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THE RACERS EDGE

A MOTORCYCLE GUY GOES TO THE ROTAX GRAND NATIONALS
By Dave Preston

It was a cold and dreary day in Seattle – one of many. Dragging scuffed boots down the hall, I heard Cycle Barn’s owner call my name. I slouched into his office with my usual smirk…“Yeeesssss?”
“We have a problem – and an opportunity.”
Hearing a sentence like that, a wise man heads for the hills, ducks into a foxhole, hides his head in the sand, or uses whatever other metaphor is handy. … but I am not a wise man.
“Yeeeeessss?”
“The Rotax Grand Nationals are in Denton, Texas next week.”
“Yessss?”
“They don’t have an announcer.”
“Yes?”
“You could do this.”
“Yes.”

And thus I was jetting to Dallas for the Rotax Grand National Finals, with all the preparation a few minutes of reading the rules and promo materials could provide. In addition, the sainted Adrienne at SSC had sent me an overnight package with survey biographies on most of the drivers. That, and my previous knowledge of karts, karters, and kart racing, would have to suffice.

Previous knowledge? Perhaps “knowledge” is a bit grandiose. In 1966, just out of high school back in Minnesota, I had a friend who raced karts. I assisted him at a couple of races (the word “crew” would imply mechanical knowledge and/or skills, which I did not have then, or now) and had driven his racer on a deserted street - once. The plan was that we would form a kart racing team for the following summer. My parents, who had been attempting with no success to cool my unrequited motorcycle lust for years, bought me a new crash helmet for Christmas, with the expectation I would go kart racing. Alas for them, my friend chose to become a competition water skier (!), and then my Mom became fatally ill with cancer, and then… I bought a motorcycle.

Flash forward past three decades of work as a teacher to my current career as the Communications Manager for Cycle Barn. Along the way I amassed considerable experience with street motorcycles (I’ve ridden 171 different bikes at last count), sport cars, drag racing, street rallies and off-road rallies in Corvettes, Porches, Miatas, pick-up trucks, and a Hummer(!). I’m not a stranger to either speed or going sideways. But karts?

I attended a kart race at Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium a couple of years ago. It was cold. It was wet. There did not appear to be a printed program, or any organization. At various times small clumps of karts would appear at the starting line, and would go out for either practice or racing. They all seemed to know what was going on – but nobody else did. At one point a man showed up with his two sons and asked if they could stroll through the pits for a quick look, as his sons had expressed interest. They were told they could, if they paid the $10 admission. This for a race they could watch for free by stepping back ten yards. What a way to introduce people to karting! I was neither amused nor impressed.

Last summer we had a Cycle Barn employee day at our XPLEX Seattle track. I took out one of the rental karts and promptly tested the viability of the new barriers by looping my kart out of a tight corner – too much throttle too soon. Everyone was so impressed. On my second lap I t-boned the owner’s daughter in the first corner. She was driving a Rotax Max, and I was in a lowly rental, and she blew by me down the straight and then turned in with appalling slowness, so I, on the correct line, rammed her and shoved her out of the way. People were even more impressed.

Later, Kart Center manager Bill Hettick, who is taller and heavier, went out with me in identical rental karts and proceeded to walk away from me at about a second a lap, despite my attempts to be smooth. It was my turn to be impressed, without the sarcasm.

I also had some laps on an indoor track in Seattle in an electric kart with the manager – who was considering placing some ads on my radio show. He was MUCH younger, MUCH lighter, and had the track down. I avoided humiliation by having him not pass me – 8 laps on the standard setting and 8 on the “high” setting reserved for the staff and the best racers. I asked him later where he would have passed if he were not being polite, and he told me that he could not as long as I used the correct lines and avoided a serious mistake. OK, then! On to Texas…

Denton, Texas, is green. That was my first surprise. The weather was awesome from start to finish. Although many teams began arriving early in the week, the first “official” part of the Grand Nationals was the Red Bull Driver Recognition Party held at the Radisson Hotel – the “home base” for the event. Racers and their families were greeted by a terrific display of SSC regalia, along with samples of custom helmet work done by Pat Wilson Graphics. Pat gave each entrant a gift certificate, and offered free custom helmet paint jobs for the winners to come. Once into the banquet area, racers and their families were soon grazing contentedly on a fine spread of foods and beverages. A slide show featuring karts and racers added to the ambience.

During the banquet last year’s champions were recognized, and Race Director Marshall Martin and Tech Director Scott Evans each gave presentations – the first of many attempts to keep everyone on the same page with the rules and procedures – attempts that were successful over the course of the event. Rotax’s Manfred Weissberger, over from Austria, gave a talk on the details of the track in Egypt where the world finals will be held in January.

Friday morning I arrived at the track and was given a radio mike and the practice schedule. It became obvious in ten minutes that this would be much different than my first kart race experience. Martin, Evans, Starting Grid guru Al Menting, and all the rest of the crew were quite obviously professionals of the highest order. There were printed schedules, and they were adhered to. The rules were the rules, and they were followed. Pretty much everything was explained in print, in meetings, and over and over again on the PA. Rules interpretations were immediate and fair to all – if harsh to some ears when the news was not what they wanted. A tone of friendly formality and rigorous professionalism was set immediately. This allowed the racers to relax and enjoy the racing, without having to worry about who was in charge or what would happen next.

The first official practice sessions were warm and humid, with a bit of dampness that quickly burned off and turned to perfect weather – the story for the entire weekend. Returning #1 Junior Class karter Jonathan Beason slid off into the damp grass on the first corner of his first hot lap – and this was to be a precursor of his entire weekend – every time things started to look good, racing luck would reach out and nip him on the butt – trying too hard, perhaps. Racers in all five classes were given two test sessions – a short stint of five minutes, and then fifteen-minute sessions to check handling and tires over a longer run. Many racers chose to pull into the pits early in the longer session, in order to save their tires for a better day.

After the lunch break qualifying began in earnest, with classes being divided into smaller groups where necessary to allow a solid fifteen minutes of qualifying, with many opportunities to get a “clear” lap. A computer set-up outside the registration trailer allowed me to announce lap times, and it became clear that the best times would come on the 3rd or 4th lap, and then the tires would begin to get a bit warm and times would decline by a tenth or so.

This race was run to CIK standards, with a Parc Ferme. Racers were told repeatedly that only one racer and one mechanic would be allowed out on the grid – with repeated dire warnings of Draconian penalties for anyone jumping the fence. Of course, someone did, and of course the penalty was swift, severe, and fair, and that took care of that problem for the remainder of the event.

Saturday morning dawned with a brief warm-up session of 5 minutes per class, and then it was a headfirst dive into the heat races! Racers were grouped into heats by qualifying times, and each racer had three heats to run. As per CIK rules, the grid positions for each of the heats were the same, underlining the importance of qualifying well. The best 28 scores from the heat races were given a pass-through to the final for each class. For the rest, the “LCQ” Last Chance Qualifier, on Sunday morning would fill the remaining six available slots.

The heat races were exciting, exhilarating, and exhausting. Starter Al Menting had each heat lined up and ready to go while the previous group was on the track, and for most of the day the racers were actually held back so the event could run by the published schedule. When a crash ensued, such as Michael Self’s t-bone crunch that sent him to the EMT’s and on to the hospital, the resulting delay was gained back by the efficiency of Menting and his crew – and before long the racers were back to the published schedule. Young Self, by the way, came back to the track Sunday morning and raced, so lots of good news there.

All through the event, I was fascinated by my occasional strolls through the pits. Everywhere you looked were Norman Rockwell scenes of entire families wrenching on a kart – a kart that could be driven by Dad, or Mom, or Son, or Daughter, and in many cases a series of karts driven by many members of the same family. The intensity was balanced by a sense of team unity. I never saw a parent yelling at a child, for example – just quiet conversation about the quest to shave more tenths. And the women! How come women who go karting are all gorgeous?

I also enjoyed conversations with many of the racers. They would come up to respond to whatever nickname I had given them, or to suggest one. I marveled at their relaxation and comfortable competitive nature. It is one thing to be comfy with a microphone, but five minutes before going out to qualify? Jeff Siewert and Jim Cassi chatted about Minneapolis, my original home. Jim works as a cab driver – can you imagine a karter in a cab when the fare requests a quick pace? Good heavens!

Another thing that impressed me over and over were the attitudes of the young racers. In my decades of teaching, I was not used to having a teen-ager come up, ask for my attention, ask a question, and then thank me politely for the response. This was even more striking because some of the questions had to do with competition at a high level and with pretty terrific rewards for success, and yet every racer I spoke with, no matter the age, set a standard for civility and decorum you simply do not see in stick and ball sports – at any age. What an amazing group of people!

Sunday morning brought more fabulous weather to the North Texas Kartway – which is a terrific facility. Once again the racers were given a brief warm-up session for final adjustments. By 9am the racing was on in earnest, as 12 Juniors went on the track in a quest for the final six slots available for the final. Then a group of 36 went out to find the remaining six grid slots for the International Class. The RM-1, Mini-Max, and Masters classes all had less than 34 entrants, and so did not need an LCQ.

Then came the “Pre-Finals,” where entrants would nail down their final grid positions for the afternoon features. The RM-1 class provided the shunt of the day as racers came screaming down for a start, but not aligned well. The start was waved off, and in the ensuing checking-up, Brian Stiver got into a gefuffle that involved some airtime and an RM-1 coming down on his head and hip. Time was used as necessary to deal with his needs and he later returned to the track to watch the finals – a little bruised but OK. Thanks to Al Menting and the crew, and the cooperation of all of the entrants, we were back on schedule for the final race.

Prior to the final feature events, SSC put on a “Driver Parade,” with all of the entrants following the flags of Costa Rica, Mexico, and the USA, strolling out to stand on the straight in the Texas sunshine. In a long row, in their driving suits, with helmets on the pavement, they made a glorious sight as all competitors and their nations were honored. It would have been easy for some to adopt a cynical sneer, perhaps, as they walked out to the strains of “We Are The Champions,” but for me it all worked.

People from five different countries (including the entrants from Chile and Peru) had come together for a weekend of intense competition, and they had all worked together as champions. After the respective anthems were played, each driver received a deserved champion’s medal, and the applause of the crowd.

By this time, it seemed that the event had taken on a positive life of its own, and so I was not too surprised to see, as I announced the grids for the final races, that competitors were applauding each other.

The finals were taped with four different video cameras, and a battery pack at my waist and a mike on my lapel provided audio. I found it a little daunting to be talking to people with a mike that cannot be turned off, and the less said about my trip to the bathroom the better.

At the end of the day, we had winners in all five classes, of course. The top three in the International Class (Jordan Musser, Juan Ignacio Sanso, and Nathaniel Mauel) will be off to Egypt in January for the World Finals, including, in Sanso, the first World Finals entrant from Costa Rica. Justin Melton will represent the Junior Class. Andres Lopez did a great driving stint in the Mini-Max class, as he held Connor DiMond and Court Vernon at bay for the entire race. DiMond’s “win it or bin it” pass of Vernon going into the first turn with a few laps to go was simply an awesome display of talent and guts – great stuff! Alan Fudge dominated a strong field in the Masters class, but Rusty Lingle and “Too Tall” Tom Gilmore in 2nd and 3rd were delighted, as these Northwest racers were completing their first year of karting! “Chainsaw” Chad Miller was never seriously challenged in the RM-1 exhibition class, although you had to be impressed with Dr. Craig Duerson, who simply went a little faster every time out for the entire four days – watch out for him next year!

Miller was driving an RM-1 owned by Alan Fudge – and it is for sale. You could buy an RM-1 that dominated every moment or practice and qualifying, and won the championship final – but be aware that by doing so you would give up any and all excuses – if it ain’t right, you know it ain’t the kart!

You often read the old cliché about all of the contestants being winners. In most cases that’s just tired metaphorical icing thrown over a stale cake that went flat. Not so here. In forty years of attending all kinds of motorsports events, and in coaching almost every sport, I have never seen such a combination of intense competition, extreme athleticism, and Olympian drama, all combined with tremendous camaraderie and respect for others.

I hope they need a spare announcer in Egypt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR — Dave Preston is the Senior Manager for Communications at Cycle Barn, and the host of THE MOTORSPORTS SHOW, heard Thursdays at 5PM on KKNW 1150 AM. He can be reached at (425) 921-1765, or at fanatic@cyclebarn.com

END

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