For Devon and Lauren Ostheimer, sports is life. It is even more
so for their parents.
For Devon and Lauren Ostheimer, sports is life. It is even more so for their parents.
“It is really exciting,” said Don Ostheimer, the clan head. “It is certainly a time drain to say the least. Sometimes we think we are both professional taxi cab drivers. We work for our kids. They’re the priority. We’re lucky that we both work here locally.”
Parents Don and Marinela have not had too much free time being involved in the lives of their kids.
“My daughter typically video tapes the races so we can learn from it,” said Don, who transferred from San Diego to Morgan Hill three years ago. “It is really a family sport. Both of the sports are like team sports with us. Almost every weekend we are involved with the kids in one venue or the other. It’s a full-time job.”
Devon, 8, has had success racing quarter midget cars. The cars are manufactured by GT American out of Fremont.
Devon competes with the Balen club, the region 10 branch for quarter midgets (www.quartermidgets.com) off of Metcaff Road in San Jose. He has earned the name “Revin Devon” in his year and a half of racing.
“It is the youth motor sports equivalent to Little League,” said Devon’s dad Ron. “For a first year driver, he has been the hottest and most consistent kid in our club.”
In club racing, which begins in March, Devon finished second in one division and third in anther racing division.
“If someone would have told me that we would have finished in the top five, I would have thought he was dreaming,” Don said. “In the more difficult class, he finished second. He had a carburetor problem in race no. 7 which cost him some points. But those things happen because these are mechanical beasts.”
Devon started taming the beasts when he was 4 years old.
“He drove one of those little electric cars when he was two and had a go-cart when he was four,” Don said. “When we found out about quarter midgets, he went up and pointed and said that is what he wanted to do.”
In the Western Grand in Colorado last year, which drew more than 400 cars, Devon took fourth in his class of about 40. Devon is just coming off of a first and fourth place finish in December in Las Vegas in the Winter Nationals.
“It’s fun driving there,” Devon said. “It is fun racing and then going back.”
Devon races in two different classes. The more economical is in the Junior Honda with engines that run as high as 5400 RPM on what is basically a generator motor. These sell for about $600. The other is the Junior Stock with Deco engines, which are designed to run faster and more powerfully, selling for about $4,000.
Devon’s parents hope to eventually look for sponsors to offset the expenses that the allowance doesn’t cover.
“We want to get in a situation where we’ve proved ourselves, so we can kind of justify asking for a sponsor.” Don said. “It is an expensive sport.”
The best part of racing is driving fast, Devon said.
“It fun and it’s competitive, you got to do a lot of stuff – hard work,” Devon said.
But it took a long time before his mother got used to the idea of him going fast.
“I think my wife almost had a heart attack at first,” Don said about watching their son race around the 1/20 of a mile track at speeds of 40 mph. “We’ve probably had our worst crashes in practice where something may break sending him into the wall. But we take safety real seriously.”
The cars are protected by roll cages and a protective closing. Wrist wraps and a four-point safety harness hold the drivers in the car.
“These kids are probably safer than they are on a football field because if they do crash the cars are designed to take a hit, and they are designed to hold the kids in place,” Don said.
When asked if he had a lot of racing friends, Devon said “Yeah, but not out on the racetrack. When I’m driving, I don’t have no friends. When I am not, I have friends.”
Devon stays focused once he puts on the helmet.
“I think about driving my own race,” said Devon about his racing philosophy. “I think about if I win or not. I feel excited. When I go out to the bumper, I don’t really think about it too much. I just go for it.”
Devon hopes be a NASCAR racecar driver when he grows up as his room reflects. His role model used to be Dale Earnhardt. Now it is Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Lauren, 13, is a Level 8 gymnast with Almaden Valley Gymnastics and has also done well in her sport.
“It’s really fun and is a great way to make friends and get around,” Lauren said. “I like being able to fly in the air and do flips. I’ve always watched it on TV and seen it on the Olympics. My mom thought it would be really nice to try it, and I’ve always stuck to it.”
Lauren has been competing in gymnastics for about six years and said it doesn’t get easier. The higher the level, the more demanding the skills get.
“She is at a pretty serious level,” Don said. “Level 6 really determines if the girl has the right ability and the right desire because it becomes so difficult. It starts getting lonely after Level 6, and a lot of the girls are no longer competing. There are a lot of her friends that don’t work out any more because they can’t do the skills step.”
Lauren will be going to Idaho with her mom at the end of February for a meet. It will be the farthest that she has been away from home.
“We have to have to do at least three tumbling passes,” Lauren said about her typical routine. “There usually have to be a back tumbling pass and a front tumbling pass. It depends on what level you are in. You just have to do what your coach tells you.”
Dominic Dawes, a former Olympian is her head coach for beam and floor. She is also coached by a Romanian Olympian for vault and bars.
“My wife is originally from Romania,” Don said. “There is something in those Romanian genes that has produced gymnasts.”
Lauren has qualified for state each year against some of the top regions. She normally competes in six to eight meets a year. The young gymnast practices about 20 hours a week.
“It is tiring at the very end of practice, but it is worth it,” Lauren said. “We have a lot of conditioning at the end to increase our muscles.”
Lauren said she hopes to eventually compete in the Olympics and obtain a scholarship at Stanford or UCLA.
Both siblings have high expectations. It will take a lot of hard work. But it may take even more work from the parents.
