13-year-old Pro Racer Ben Maier spends summers in Cotuit, and drives faster than you

For most kids, playing with cars usually means driving a remote-control car in the backyard or rolling Hot Wheels on the kitchen floor.

But for Ben Maier, a Maryland native who spends his summers in Cotuit, playing with cars means driving 160 miles per hour and racing for national titles. Heck, it's even earned him a trip to Italy.

"I do Stadium super trucks, Mazda Miatas and sprint cars sometimes," Maier said. "Going to the World Championship in Italy was a pretty cool place to go to. In Las Vegas, me and my friend won Supernats at the same time, which was cool."

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The 13-year-old speedster is already an 11-time national karting champion. He's represented Team USA in the world finals twice. He's the youngest driver to ever win the prestigious Supernats race in Las Vegas.

The Stadium Super Truck he races is a 650 horsepower truck with 26" of suspension travel.  He races these during IndyCar events, with metal ramps on the track.  These trucks top out at 160 miles per hour and can get 17 feet off the ground. His next race in Nashville is Aug. 5-7.

The Mazda Miata that he races now is the same Miata you might see on the road, but modified with some safety and racing upgrades to increase speed and handling. The modded Miatas are faster than a Corvette on a race track. Maier and his Miata joined in the festivities during Cotuit's Fourth of July Parade.

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Maier has over 300 wins, at least 70 trophies and tons of medals.

"It's a handful of kids in the U.S. that are just phenomenal and he's one of them," Ben's father Jim Maier said. "So we are just trying to give him every opportunity we can."

Maier races against other pro drivers in his super truck and against racers from ages 16-45 in his Miata, but he is usually always the youngest racer. He is one of the youngest drivers ever in the USA to get a pro license to race Stadium Super Trucks.

"It's pretty unbelievable, I don't even know how to put it into words," Jim Maier said. "To watch him drive that 650 HP truck, it's a little surreal. I can't believe there's a little kid in there whipping up on the other pro drivers."

Ben Maier resides in Chester, Maryland where his racing career began. From an early age, he showed an affinity for operating a toy electric car. His father opted to try out go-karting. The tale of Ben Maier's racing career begins at a local track named Chestertown.

"I have been racing since the age of 3 and I started practicing, and then I started racing nationally," Ben Maier said.

Ben Maier races all year long and does a lot to prepare for his upcoming races.

"I do Iracing, which is a simulator that simulates a real car driving around the track," Ben Maier said. "I watch videos of people who race on the same track as me, study old competitors and their finish times, and I workout."

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In addition, he also goes to the track the day before the race and checks out the conditions and discusses how his race is going to go.

During the summer, the Maier family travels to Cotuit on Cape Cod. Ben's parents formerly lived on Cape and have an old schoolhouse they stay in for summers. His mother, Beth, used to sail at Cotuit Skiff. He wears the number 67 in most of his races because that's the number Beth wore when she sailed.

"I ride bikes around 'The Coop' but it's called the Cotuit Fresh Market and I sail and play soccer," Ben Maier said. "I play a little video games, hangout with my friends and I play with a UTV (utility terrain vehicle) in my backyard."

Ben Maier attends Matapeake Middle School in Maryland and will be in eighth grade this fall. He said that balancing racing and schoolwork is manageable.

"When school was online [due to COVID] it was pretty easy," Ben Maier said. "I definitely miss a lot of school because of racing, but I don't miss that many more days than other kids."

Although he is still young, Ben Maier already has big plans in his future. Don't expect him to slow down any time soon.

"Honestly, racing is what I'm pretty focused on," he said. "I don't want to move on to anything else quite yet. I may get a job to make money here and there. I would like to race professionally. NASCAR or IndyCar would be my dream."

Contact Courtney Jacobs at cjacobs@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CJ_Journalist.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 13-year-old Ben Maier is a national champion race car driver