Wrecks keeping young kart-builder busy

MEDFORD, Ore. – By the age of 15, Garen Linder was hooked on just about any motorized vehicle he could get his hands on. Dirt bikes, go-karts, four-wheelers and cars – put his hands on a steering wheel and his foot on a throttle and you could keep him happy for hours, especially if he found his way to a competition.

But racing costs money, and Garen’s father, Mike, wasn’t about to give his son a free ride throughout his teenage years. In 2001, they came up with a brilliant idea. Noticing that no one locally was supplying go-kart racers with new frames, Garen Linder began to build them in the back of his father’s auto repair shop in northwest Medford.

Garen Linder, now 18, graduated from racing go-karts to sprint cars last summer, but his burgeoning kart-building business has never been more popular.

“Before I started my business, the closest place to get (go-kart) parts was in Red Bluff, California,” says Garen Linder, who just graduated from Crater High School. “That’s a long ways away when something breaks on race night.”

Linder bends and forms tubing to specified angles to shape his frames, then welds the pieces together. He also builds the cages that surround the frames and adds bumpers and floor pans. He’ll even install the engine if that’s what a customer wants. Linder estimates he could build a kart from start to finish in about three days, but he usually finds himself repairing other karts while building new ones.

“I take a lot of pride in this because I want to do it right,” Linder says, noting that almost all his customers race at the White City track. “It’s time-consuming but also satisfying because you’re creating something that people want.”

Linder has received nothing but positive feedback from his creations. Two of his clients, Eagle Point’s Kevin and C.J. Putnam, rank 1-2 in the 500 cubic inch division point standings at the local oval.

“If I have enough patience, I think this (business) could get pretty big,” says Linder, who is putting in long hours now that he’s finished with school. “The sport keeps growing here locally, and people are always wrecking their karts.”