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PLEASANT GROVE -- A Utah racer not even old enough to have a driver's license he is already turning some heads on the track. Not only is he surprising people with his expert driving. He also recently won an international championship. This Pleasant Grove teen says he was born to race.
To get a normal license, you have to be sixteen. But to get your racing license for the track you can be a little bit younger. Of course when you're that young and new to the sport, no one expects you to win. That's why 15-year- old Madison Snow is quickly gaining a reputation as a racing prodigy.
Snow loves racing. Sometimes at more than 160 miles per hour.
"I guess I like the competitive nature. I'm very competitive," he said. "How fast you can go in the cars and just being able to battle with other people and have fun."
You might even say it's in his blood. His Dad's a racer, as well as his Mom and his younger brother.
"I've done go carts since I was about four."
When he turned fourteen, he moved up to racing Porsches. He didn't expect to win and neither did his adult competitors - some of whom had been racing longer than Madison had been alive.
"Once I started getting, working my way up, some of them were less helpful. Some of them didn't like being beat by a 14 year-old."
Then Madison did something that hasn't been done before. Just last month, he won the International Motor Sports Association GT3 cup challenge, making him the youngest Porsche one-make cup Champion ever.
"We didn't really think he was going to be fast as he was, and do as well, but he's done remarkably well all year," said Martin Snow, the boy's father.
Madison's next goal is to get his driver's license. "I have a permit. I drove here."
Madison says driving a real car is actually more frustrating than driving a race car, because there are a lot of other drivers out there on the road, and some of them don't seem to know what they're doing.
"On the track, you can trust people. For the main part, you know what they're going to do, because you're going all one direction. On the road out there, there's idiots out there that you can't trust," he said.
He's had plenty of experience behind the wheel, but now he'll have to take that pesky driver's ED course.
"I don't want to take it, it seems boring."
No doubt it pales in comparison to the speed and handling of a 420 horsepower Porsche custom-built for racing. Madison turns sixteen in December. That's how he got into his race division. The rule says you just have to turn sixteen during the competition year. His Dad says he's already developing a fan base among racing enthusiasts, sometimes even getting asked to sign a few autographs on his way out the track.
Email: [manderson@ksl.com](<mailto: manderson@ksl.com>)
