Racers in training: Philadelphia's Urban Youth Racing School introduces racing to kids
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia-based Urban Youth Racing School has been introducing kids to the sport for 25 years. It's more than just racing.
"I say, try something new. This is my passion," John Cohen said. "I love racing. I'd love to get more kids, more Black and Brown kids into racing."
Inspiring kids from the city to find a new track in life, the Urban Youth Racing School held its annual Grand Prix Friday afternoon.
One of those young people is Mahogani Thomas of North Philly.
"I didn't know about the program until my mom told me about it," Thomas said. "I was like racing, me? A car? I don't really want to do that."
But she did it, and in last year's grand prix, she came in 4th place.
The school was founded by Anthony Martin and his wife 25 years ago -- in that time he's opened the eyes of more than 8,400 students to racing.
"Some kids come in and they do this, they say 'I don't really want to do this,'" Martin said. "Then some kids come in and say 'Hey I do want to do this, but if I do...how could I get to that next phase?' And the thing that I'm most proud of is we've been able to make that happen."
And these racers in training got some real world inspiration from Kyle Larson who won the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
"It's just a cool opportunity for them, it's a great opportunity for me to meet new kids," Larson said. "You never know, I might end up racing them on a real track someday."
And while they say do want to let these kids have fun on the track they say the lessons learned will teach them all the facets of the business including engineering.
"In racing, you don't have to be the driver, you can be a tire changer, you can be a chassis guy, you can be an engineer, you could be a technician," Martin said. "There's so many jobs that go along with it, and I've got news for you, they're all just as important as the other."
For Thomas, things have changed all because she decided to try something new.
"I feel like I'm the only girl in my whole family that wants to partake in technology because I want to major in computer science," Thomas said.