Northwest auto-racing notebook: New kart track has more drivers on go to Monroe

Brad Richards loved "everything fast and freaky" as a kid. He and his brother Cary planned to jump into quarter-midget racing — until go-karts turned their heads.

"They were faster and more nimble," said Richards, now 41 and living in the Mill Creek/Snohomish area. "They just seemed cooler."

The closest go-kart track, at Thrashers Corner on Bothell-Everett Highway, was lost to pavement and progress 20 years ago. So Brad Richards took his "cool" vehicles to Tacoma, Spanaway, Spokane, Wenatchee and Pasco to compete. And he has emerged as one of the hottest kart drivers in the Northwest. Now, thanks to the cooperative effort of Lynnwood businessman Bill Hettick and Evergreen Speedway manager Mickey Beadle, Richards can stay closer to home to pursue his racing goals.

Richards and his Pacific Northwest Region colleagues in the CART Stars of Tomorrow and Rotax/Max Challenge series have a new track. It's part of the county-owned Monroe facility best known for its NASCAR-sanctioned races. Since opening June 9, the track has sparked a revival here in go-kart racing, America's newest avenue to major open-wheel series opportunities.

The 3/10-mile paved circuit incorporates parts of Evergreen's existing Figure-8 track, 3/8-mile oval and portions of the 5/8-mile track and accessible paved areas.

Beadle said the changes to the track "had the county's blessing on everything. This has made Evergreen Speedway more of a multi-use facility."

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood disciplines in motorsports, go-karting is not some souped-up lawn-mower engine rigged onto a hunk of cheap wood and wheels to satisfy the urge of restless or rebellious teenagers. Go-karts are sophisticated, high-performance racing machines with power-to-weight ratios similar to Champ cars.

What a fan will see at Evergreen Speedway's XPLEX Seattle track are karts about 6 feet long with a 41-inch wheelbase and 55-inch width.

"So they're wider than they are long," Hettick said, "and they sit close to the ground and they go really fast. It's the most fun I've ever had in my life. One ride is worth a thousand words."

The $4,500-$6,000 cost of a go-kart — a more conservative investment than, for example, a $20,000 motorcycle — is its biggest appeal.

"They aren't extremely expensive, and they're easier to transport than most race cars," Hettick said.

Hettick said go-kart racing takes three different forms: sprint, road and speedway. Speeds vary with style. Sprinters do about 60-100 mph. Karts for road-racing tracks (such as Pacific Raceways in Kent, Portland International Raceway, California's Infineon Raceway and Laguna Seca and the Westwood Karting Association complex in Chilliwack, B.C.) hit speeds of 100-160 mph.

"You can be going 85-90 (mph) at the end of a straightaway," Hettick said, and these racers will "pull 2-½ to 3 gs in the corners."

Speedway karts, used on indoor dirt ovals, max out at 40-50 mph.

Hettick himself is speeding around, managing the schedule that ends Oct. 20 and trying to lobby for an expanded schedule for 2003. He's coordinating the Monroe track's activities with the XPLEX Las Vegas, which offers reciprocal benefits. He's racing around, he said, educating potential kart racers as much as he is selling the karts at the Lynnwood Cycle Barn on Highway 99.

"The first time I saw them, I said, 'Oh — count me in!' " Hettick said.

Now, with nearly a quarter of a million dollars behind his efforts at Evergreen Speedway, he is trying to channel that youthful enthusiasm into a better understanding of the particulars and potential of go-karts. He wants the public to appreciate that these aren't rinky-dink kiddie-cars that putt-putt along the beach. Frankly, he's weary of defending himself.

"It's kind of the stigma we have in the States," Hettick said. "We in the industry have done a horrible job marketing ourselves."

American drivers such as Dominic Dobson and even former Evergreen Speedway regular Gary Smith have gotten their start in karts.

Former CART driver Bryan Herta, who competes in the American Le Mans Series, is a co-owner of the XPLEX Las Vegas facility, which has been home to current CART stars Paul Tracy and Jimmy Vasser. Herta and Hollis Brown, for instance, founded the CART Stars of Tomorrow series three years ago to provide a starting point for a career in open-wheel racing. That's the route Michael Andretti, Patrick Carpentier, Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Dario Franchitti and Alex Zanardi also took.

Richards won the season's first two CART Stars of Tomorrow regional races this summer and the last two Rotax/Mx Challenge events. At one point this year, he was the top-ranked regional driver. The top finishers will be invited to the national championships in Las Vegas.

Admission to XPLEX Seattle go-kart races in Monroe is free.

Tri-City 125 pivotal

Gary Lewis is just 64 points behind Kevin Hamlin, the leader and defending series champion, with four races left in the NASCAR Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series season. And that's why Sunday's Tri-City 125 at West Richland is so crucial for the Bothell driver who has won three straight events. Lewis has posted three career victories at Tri-City Raceway, including two in the last three years.

This return to the 1/2-mile tri-oval is a key opportunity also for Hamlin, of Snohomish, to regain the momentum he built in winning four of the first five races of 2002.

Canadian Pete Harding is third, 69 points behind Lewis and only 39 in front of fourth-place Chris Hart, of Yakima. Puyallup's Troy Conrad is fifth and Naches' Jeff Jefferson is sixth, four points behind Conrad. Only 125 points separate Jefferson and No. 10 Rick Suran.

Jefferson earned the pole position and his first career RBNWS triumph the last time the series visited the track. The April 27 victory concluded a long day of racing for the Yakima County native, who began the day competing in a NASCAR Winston West race in California. Sunday's race will get his full attention this time.

Jefferson finished third in this event last year, as Shane Biles beat John Dillon by eight-hundredths of a second.

Qualifying will start at 6:30 p.m., with racing set to go at 8:30 p.m.