My Roots in Racing 1.5: Go-Carting Career!
So lets call this a prequel of a Blog. I was thinking back to all of my experience in racing. And I really did not talk much about my brief experience in racing go-carts. I did talk about it in My Roots in Racing Part 1 and My Ruff Times of Racing: The Go-Cart Accident. But there is a little bit of the story I left out.
This all started in 1981 when were driving down Broadway, by Reed Park, and we see a few people driving a go-cart pretty hard in a church parking lot. We turned around and starting talking to them about the cart and found out that they raced them. My dad thought this would be a great thing to get me into and so with in a few weeks he had bought me a cart and we where zipping up and down the road in it. We found out when the racers were and went out on a Saturday night to watch the races. After that we decided this was what we were going to do.
Back then to go racing you did not need much like you do today. I have about $1000 worth of racing gear; from a fire suit, gloves, helmet, and shoes and socks just to go racing. And all it has to be rated to curtain standards or I would not be a load on the track. All I needed to go the track back then was a helmet and leather jacket.
I will not bore you with my first race and only race on dirt. You can read that in the blogs I listed above. I was not ready for that experience at all. I think if there would have been a way of practicing before going out there for my first time, my head was spinning. And I was trying really hard. And I got hurt really badly for it.
By August we had heard that they were starting racing at a asphalt road course track in Phoenix. So we were there to help clean the track and the first few weeks was just practice. It was great to not have the pressure to get out there and race for a position and learn the track. By the time we started racing we were taking out two carts, one for me and one for my dad.
I was out there having fun and had made friends with a few of the other kids my age. We would have two class running with use and not one of them was an adult. It was I think Ten years old and younger and Ten years old to 18. And we always had about 10 or more carts out every week.
Only two races were memorable to me. One was, I was out there really trying hard hitting the apexes of the corners just right and I was getting slower ever lap. When the checker came out I pulled into the pit area and my dad ask me what was going on out there and why I was riding the brake all the time. I told him I was not. On closer expectation of the cart, it was found that the brakes had locked up on me and it was a miracle that the cart even moved.
The other one was, for the final heat of the night, they decided to flip the field and put all of the older kids in the back. the first turn was a very tight hair pin turn and most of the time you just slide around the corner. Well the starter dropped the flag and everyone up front dove for the corner, cause probably the biggest crash I had every been in. By the time we got to the corner there was just no were to go. They had to pull all of us apart to get us going again. No one was hurt and no carts were damaged. But this taught me to always look forward and not just the cart or car ahead of me.
By the end of September we had a break for a big race down in Coolidge. I was going pretty good. I was second in points. This is about the same time they decided to not let me race for awhile, because I had never been medically cleared to race from the accident in the first race.
And that was the end of my short go-carting career, I do not know why we stopped. I was told that the Road Course was closed, and there was no way in hell I was going back to that dirt track. So it just ended.
I look back now and grateful that we did things different when we started racing cars. My dad came to use in 1999 and asked if we wanted to race and knew a cheap way of doing it. So we built a car and worked on my, and took it out on track days, So before I started racing I had some track time.
This all started in 1981 when were driving down Broadway, by Reed Park, and we see a few people driving a go-cart pretty hard in a church parking lot. We turned around and starting talking to them about the cart and found out that they raced them. My dad thought this would be a great thing to get me into and so with in a few weeks he had bought me a cart and we where zipping up and down the road in it. We found out when the racers were and went out on a Saturday night to watch the races. After that we decided this was what we were going to do.
Back then to go racing you did not need much like you do today. I have about $1000 worth of racing gear; from a fire suit, gloves, helmet, and shoes and socks just to go racing. And all it has to be rated to curtain standards or I would not be a load on the track. All I needed to go the track back then was a helmet and leather jacket.
I will not bore you with my first race and only race on dirt. You can read that in the blogs I listed above. I was not ready for that experience at all. I think if there would have been a way of practicing before going out there for my first time, my head was spinning. And I was trying really hard. And I got hurt really badly for it.
By August we had heard that they were starting racing at a asphalt road course track in Phoenix. So we were there to help clean the track and the first few weeks was just practice. It was great to not have the pressure to get out there and race for a position and learn the track. By the time we started racing we were taking out two carts, one for me and one for my dad.
I was out there having fun and had made friends with a few of the other kids my age. We would have two class running with use and not one of them was an adult. It was I think Ten years old and younger and Ten years old to 18. And we always had about 10 or more carts out every week.
Only two races were memorable to me. One was, I was out there really trying hard hitting the apexes of the corners just right and I was getting slower ever lap. When the checker came out I pulled into the pit area and my dad ask me what was going on out there and why I was riding the brake all the time. I told him I was not. On closer expectation of the cart, it was found that the brakes had locked up on me and it was a miracle that the cart even moved.
The other one was, for the final heat of the night, they decided to flip the field and put all of the older kids in the back. the first turn was a very tight hair pin turn and most of the time you just slide around the corner. Well the starter dropped the flag and everyone up front dove for the corner, cause probably the biggest crash I had every been in. By the time we got to the corner there was just no were to go. They had to pull all of us apart to get us going again. No one was hurt and no carts were damaged. But this taught me to always look forward and not just the cart or car ahead of me.
By the end of September we had a break for a big race down in Coolidge. I was going pretty good. I was second in points. This is about the same time they decided to not let me race for awhile, because I had never been medically cleared to race from the accident in the first race.
And that was the end of my short go-carting career, I do not know why we stopped. I was told that the Road Course was closed, and there was no way in hell I was going back to that dirt track. So it just ended.
I look back now and grateful that we did things different when we started racing cars. My dad came to use in 1999 and asked if we wanted to race and knew a cheap way of doing it. So we built a car and worked on my, and took it out on track days, So before I started racing I had some track time.
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