate to say kid, is not the real deal then please take my camera and microphone away from me.
In a racing year I see several hundred racers, you can see on and off the track which ones have the complete package to do well on the local level as well as the NASCAR scene. Personality, likes people that will not in any way help his career, knows what to say where and when, can race any kind of race car, loves racing for the fun of it, is willing to put in the time and effort to learn, do his part, I could go on but to make it short, Jake Griffin is the whole package right now.
I guess you could say I bought the whole thing. You watch the video and see what you think, I know this is only 30 minutes with a 12 year boy but the family is dedicated to this kid and his future. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlTjgO4Ob-E
