By NICK SCHWIEN

nschwien@dailynews.net

Like father, like son.

That's the best way to sum up Kade Hagans.

The 11-year-old from La Crosse is following in his father's racing footsteps, and he's making quite a name for himself, too.

But all that success in the junior sprint division -- basically a go-kart motor in a smaller sized sprint car -- hasn't changed Kade. He continues to remain his modest, somewhat shy self -- at least with the media, anyway.

In his first full year of running junior sprints, the youngster has found the winner's circle nearly 10 times. That's not too shabby considering he'ss raced only a few more times than that total.

"Yeah, it's fun," Kade said about racing.

His father, Kirby, grew up racing go-karts and, as he put it, has raced "just about everything you can."

The father and son duo plan to race together again this weekend at RPM Speedway during the Wheatshocker Rebel Nationals -- a two-day event featuring the 305 sprint cars of the United Rebel Sprint Series.

The Saturday and Sunday event will be highlighted by the URSS show, but the junior sprints also will be running both nights. Races are set for 7:30 p.m. each night.

"Where he's grown up around it, you can't keep him from it," Kirby said about his son racing.

Kirby has raced sprint cars for several years -- in the 360 class and currently in the 305 series.

But with Kade starting in the junior sprint division this year, that hasn't left much time for Kirby to play in the dirt.

"I've only ran about three times this year," he said. "He's pretty much taken all my time, but that's fine with me.

"I tell you what, this year has been a heck of a year for him. He's only been beaten (a couple times). I can't believe how good he's done."

So far this year, the junior sprints have competed mostly at tracks at Dodge City and Garden City. The races at RPM Speedway will be the first time the class has raced in Hays.

"It's going to be pretty cool," Kade said.

The junior sprint races have averaged anywhere from seven to 11 cars per night as the series is just in its infancy. But a lot of those racers usually are children of drivers of 305 sprint cars.

That makes the inaugural junior sprint races at RPM Speedway a perfect fit for this weekend.

"A lot of 305 guys' kids have them," Kirby said. "The plan was to get them there when the 305 guys were there. Hopefully it's a good show for everyone."