11-year-old dashing to stardom
BUTLER TWP — The name should have been a giveaway.
Dash Osmer's first name came from the action-packed animated film, “The Incredibles.”
“We jinxed ourselves,” his father, Dan Osmer, said. “That kid's been going 100 miles per hour since the day he was born.”
Given his family's history, that's no surprise.
At age 11, Dash has become a third-generation racer. His grandfather, Art Osmer, got started in dirt track racing in the 1970s. He raced himself and owned a race car for years.
His son, Dan, won the Pa. Vintage Modified Series four years ago. He still owns a Vintage Modified car himself that he planned to drive.
Those plans have been dashed ... as in Dashed.
Dash burst onto the kart racing scene in a major way last season. As a rookie, he won 23 heat races and 14 main events, picking up three local championships along the way.
“Dash has been growing up wanting to do this,” his father said of kart racing. “We got him a really old kart to start out with. I mean, it was really old (1980s). His first time out, he finished second.
“He knew something. He's good. It's been amazing how fast he picked it up.”
With a few races left in the 2019 season, Dash's race team picked up some sponsors and he finished the campaign with a new kart.
Dash is entering seventh grade in the Butler Area School District next year. Racing isn't the first sport he's tried.
It is the first sport that's held his attention.
He has an attention deficit disorder that racing has worked wonders in controlling.
“We tried soccer and it didn't work,” Dash's mother, Heather Osmer said. “He liked it, but didn't stay with it. We tried baseball and it was horrible.
“Just standing out there, he got bored. He started climbing over the fence to get the balls being hit from other games.”
Racing? Different story.“He is just so focused, so locked in,” his father said of Dash working on the kart. “On race weekends, we don't even have to give him his medicine. His adrenalin works as the medicine for him.“His teachers now relate his school work to his racing. They use racing terms he identifies with and his grades have shot up. It's been really cool. He's much more comfortable with himself. He's more confident, he's able to speak in front of people ... I won't say racing saved him, but it has turned him around.”When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Dash took it upon himself to go door-to-door, delivering masks to elderly couples who needed them.“There are a lot of elderly people in our neighborhood,” Mr. Osmer said. “Dash probably handed out 50 to 60 masks. It was totally his idea. That's how far he's come along.”Dash admits he loves “the rush of racing.” He works on the kart himself and knows how to keep it on the track and out of the pits.“I'm shocked and overwhelmed by what he's done,” his mother said. “All of that time in the garage with Art and Wes and Dan ... Dash just picked up on it. It's second-nature to him.”Wes Osmer, a late uncle, also participated in dirt track tracing.Dash opened his second season of racing last weekend in Michigan. He raced three times, winning one race and placing second in two others.The start of his season was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.“When the season was supposed to start and it didn't, I thought the kid was gonna lose it,” Mrs. Osmer said. “He couldn't wait to get going.”Races still aren't being held in Pennsylvania. They are taking place in neighboring states.“Last year, we were (racing) somewhere almost every weekend,” Dash said. “This year, the virus stopped everything, but I think we'll get going again.”Dash competed in New York, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania last year.Les Myers, a family racing friend, is running Dan Osmer's Vintage car this season.“I've been informed by Dash that he will be driving it when I get it back, not me,” Dan Osmer, said laughing.Dash's ultimate goal in racing is to someday race a Sprint car and compete in Rally racing.“It's done on the road, it's done on the dirt,” he said of Rally racing. “I'd love to try that.“I don't get bored with racing. I work on the kart every day. There's always something to do. I just want to get better.”Dash won championships at Slippery Rock Raceway and Good Hope Raceway in Ohio last year.He will compete in the VEGA Money Series in New York this season. He plans to compete in a Grand Prix style race in September.
