PROSPECT — At 10 years old, Connor Zorn has two sports of choice.

Baseball and snowmobiling.

The Prospect resident and Moraine Elementary fourth-grader stays busy at both. He leaves no question as to which one he likes best.

“I like the tracks and the racing,” Connor said of snowmobiling. “It's fast and it's fun.”

His family has been snowmobiling as a hobby for a few years. They attended a snowmobile series race and Connor had a definite reaction to it.

“He looked at me and said, 'Dad, I can beat those kids,'” his father Mark Zorn, said.

So he decided to give it a try.

Connor was going to compete in a few ISOC Snocross series races last year, but his season ended early when he suffered a broken ankle during one of his first series races.

“He was on a ski slope and the sled flipped over on a corner and rolled over top of him, breaking his ankle,” Mr. Zorn said. “He actually finished out the day with a couple of more races.

“That race was in Connecticut. We got home, he had the ankle checked by a doctor and it was broken. That was the end of that season.”

When Connor decided he wanted to race the national series this season — competing in the Transition 8-10 class — his parents struck a deal with him.

Keep the grades up. Keep on racing.

“He's maintained straight A's in gifted classes, so we've stayed with the races,” Mr. Zorn said. “There is a lot of expense involved.”

Connor competed in six of the eight races on the Snocross national series schedule this year. He missed two races out west.

He did compete in Duluth, Minn., Minneapolis, Michigan, New York, Iowa and Wisconsin. They did some East Coast Snocross events as well.

Connor finished as high as fourth in a heat race and eighth in an overall national race. He wound up 11th in the final points standings with 103, 12 points shy of the top 10.

The points champion, Dylan Lebel, is from Ontario. Most of the racers finishing ahead of him were from Minnesota or Canada.

“For a kid from Prospect to do as well as he did in his first year is pretty amazing,” Connor's father said.

The typical snowmobile track is a half-mile. Most races are four or five times around the track. They begin in heats of no more than 10 kids on the track at one time.

“It's always tricky at the start,” Connor said. “You either want to jump in front of the pack right away or stay back and try to pass other sleds later.

“Sometimes it's better to fall back and not get jumbled up.”

Connor rides a 200 CC sled that can go as fast as 25 miles per hour. He also has an adult-sized sled than can hit 45 to 50 miles per hour, depending on the track.

“Tracks are different from each other,” his father explained. “Some are slicker than others. Some are more hilly.”

Connor took a pair of second-place finishes at a regional race in Lake George, N.Y., last month. The national Snocross series ended last weekend.

“I'm going to try it again next year,” Connor said of the series. “I may grow tired of it after a while, but I'm pretty sure I'll be doing this for the next few years.”

A new snowmobile costs roughly $10,000. The Zorns recently bought one used for $6,000 to race next year.

Connor's father said Connor will race the national or a regional series, depending on which is best for travel.

In the meantime, he will be playing baseball for three teams this spring and summer — a travel and all-star team in Slippery Rock and his local team in Prospect.

“I play first base, pitcher and catcher,” Connor said. “Baseball keeps me pretty busy.”

Until next winter.

Then it's back to snowmobile practice.

“I practice three days a week, most of the time,” Connor said of snowmobiling. “I go out and ride just for fun, too.”