Logan Snyder is a typical 10-year-old boy who loves to play outside.

But Logan, a Whitehall resident and Zephyr Elementary School student, likes to play outdoors in a specific way: he races quarter midget cars.

Logan enjoys racing quarter midgets so much, he's been racing since he was six years old.

"I like to go fast," Logan said.

The racing of quarter midgets is broken into classes depending on the size of the car and speed. Logan races in three different classes.

"I race Heavy World Formula, Heavy 160 and Senior Animal," he said.

Logan also races part-time in the class called Slingshot.

It's because of his father and his business that Logan has taken a liking to racing.

"My dad owns a body shop and his partner races [the class of] Big Car Modified," Logan said "He showed me and I really got into it. We bought one car and I just started winning a lot, and it went on from there."

One of Logan's next quarter midget cars he wants to get is a mini-modified, which can accelerate to 90 miles per hour. He's even looking forward to the next few years.

"When I turn 16, I'm going to get a modified," Logan said.

Logan's ultimate goal is to become a NASCAR driver.

With practice and determination, Logan hopes to break records, race bigger cars, win more awards and be seen by influential people he says will help him to race NASCAR.

"That's where I want to go," Logan said.

Logan races at least three nights a week. When Logan's not on the race track, he is responsible for cleaning and fixing his cars.

One of the challenges Logan faces when racing is his competitors.

"The people you race against, if you race against people that have been racing longer than you, it's going to be harder because they have more experience and have more [techniques] that they learned," he said

Logan has won more than 300 awards racing quarter midgets with 76 first-place finishes last year and 10 first place finishes this year. And for the first time ever, in August, Logan will race at a National Championship in Maryland, a USAC Dirt Tour, where one races for points. If he wins in that race, he would be invited to Indiana for a banquet.

Logan's mother, Jen Snyder, was a little skeptical when Logan first started racing, but her feelings toward racing have changed over time.

"I think I was nervous at first, especially the first time he flipped," she said.

"I was laughing," Logan said.

"But they wear so much safety equipment," Snyder said. "We've been in it for four years, and I think one time somebody got hurt out of all that."

Both Logan's parents think Logan has become more mature because of his experience with racing.

"I think the biggest change I've seen in him is how he interacts with other kids because he has two older brothers and he really wasn't around kids his own age," Snyder said. "Since he's in quarter midgets, he's around kids more his age. I think that's a huge difference."

"When at the track, he protects the little kids," Logan's father, Arden Snyder, said.

The average cost of a quarter midget is $5,000.

"But we do it for him," Arden Snyder explained. "When he doesn't have fun [anymore], we won't do it [anymore]. At the end of the day when we leave, I think we're all happy and he's not hurt, other kids aren't hurt, and everybody is still friends."