Almost every Formula 1 driver started as a wee lad behind the wheel of a kart, and they still love to return to the machines that gave them their first injection of automotive adrenaline. That’s why three of them — including the legendary Michael Schumacher — are competing in Vegas today.
The seven-time world champion joins former Renault driver Nelson “Crashgate” Piquet Jr. and Sebastien Buemi of Scuderia Toro Rosso in the SuperPro class at the Superkarts! USA SuperNationals XIII. They’re all running in 125-cc water-cooled two-stroke engines with 6-speed gearboxes. These things are quick and put down about 41 horsepower. SuperPro is the top class in international karting.
Having Schumi on the bill — that’s him in the pic above — has been a boon for organizers, and SuperKart v.p. Patti Kutscher says the phone’s been ringing off the hook with people trying to snag tickets. There are 42 spots on the SuperPro grid, but Kutscher wouldn’t say who wanted to race.
“Overall for that class, we have turned away many high-profile drivers who have been very disappointed that we cannot fit them into this years’ top class,” she said.
SuperKarts spokesman Chris Ortenburger said the race promises to be one of the biggest of its kind. “This show is so big it’s the karting equivalent of the Monaco Grand Prix.” Let’s hope the winner doesn’t get lost on the way to the podium.
Karting kids turned F1 drivers never get over the thrill of the Lilliputian cars.
You can find kart tracks all over Germany, so it’s no surprise Michael and Ralf Schumacher got the bug on a track owned by their parents in Sindorf. It’s about 10 minutes from Cologne and named, of course, the Michael Schumacher Kart & Event Center. It’s probably the most well-known kart rental spot in Germany.
Piquet Jr. is the son of three-time F1 champ Nelson Piquet and says he started racing karts when he was 8. “I have broken record after record. I won every championship I raced in go-karts,” he said of his eight years in the Brazilian karting scene. His tenure in F1 was much less spectacular, and after being unceremoniously dumped by Renault earlier this year he recently competed in an endurance karting event at the Monaco Kart Cup and has returned home to Brazil for the famous Granja Viana 500 (where Felipe Massa stole the show during practice).
As for Buemi, it was the go-kart he got for Christmas in 1993 that launched his racing career, and he’s got a couple of Swiss and European karting titles under this belt.
By Wired
