Young St. Pete racer turning heads, breaking records in Italy
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - With the IndyCar Series racing across FOX on Sunday afternoons, a St. Petersburg teenager is on the fast track to be right there with them one day or racing in the F1 series. He's breaking records as one of the youngest in the world driving professionally and already one of the fastest.
"I wake up thinking about it. I go to sleep thinking about it," Bowen told FOX 13's Mark Wilson with a wide grin.
Big picture view:
Just a week after turning 17, Bowen is the youngest in the world to drive for the GT3 series in Italy. He just started his second season driving for Imperiale Motorsports, piloting a Lamborghini with close to 700 horsepower at speeds in excess of 175 mph. The GT3 series is often a precursor to the IndyCar or Formula 1 series.
"My dream is Formula cars. That's F-1 or that's IndyCar," Bowen says.
The backstory:
And, he's turning as many heads as he is making turns at the track. At 16, Alex was the youngest ever to win a pole in the GT3 series last year and helped his team finish 3rd in the season championship. That's a remarkable accomplishment for someone who just got his driver's license and is still learning a steering wheel with more buttons than any game controller.
"Your tires could wear off, and you twist two buttons, but you have to learn what they do while you're learning to drive the car," Bowen says.
Local perspective:
Before they left for Italy, Alex and his father Kris joined Wilson where it all began at the T-4 Kart Plex in Palmetto, where Alex had his first podium (top 3 finish) at 13 years old driving Go Karts. He brought his shifter kart to T-4 for some practice laps and where karts normally reach speeds of around 40 mph, Alex is pushing 90 mph and barely breaking a sweat.
Courageous, for sure. But Alex is just as calculating. Endless hours in the simulator enable him to learn every turn and rumble strip on the Italian tracks with straightaway speeds approaching 180 mph.
Alex would be a senior this fall at St. Petersburg High School if he wasn't taking classes online. But, his cockpit is the only classroom that matters right now.
"I don't think much about it (what I may be missing in high school), no. I realize I'm one in a million. If I worried about what I'm missing in school, then I wouldn't have the opportunity to do what I'm doing now. And it's really what I want in my life, and I hope to do it forever," Bowen says without hesitation.
What they're saying:
For Alex's family, that kind of commitment from him makes it easy to support him.
"It's amazing, it really is," his father Kris told FOX 13 proudly. "The family all rallies behind us, we make big family trips out of his races, so it's really special."
And they were all there when Alex won his first trophy last month, placing third in his first race of 2025 - making him the youngest driver to ever podium in the GT3 series.
"It's just phenomenal to see what he's doing," Kris says. "So we can't wait for this season and to see what he does now."
What's next:
Beyond a solid season this year, Bowen's next goal would be to race stateside next year in the IMMSA Series. That would require much more funding, but they're hopeful. Meantime, Alex is determined to make sure podium finishes will be what defines him and not his age.
"I know that people are going to be like, who's this kid?," Alex says. "So it's also given me a drive to prove myself even more."
You can follow Alex Bowen on Instagram, and he is represented by: http://Msmgroup.com.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Mark Wilson.
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