Teenage sensation emerges on the race track

To deal with the physical demands, Gabby works to stay healthy. He avoids junk food, packing lunches to bring with him to school. He also runs almost every day on trails near Weston while listening to trance and techno music on his iPod. Often he and Juanita run together. The running, along with hours of practice each week in the simulator, prepares Gabby for races, which occur about 10 times a year. Typically he only gets into an actual race car on location the week of the event.

HIS CURRENT VEHICLE is a Formula BMW: 1,000 pounds, seven-speed sequential transmission, 0 to 60 m.p.h. in 3.5 seconds. The $500,000 annual cost to keep him on the circuit is absorbed by his corporate sponsor, Café de Colombia, his family, and his agent. The Chaveses are always looking for new sponsors. Indeed, Pilar thought FedEx's name a little silly until it occurred to her that the company might consider helping to keep Gabby on the track. (So far no luck.)

Apart from minor injuries he received in a go-kart incident, Gabby has not had any accidents while racing. He does not think about the risk, he says, nor is he afraid.

"Everything is engineered to keep the driver safe," he says. "The car, the suit, the helmet, the HANS [a device that stabilizes the driver's neck]. Everything." Pilar nods assent. Any anxiety she feels for her son before a race is a function of the competition rather than of the danger, she says.

Gabby is more interested in talking about the metaphysics of the driving experience, which he calls "intense." "When you're in the toughest of situations, competing for a very small margin of time, sometimes you're able to make a connection, to become one with the car. Everything happens in slow motion."

The experience, he says, is similar to one noted by his hero and role model, Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian driver who described a sense, while driving, of leaving the car and watching himself from above. Gabby's green eyes widen as he talks about the psychic impacts of racing: "This is something very spiritual."

He much prefers race car driving to competitive tennis. "In tennis, you're completely on your own," he says. "In driving, it's a team effort. You work with the engineers and the mechanics. You always have someone in your earphones." About 20 people support the Formula BMW Americas team of four drivers.

Gabby's next race is in July. Until then, there's school, Juanita, running, and daily practice on the simulator. And interviews, as Gabby's celebrity continues to rise.

"Time to get ready!" his mother calls from the kitchen. Gabby turns off the simulator. He's off to a Spanish-language TV station in Hialeah, Fla. He'll tape a live interview, and his mom and Juanita will be part of the audience. The producers want him to appear in racing gear.

Gabby gathers his suit, helmet, HANS device. He piles books into a backpack. On the way home, he'll do his biology homework.

In July, when he turns 16, Gabby intends to get his driver's license. Then he'll be able to drive himself wherever he needs to go. Will he tell the examiner that he's a race car driver who routinely drives at speeds of 120 m.p.h.?

"No way," he says. "They'd never pass me if they knew."

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