Scott Morris raced for AR1 in the new media race photo by Juha Lievonen

Every year at the PRI show, the kart race seems to get bigger and bigger. Despite the very small and tight track, all of the kart manufacturers come out to earn bragging rights, and enter top-name kart racers and major racing names from IndyCar, NASCAR, sports car racing, and F1.

This year was no different, and the racing was tough and tight form the very first turn of the first race, where there was a pile up of at least 20 karts. On a track that small, that is a pretty big scrap. The race was red flagged, and all of the teams scrambled to replace broken parts and make it back to the grid.

The stands were packed full and the crowd was several bodies deep all around the fences to the track. We would venture to say there are few other places in the karting world that a karting driver can get exposure to an audience like this. Many of these people didn’t seem to be very familiar with karting. So it is not a crowd of family and friends, or even the hard-core kart fans. It is a fantastic way to expose the world to kart racing, and the drivers that come out of the sport’s grass-roots level.

The track is perfectly positioned in the parking lot to the convention center building for the PRI show. So most of the people leaving at the end of the day to go to their car, see a great race going on, and they stay to watch. That is the beauty of this event, and why it is so good for the sport and karting’s significance therein.

AR1's Scott Morris sits on the grid photo by Juha Lievonen

From an organizational standpoint, we would recommend some better bathroom facilities and concessions for food. We speculate that some type of merchandise area would also get some traffic, especially if there were event t-shirts made.

This year, the event had a new promoter as Championship Karting International (CKI) took over for the defunct Stars of Karting. We are told a number of the same people are now with CKI, which surely contributed to the seamless transition of the event.

CKI is owned by a group of partners that includes racer-businessman R.J. Valentine, who also is the east coast dealer for CRG karts, Kiss Kart Barriers, and a number of other businesses including the F1 Boston karting center and a charter private jet service.

They did a nice job with the event overall, and the unique part of this event is that the paddock tent area where the karts are being prepared is entirely open, and the fans can walk through and interact with the teams and famous drivers as they prepare their karts. It’s a really cool immersive experience for any racing fan.

AR1's Scott Morris races back from DFL to 4th photo by Juha Lievonen

A fun addition to this years event was the media race, that put members of the media in karts to battle one-another and get an understanding of what this is all about. Of course, there were a few media members that also have racing experience.

Scott Morris represented AutoRacing1.com (AR1) with support from K1 Race Gear and took to the wheel as well, and showed well in a wet qualifying session, with second qualifying position, 1/10 sec. behind David Cole from E-Karting news, and ahead of renowned motorsports writer Jeremy Shaw.

"Driving the karts on this tight track in the slightly slower karts still gave a very obvious indication of how much a kart beats on the body, and especially on this very tight twisty track. We ran three 20 lap sessions and a 20 lap race to the main karter’s several sessions at more than 30 laps each, with a 40 lap main event. It is easy to understand why race drivers have to be in top physical condition." said Scott.

K1 Race Gear produced a custom suit for us, to show us their product. Having worn a lot of different karting suits, Scott said this was the most comfortable suit he has ever worn, with a very breathable design.

"To me the low price almost doesn’t make any sense, and they turned around a custom suit for us in about two weeks!"

This company is all about making affordable quality essential racing gear. Be sure to click on their banner ad on the top of the AR1 page and check them out.

In the media race, which was the first race of the evening in front of the capacity crowd, who seemed to take a genuine interest in anything that was on-track, even if the karts were a few seconds slower than the 125cc Rotax and TAG karts of the main event.

The green flag dropped and Jeremy Shaw scooted inside Scott for second. Then, in the third turn, he was mercilessly drilled from behind by the driver from Racecar Engineering, and demoted to last, with the entire field already a couple of corners ahead by the time he got turned around and back up to speed. He picked his way through the field and into fourth position and was challenging Shaw for third at the final turn, but could not quite get by.

Like they say in racing “Sometimes you are the windshield, and sometimes you are the bug”

But overall, it was great fun to participate. This is really a great event that is great for the sport.

We are also hereby issuing a public challenge to Dave Despain to get out there next year!

Full Race Report

Race Results

Pro Results

Pos	No.	Name	Total	Diff	Best	Btlap
1	88	Jan Heylen	40	-	15.148	12
2	14	Scott Speed	40	0.044	15.168	37
3	15V	Tonio Liuzzi	40	0.154	15.196	17
4	20	Buddy Rice	40	5.791	15.298	13
5	8	Gary Carlton	40	7.104	15.223	10
6	7	Alan Rudoplh	40	8.604	15.3	10
7	69	Jamie McMurray	40	8.918	15.257	13
8	54	Wes Phillips	40	9.192	15.204	13
9	55	Michael Vincec	40	12.934	15.281	7
10	29	AJ Allmendinger	40	15.196	15.399	9
11	4	Brendan Langlois	40	15.353	15.304	11
12	1	Jay Howard	39	1 LAP	15.159	13
13	111	Gustavo Menezes	39	0.468	15.302	10
14	8	Townsend Bell	39	3.63	15.304	13
15	77	Alex Tagliani	38	2 LAPS	15.326	8
16	78	Joe Sylvester	37	3 LAPS	15.901	11
17	14	Ryan Hunter-Reay	23	17 LAPS	15.373	9
DNF	2	Arie Ouimet	28	-	15.283	7
DNF	38	Zach Beard	27	-	15.34	10
DNF	15	Ed Carpenter	22	-	15.418	10
DNF	86	Kyle Wiegand	16	-	15.299	7
DNF	38	Colin Braun	16	-	15.319	14
DNF	16	Chris Wehrheim	11	-	15.387	6
DNF	21	Thomas Sheckter	6	-	15.66	2
DNF	18	Justin Wilson	0	-	--:--:--.---	0

All-Stars Division

Karters Division

Pos	No.	Driver	Total Laps	Diff	Best Time	BTlap
1	8	Gary Carlton	40		15.186	12
2	16	Chris Wehrheim	40	1.100	15.2	20
3	86	Kyle Wiegand	40	1.847	6.491	24
4	2	Arie Ouimet	40	5.087	15.266	6
5	38	Zach Beard	40	6.156	15.337	22
6	55	Michael Vincec	40	11.384	15.259	7
7	54	Wes Phillips	40	11.487	15.205	21
8	111	Gustavo Menezes	40	13.115	15.416	16
9	4	Brendan Langlois	40	13.478	15.267	20
10	66	Spencer Pigot	40	13.908	15.319	6
11	421	Jimmy Simpson	40	14.974	15.48	20
12	42	Michael Lewis	39	1 LAPS	15.338	11
13	117	Chris Scribner	39	1.138	15.405	8
14	13	Erik Haase	39	6.057	15.521	17
15	23	Austin Dyne	39	17.694	15.641	28
16	22	Connor Daly	38	2 LAPS	15.488	12
17	66	Lucas Barnett	37	3 LAPS	15.716	16
18	12	Jackson Mears	37	9.921	15.515	7
DNF	21	Josef Newgarden	38		15.447	8
DNF	45	Mario Romancini	37		15.241	21
DNF	6	Wilson Phillipe	33		15.693	17
DNF	9	Tony Lavanant	23		15.366	14
DNF	5	Matt Jaskol	23		15.428	8
DNF	11	Stefan Wilson	23		15.544	12
DNF	24	Bobby Kelley	14		15.564	6
DNF	56	Bill McLaughlin	14		15.579	7
DNF	12x	Phil DeLaO	13		15.510	8
DNF	0	Carlos Duenas	0		--:--:--.---	0
DNF	49	Scott Saunders	0		--:--:--.---	0
DNF	10	Josh Hurley	0		--:--:--.---	0
DNF	656	Mark Pellegrini	0		--:--:--.---	0
DNF	25	Brandon Newey	0		--:--:--.---	0
DNS	3	Bobby Wilson	0		--:--:--.---	0