Go-Karts Speed Into Spotlight
Think as you zip down I-90 at the new 70 mph speed limit. You’re seat-belted in, protected by steel and air bags.
Now consider doing about that same speed - or better - while being strapped into a vehicle with a footprint smaller than a 4-foot-by-8-foot sheet of plywood, and with just a thin skin of aluminum being the only thing between the road and your rear end.
Now you have an idea of what it will be like this weekend to be one of the drivers in the 125 Shifters, one of 11 go-kart classes competing this weekend in the Spokane Gold Cup at the Spokane County Off-Road Vehicle Park.
“These karts are very impressive to watch,” says event spokesperson Bob Thompson. “They are our premiere class.’
The six-speed, manual-shifting karts will hit speeds of 70 mph and come at you from a standing LeMans start similar to Formula One cars.
Spokane’s Gold Cup event is the first of seven races that will be run in the northwest in places like Wenatchee, Tri Cities and Medford, Ore.
The race will draw about 250 karts from all over the northwest and British Columbia and a number of national champions.
Practice is scheduled for today and Friday with time trials and racing scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Weekend practice sessions run from 7 - 9 a.m. Time trials will be from 9:30 a.m. - noon with racing to follow.
Admission is $3 per person, per day with pit passes also available for an additional charge.
Stateline starts for real
Stateline Speedway opened its season last Sunday with a racers jamboree. The non-points event gave racers one last chance to fine tune before this Sunday afternoon’s regular-season opener.
Four classes, including Hobby Stocks, Compact Streets, Sportsman and Fever Four Hobby’s, will begin time trials at 1 p.m. Sunday.
SRP runs final Sunday spring race
Spokane Raceway Park will stage its final afternoon drag and stock car racing doubleheader until September this Sunday. Gates open at 10:30 a.m.. with racing on both tracks beginning at 1:30 p.m.
On the drag strip, Virgil Sellers puts a two-race winning streak on the line in Super Pro after having also posted low elapsed time three weeks in a row. The oval track program has Hobby Stocks, Fever Fours and is set to debut the Mini-Truck class.
Schultz stays in tour chase
After two busy weeks the NASCAR Northwest Tour takes a couple of weeks off before resuming its schedule May 18 at Wenatchee.
Three events into the 15-race schedule, Spokane’s Rick Schultz is the leading local racer in the standings. His 432 points put him in sixth spot. Mark Groskreutz is in eighth with 418.
Garrett Evans had his two-race winning streak snapped last Saturday in Yakima by Gary Lewis. Schultz was third and Groskreutz sixth.
A racing rebuttal
Seems some race fans’ radiators have overheated over a choice of words used in a Motorsports Notebook story two weeks ago.
The problem stems from a reference made about Kevin Richards as “the longtime mechanical brains behind Spokane’s Kirk Rogers and helped wrench Rogers to the 1994 Northwest Tour championship.”
The reference to Richards’ role as crew chief was made based on available knowledge. Information often is scarce in motorsports.
Pit stops
A fresh ribbon of asphalt is finally down on SRP’s 2.5-mile road course that - after 20 plus years of being on the back burner - debuts May 11. .. The ORV Park motocross series kicks off on Sunday starting with sign-up at 7 a.m. .. In Clarkia, Idaho, motocross is also on the menu Sunday at the Fossil Bowl with practice at 9 a.m. .. Republic’s Eagle Trac opens its racing season Saturday afternoon with time trials at noon and racing at 1 p.m.. .. Brad Allard of Sandpoint finished third in the first race of the Interstate Superstock Racing Series last Saturday at Ephrata. Dave Garber of Spokane was sixth and L.T. Jones 10th. The series second race will be May 4 in Spokane.
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