KARNS CITY — He wasn't born to do quad racing.

It just seems that way.

Deegan Weibel. 8, of Karns City is already a two-time American Woods Racing Championship Series (AWRCS) champion, a Gold Cup winner at the TNT MX series in Lawrence County and a champion of the Summit Indoor MX in Ohio.

And he was named after Brian Deegan, a famous dirt bike racer.

“It is odd the way all of this has worked out,” his mother, Diana Weibel, said.

Deegan's father, Cory, raced quads for 18 years. He started racing when he was a teenager.

“My parents wouldn't buy me a quad when I was little,” Weibel recalled. “I saved up my money and bought myself one when I was 11.

“I raced a lot of local stuff, dragh racing, circle tracks ... I couldn't afford to take it beyond that.”

Deegan knew his father liked to ride — and wanted to be like Dad.

“He showed an interest in it and I didn't want to deny him,” Weibel said. “I wanted to give my son the chance I never had.”

Deegan began riding quads when he was 3. He began competing when he was 4.

He wins most of the time.

“He's just developed a knack for it,” his father said. “You really can't teach some of the things he does on the track. He knows how to race.”

Deegan races once a month in the AWRCS. The family travels to North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, West Virginia and Tennessee. He will compete in the GNCC racing series this year.

He also competes in motocross on Friday nights in New Castle and Latrobe.

“I train him, but I don't push him,” Weibel said of his son. “When we travel each weekend, I always tell him our No. 1 goal: Come back safe. As long as he's having fun, we'll stay with it. He rides smart.”

Deegan plans on having fun for quite a while.

“Turn pro,” he said of his ultimate goal in the sport. “I like riding into the woods.”

The best part of racing in his mind?

“Winning,” he said.

Cory Weibel got involved in a bad accident while racing on a circle track two years ago. Off the final turn of his final lap, the quad in front of him spun out, came backward and Weibel slammed into him at 70 miles per hour.

“I flipped over top of him and my quad landed on me,” Weibel recalled. “I got scraped up pretty good but, somehow, didn't break any bones. I was real lucky.

“My family was there and witnessed the crash. I could hear them screaming from across the track. I decided that day I wasn't going to race in front of my kids again.”

But he also made a promise to Deegan.

“I told him I'd race with him,” Weibel said. “I went out and bought a quad just the other day.”

His son loves the sport even more as a result.

“Now he can't wait to go out and ride with Dad today,” Diana Weibel said. “I used to be really, really nervous when Deegan raced. But in the past year or so ... He's really good, so I haven't been as nervous. He'd get way out in front of the pack, by himself.

“He'll be racing in a more advanced class now, with bigger, faster quads. I guess I'll be nervous again.”

Deegan has raced as fast as 60 miles per hour already.

While the racing schedule takes up much of his time, he is into other things. Deegan plays baseball and does taekwondo.

“He's the type of kid, if he could do everything, he would,” his father said. “I push him to do his best (in racing), but I don't make him do it.

“If he said he wanted to quit tomorrow, I'd sell all of the equipment and we'd be done. He picked it up because I was doing it. Now he's just running with it.”