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Pull up at Chase Austin's house in Eudora, and you'll have to park in the driveway. No room in the garage for cars; it's already full of racing trophies. Seeing people that can't park their cars in their garage because they have too much junk is typical. But to have this much hardware in a space designed for two vehicles now that's unusual.

Come to think of it, there isn't a whole lot that is usual about Chase. Let's see, he started racing at age 8. He already has his own line of clothing. He's a minority in a sport that is predominately white. He beats racers almost three times his age. Did I mention he's only 12? And yet, his opponents grown men fear him.

Chase Austin, 12, travels around the Midwest with his mini sprint race car.

Most kids his age are shooting hoops or playing video games. Chase is more concerned that the weight is evenly distributed in his go-cart. His brother and sister gave him the nickname "the golden child." But let's face it, he doesn't need a nickname. His real one is already better.

Question: What do you do if you race against Chase Austin? Answer: Chase Austin.

Question: What do you rarely do in those races? Answer: Catch Austin.

Speed freak

It's doubtful you've heard of Chase. But he has every intention of making it to NASCAR one day and being a big name there. He's gotten off to an impressive start. In his four-year career, he's already amassed almost 60 wins. He's won at all but two of the many tracks he's competed at. And often he's racing against adults. Nothing worse than getting left in the dust by a kid half your age.

Of course, a 12-year-old isn't going to achieve this success on his own. His parents, Steve and Marianne Austin, are some of the most dedicated and supportive people around. For example: When Chase was 8, he asked his father if he could give racing a try. Steve set Chase up in a go-cart but saw that his son was too small to reach the pedals. He pulled him out and tied blocks to the pedals. He stuck Chase back in and watched him go.

"We thought he was a pretty good driver," Steve Austin says. "And he wanted to pursue it, so we took him down to Oklahoma for a two-day racing school. The instructor said he was ready to race after one day of the school. The next day, Chase beat the instructor's kid in a race."

They returned to Lawrence, but Chase had nowhere to race. For some, that would have been the end of a promising career. For the Austins, it was no problem. Chase's dad simply built him a track at the fairgrounds. Hey, if his kid wants to race, then he's going to race.

After a while, Austin moved up from go-cart to sprint car racing. That means road trips every weekend. Name just about any town in the Midwest with a track, and Chase and his family have been there to contend.

What makes the kid so good? A combination of things. Ask Chase about his success, and he'll go off on a tangent about how you learn to adjust when banking into corners.

"In go-carts, you first learn to never jerk the wheel," he says. "And then it also teaches you that it's important that you ease out of the corners and let your engine RPM work with you, and you use the speed to build up."

Or something like that. Honestly, I didn't really understand what he was talking about. But I didn't have the nerve to ask a 12-year-old to explain the RPM thing to me like I was, well, a 12-year-old.

Steve says Chase's talent comes from his ability to see and anticipate the movement in front of him. Marianne says Chase's success stems from the homework they do.

She pulls a folder the size of a phone book out from an office at their home. She flips through the book and shows me what Chase's tire pressure was for a certain race. She also divulges what the temperature was outside and the temperature of the track. It's all here, even the average speed of Chase's opponents. Heck, there's probably a page in there stating what phase the moon was in and what rerun of "Seinfeld" was on.

The race issue

Sadly, the biggest obstacle for Austin isn't passing his opponents on a turn. Racing is supposed to be about being fast. But for some small-minded people, it's also about being white.

According to Steve, some of the racers look at the Austins like they've never seen a black family before. And they surely don't trust them. They accuse them of cheating. It couldn't be that Chase is just better, no, it must be that minorities are breaking some rules.

Rumors fly about illegal tricks they pull off. In response, Chase's engine is taken from him after most races. The track officials dismantle it and make sure it's not violating any rules. They find nothing. Then they throw the engine in a box, still disassembled, and mail it back to Chase's house. Inevitably, Chase and his dad put the device back together again, just so the process can be repeated the next week when someone else accuses them of cheating.

"Other cars out there are just like mine," Chase says. "I don't know why they always have a problem with just mine."

"I know it's stressful for him," Marianne says. "But he knows he wants to stick it out. We just tell him he has to be better than them. And we'll go back the next week and beat them all over again."