From the Seat!

Yahoo, Gadzooks, yeehaa, racing season has finally begun! Was this a long winter or what?

Everything is starting to buzz, the local scene is off and running with a race or two in the books, the CES opener at Gateway is a week away, the World Karting Association has already chalked up several events as well. Welcome to 2004 and what a ride this is going to be. I see serious growth in the sport this season despite the fact that many series seem to be just ambling along doing things the way they have always done them while the sport changes around them. Overall there seems to be less focus on National Racing (Excepting SKUSA and STARS) and more emphasis on local and regional racing.

Speaking of local racing we recently had the opportunity to do some testing at the spanking new New Castle Motorsports Park (NCMP). Although "Lucille" our Tony/Honda is awaiting her season debut we were out in a customers new TAG machine a Tony/Vortex RoK. Wow and wow again. First of all NCMP is an amazing facility, while some of the creature comforts are still being finished the race track is a real gem. Smoother than smooth and very challenging. If you want to go fast at NCMP you had better have your 'A' game on. Over one mile in length with several "point and squirt" technical sections, elevation changes, camber changes and a booming 1000-foot straight. We chose to be among several others to test on NCMP's opening day despite temps in the forties and blustery overcast conditions. This was my first opportunity to spend any amount of time in a TAG machine and frankly these things are a blast. In short order we had the gearing and carburetion at least close and the RoK began to show its strengths, snorting off the corners and going through mid range with a rush. Top end was good as well and these things are way quicker than most anything else short of a shifter. I'm not about to give up my shifter but TAG would clearly be my next choice. I am firmly convinced that TAG is where much of the future growth of the sport will occur.

We have another TAG test session later this week and we hope to turn "Lucille" loose shortly thereafter. I have to tell you that having a high-end track locally to test on is a true luxury. The impact of this and other new tracks popping up around the country is huge and will accelerate the growth and public awareness of our sport.

Time to get back to work, so until next time; Race hard, Race safe and God Bless America!