Arcadia boy excelling on go-kart tracks

ARCADIA — Harrison Bell is enjoying life in the fast lane at age 11, and he hopes to be doing so for a long time to come.Following in the racing tracks of family members, Harrison has been winning go-kart championships since age 6 and has expanded his endeavors from the area level at Fremont Raceway Park to such world-renowned sites as Charlotte Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway.And, according to his father, Brandon Bell, it's about more than gaining on-track prowess for the Arcadia Elementary School fifth-grader, who not only achieves straight A's in the classroom but plays football and basketball when he's not behind the wheel of his No. 44 kart."This isn't just about racing," Brandon Bell said. "It's life lessons — learning about hardships, learning about how to persevere and following your dreams and doing the best you can at whatever you do."And Harrison, an only child, appreciates the opportunity being provided to him by his father, his mother, Tory Bell, and local sponsors, including Brent Hoerig of Perfectly Repurposed and In the Axe, and Jena Stearns of Beyond Laser Creations."It's pretty fun," he said. "I'm very grateful that I get to do this."It's fun for the whole family, Brandon Bell said."Even my wife, who didn't grow up racing like I did, has really learned to enjoy it," he said. "We've met a lot of great people."The family racing tradition began with Harrison's great-great uncle, Darl Harrison, who was the 1971 USAC Sprint Car Rookie of the year. He won the prestigious Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana, in 1967, 1970 and 1975 and was inducted into the Fremont Speedway Hall of Fame in 2009.Darl's son, David Harrison, launched his sprint car career in 1987. He tallied 10 feature wins at Fremont Speedway, including an All-Star Circuit of Champions race in 2008, and won the Wayne County Speedway track championship in 1993. He was inducted into the Fremont Speedway Hall of Fame in 2025.Brandon Bell raced dirt and asphalt go-karts and did indoor karting throughout Ohio in the 1990s and early 2000s. He won the 1992 track titles at M&M Speedway in Bradner and Fremont Raceway Park.Harrison Bell said he "never even knew about it" when he was about half his current age."Then my dad asked me if I wanted to do it and I said, 'Sure,'" he said.Brandon said he started his son early not only in how to drive the go-kart, but also the culture of racing."We've done a lot of practice," he said. "He kind of started pretty early, so we got him over to the track and did some practice on things. The biggest thing is learning not only to win, but the agony of defeat. The biggest thing is, what we break it all down to is called 'racecraft.' That's just being a good driver on the track, being aware of others, driving clean, good sportsmanship and making sure that we're doing all those things that make it safe and fun for everyone."Harrison said that in his racing experiences near and far, he's enjoyed "hanging out with my friends, all the adrenaline on the track and stuff."Harrison's rookie year brought him the Fremont Raceway Park Kid Kart championship, for youngsters ages 5 through 7.In 2022, he started racing statewide and claimed the Buckeye Karting Kid Kart title, and the next year he started competing in the Cup Karts North America regional and national series while moving into the Cadet class, for ages 7 through 10.In the past two years, he's competed regionally and nationally in Cup Karts North America and the World Karting Association. At legendary Daytona International Speedway in Florida, he attained his first WKA national podium finish, with a third place.The 2026 season started early this month at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He'll begin his Ohio racing season next month.Brandon Bell serves as his son's mechanic, and he handles other sundry necessities."I do all of the wrenching on the go-kart," Brandon said. "I'm also the majority of the funds for the go-kart. We do get our engines build, but I do all of the work on the go-kart, cleaning it and transporting it and all that."(Harrison) always jokes around and says he's just the driver. I ask him to help out a little bit, but he's really just focused on the driving part. Once he gets off the track, we have a camera that's on the go-kart, so it's his responsibility to pull the video and kind of see what he did well, what he did badly and learn from those experiences to better himself."Examples, Harrison said, are "like, if I'm braking too much, if my line is wrong, what the people around me are doing and how I can avoid not being able to pass them, and (other) stuff." Working on a race simulator at home helps, too.Harrison said that while the congestion of the starts may tense him up a bit, he's generally pretty calm in the cockpit during a race. Just as in other forms of motorsports, crashes do occur in go-karting."I've had a couple, like, scratches and burns and bruises," he said. "And, I flipped once. I actually got back on the track and kept going. Everything on my kart was bent and I still got second place."Brandon Bell said that while his son continues to succeed in the classroom, he's picking up valuables intangibles from racing."I think just kind of learning to drive, learning to make those quick decisions, it really helps you just in life and making choices, making quick decisions, not getting flustered," he said. "I think this has really helped — he's played some quarterback on the football team and you can see he's really poised in playing that position. He doesn't get flustered because, you know, in racing things come at you a lot faster than they do in football. It's really boding well for all sports, and it really matures you a lot."I mean, (the karts) are only about an inch off the ground and they're going in the upwards of 60 mph from the time they're (age) 7 until they start moving up, and then they go faster and faster. I think it's just a really big thing for maturity and growth when you get to do something not everybody gets to do and it's very fast-paced and you have to have that maturity to make decisions and have that sportsmanship even though you don't have a good race or whatnot."While Harrison aspires to be a big-time driver, his father said his schoolwork comes ahead of racing at this stage of his life."It's really cool to see these kids grow," Brandon Bell said. "Like I said, not many kids this age are driving that fast and having to make those kinds of decisions. I think it helps them in life in general, and when they get their licenses, they know the dangers a little more and they're more of a responsible driver."And, even if he doesn't make it big-time someday, I'm hoping that with how smart he is in math and whatnot, maybe he'll get into the engineering side and be able to work in the field, if nothing else. Obviously, school comes first. Like I said, he's a straight-A student, but if he doesn't keep his grades up, it's like any other sport. Although they wouldn't make it so he couldn't play (because it's a non-scholastic sport), we most definitely would."It's really an incentive to keep your education going, which is No. 1."Brandon Bell said he's like to see the area's kart-racing community grow."We're always looking for parents and kids to get interested in this sport and we'd love to help other people kind of learn this process and help them along," he said. "Especially over at Fremont, we have a really good group of people, almost like a family, and we'll loan parts or help people work on their stuff, whatever they need."