PHOENIX - Diego LaRoque might just be the coolest 10-year-old you will ever meet. At 4'4, he's as cute as a button but don't let his size fool you, he might just be your biggest competition on the track.
Diego's been racing for six years, which in 10-year-old time is like, a really long time. However, Diego wasn't always a go-kart racer.
He got into the sport of racing because of his dad, Aaron, who was an avid extreme motorcyclist. His dad loved racing and had the broken bones to show for it - 13 of them back in the day. When Diego broke his first bone, his dad told him that motorcycles were too dangerous and that if he wanted to race, it would have to be go-karts.
"I was hooked," Diego LaRoque said.
Diego trains on the track for two hours a day with his dad. He competes every month and sometimes twice a month. The biggest win was by far the latest one when Diego LaRoque won his first international world title.
Diego's age group, (eight, nine, and ten-year-olds) were allowed to race at Worlds in Italy for the first time in the history of the sport.
"When we found that out, we knew that (Diego) had to go," Aaron LaRoque said.
Diego raced against 35 other racers on the track. The main event required ten laps and lots of speed, skill, and determination.
In the sport of go-karting, Diego is just the third American to ever win a World Title but at 10-years-old, he's also the youngest.
"When I won I was just like wow, is this really happening?!" Diego said.
But don't worry, Diego's career in go-karting is just the beginning of big dreams ahead.
"When I grow up, I want to race for Ferrari for Formula 1 because they're the fastest street cars," Diego said.