From the Seat!

Well, there hasn't been a lot of fire, but there has been a fair amount of rain. Although yours truly was not there the Mid Ohio WKA National was clobbered with rain on Saturday and the Blackhawk CES event was similarly plagued on Friday. Hopefully the weatherman will cooperate for the impending Supernationals at Road America.

The amazing Gooseman (?) and I have been burning up the road from here to New Castle Motorsports Park (NCMP) on a regular basis for raceday customer support and frequent testing sessions. What a luxury it is to have a world class kart track nearby where meaningful testing can be done. Okay, I'll admit it, this hard core roadracer has been spending his time at a sprint track. A fast, smooth, challenging track over a mile long, but still a sprint track. Believe it or not, we are having a great time. The racing has been intense, with large fields in nearly every class and the races have a hard to describe "Big Time" atmosphere. The last round of practice on race day is qualifying for each class with quick laps being announced ala F1-style over a quality PA system, and then the races have an announcer as well. Funny how simple things like having the races put on professionally add to the excitement level. Another nice touch is the announcements being broadcast on an FM band, which alleviates the problem of being pitted where you can't hear the PA.

What's hot at NCMP? Certainly shifters with 20-plus 125s being the norm for ordinary weekend club races, and TAG is growing faster than I would have ever believed often being the largest class in the place. Yamaha Pipe Medium is very hotly contested, as are the Can classes. Boding well for the future of the sport are healthy Junior fields in both Yamaha JR Can and Yamaha Junior Sportsman. These kids often put on the tightest races of the day on any given weekend. These kids are the future of the sport and the future looks bright. Several of the Junior and some of the younger Senior drivers have familiar last names being the offspring of some of the bigger names in the Indy Car/IRL community. All in all this is cool stuff.

Speaking of cool stuff, we are looking forward to the upcoming Stars of Karting and SKUSA Pro Tour races at our new home facility. Sorry if I am waxing too enthusiastically about our new home track but the prime directive of this new facility is to elevate the sport and its image to where it belongs in the hierarchy of motorsports in North America, and Team Rapid Racing is proud to be a major player.

Well, that's just about enough drivel from this corner for this month, lots to do and not much time to do it. Maybe, just maybe, I'll find time to wipe down "Lucille," our Tony shifter, for our next outing.

Until next time, Race Hard, Race Safe and God Bless America!