Racing go-karts is often the way into the top levels of professional racing as kids can start young and learn quickly.. As a highlight of the 22nd annual Performance Racing Industry trade show in Orlando, Fla., Championship Karting International held the 4th annual All-Star Karting Classic in the parking lot of the Orange County Civic Center last week. Top names in international motorsports competed. Thousands attended the show as hundreds enjoyed the karting competition. Teams and businesses capped another year of motorsports with 1200 vendors looking forward to next year even if the troubled economy persists.
We’ve all heard --’It’s the economy, stupid’ probably more times than we need to when referring to the importance of the economy on voting trends. In motorsports all are affected by the condition of the economy in many ways from dollar support generated by fans and sponsors. The difference with racers is that their response to a challenging economy is more like –‘It’s not the economy, speedy’ as they always seem to scrape up the money to race. Sportsman classes are always short of sponsor support, yet they persevere. Professional teams have marketing staffs to dig deeper and seek other pockets of funding, and as a result of their work most teams show up on race days.
At the three day PRI trade show, SPEED TV commentator Dave Despain summarized an unrelenting racing phenomenon with, “Racers always find a way to race.”
Colin Braun [NASCAR driver]
Some drivers say the kart race that is supposed to be fun is more competitive than the series racing they do. Do you agree?
“Oh I don’t know. I think it’s a race we all like to do. It’s a lot of fun. It’s obviously about the last race of the season. CKI makes it a lot of fun. It’s something neat to do.”
A.J. Allmendinger: [NASCAR driver]
The All-star CKI karting show is supposed to be fun, but many of the star racers from IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand Am say it’s serious. Your comment?
“You think it’s fun, but you show up and it’s no fun. You can race against each other hard all year. We all race each other in go-karts. We grew up doing this. There’s no money on the line, there’s no points. You got the biggest thing on the line and that’s pride. Because of that it makes it no fun unless you win.”
Jay Howard [IndyCar driver]
The CKI karting event is supposed to be for fun, but it’s competitive too, right?
“Everyone says it’s for fun, a friendly event. Everyone is here to win. This is the only chance we all get to get together on an even playing field. I feel like I got a target on me just because we won it last year.”
Derek Daly, Irish open-wheel racer retired, councils youths in karting and explained the need to get focused early in a racing career.
“I have a son Coner who began racing when he was 10,” Daly said. “He knew every time he came off the track I was going to sit on the left front tire with a clipboard and I was going to ask him, ‘Tell me what the car is doing?’ He didn’t know what to tell me. By the time he was 12 he began to give the answers, because he knew dad was going to ask him the question. All I did that for, not that I needed an answer to the question, I was creating the discipline. The discipline of him out there driving, knowing he’s going to bring back information. That discipline is the foundation for every setup, every race day for the rest of his life.”
PRI/CKI All-Stars Karting Classic 2009 results:
Jan Heylen, Izod IndyCar driver, won in a CRG Kart, NASCAR driver Scott Speed finished second in a Tony Kart, followed by a podium place by Formula 1 driver Vitantonio Luizzi in a CRG Kart.
PRI trade show: It's not the economy, speedy (Part 1):
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