Kart Racing Around Vancouvergo to:
September 2007
• Langlois - Stars of Karting Eastern - Champion
Brendan Langlois returns to Kamloops from Shawano, Wisconsin as the 2007 Snap-on Stars of Karting Eastern Division
champion following a hard fought battle on the track. Saturday started off excellent with Brendan locking in the Gatorz
pole position in qualifying. He would then carry that momentum to finish the 12 lap prefinal in 1st position. The 18 lap
main event would not end quite as well however when contact by the 2nd place driver would force 3rd running Menezes up
on top of Brendan’s kart. The resulting delay in separating the 3 drivers would put them to the rear of the lead group.
Fortunately Brendan was able to keep the engine running and recovered to finish 11th out of the 28 kart field.
On Sunday a 2nd place qualifying run would give Brendan an excellent start for the 12 lap prefinal. The race day was
not going to be without its challenges when once again contact in the 12 lap prefinal would cause Brendan to spin
and result in a 16th place starting position for the main event with the penalized driver starting behind him in 17th.
Brendan advanced through the field quickly yet cautiously keeping in mind the position he needed to secure the
Eastern points championship. A 5th place finish would be enough to secure the points lead and the 2007 title.
The next races are in Beaumont, California in September where Brendan will race for the Western Stars Championship
title. He currently sits in the 2nd position in points going into the last 2 race events.
Brendan would like to thank his race team First Kart North America and his tuner AJ Whisler. Thanks also to his
sponsors Alpinestars, OTP, Holeshot Drive Systems, and to Kamloops supporters Excel Personnel, Kamloops Realty,
Surfer Enterprises, Fraser Financial, Saturn of Kamloops, Yemchuck Signs and Oronge Board Shop.
Go to Brendan's website for more information.
• IM at Western Stars
Here is a press release
(reformatted for web display) from Italian Motors keeping everyone up to date on thier
Stars of Karting racing results. Opens in a new window or tab, depending on your browser.
• Remo Injured
Westwood Karting Junior racer Remo Ruscitti was injured in a Stars of Karting event in New Castle, Indiana. A member
of the Italian Motors racing team, Italian Motors reports
Remo Ruscitti was involved in a wreck that would see the young driver get significantly injured. Not being
able to move much at first created a shock around the entire paddock. After being taken to Indianapolis, the
doctors found Remo to have a bruised lung, two broken ribs, and a broken collar bone. Luckily, there were
no permanent injuries and his condition has been steadily improving. A definite relief as everyone was quite
worried. Italian Motors would like to wish the young driver a healthy recovery and is looking forward to
seeing him back at the races.
Hope you feel better soon Remo!
• Race 2
Went to Club Race 2 (29 April) and had some fun! The racing was good and close in many classes, with a turn
out of about 71 entries - which is close to the break-even point. Some of those rookie Juniors are getting
good fast - I think there are going to be a few more talented racers coming up in a few more years. Weather was mixed
but not bad really - I even got a bit of sunburn.
I have some pictures at: webshots and
I hope the link works this time. If not - go to my main homepage and
use the link from there.
This is some random video I shot at Race 2.
And part 2 Both open a youtube page in a new window.
• Race 1
I went out to the Saturday part of the race weekend (31 March) to catch the action and see meet people again. It was
mostly cloudy and the wind made it COLD! The combination appeared to make the Leopard motors run a bit leaner for some
reason - this I gathered from talking to a couple of Leopard guys. Even so it was not a greatly fast track condition,
with the fastest qualifier in TAG Light running a 52.22 or there abouts lap time, with many in the 53 - 54 second range.
There were a bunch of new Junior "X" heads (and a few Senior ones too) so I hope that they all are made to
feel welcome. With the new format for racing weekends, Saturday is for Practice and Qualifying, with Sunday having a few
Practice sessions and Racing. In general the Saturday went pretty smoothly, considering it is the first race weekend so
there were a lot of people registering and getting paperwork squared away before the day could start proper. The Executive
were kept quite busy all day, which I hope they get fixed really soon.
<rant>The race weekends should be run by the Race Director
and any problems that arise should go to that person only. Then, if anyone is not happy with how it is handled, they can
take it up with the Executive at the next monthly meeting. Anyone who has problems with rules and such should make
themselves available to sit on a committee to oversee the rules. I believe that this offer has been made by the Club to some
members and that they have not followed through with this solution. If they don't want to sit on a committee - then
they should probably just go along with the way things are as the people who are working to try and run things
are doing their best despite not getting help from these complainers. <end rant>
Anyway, it was great to see some of the old faces back - some that have not been racing for a while - and I hope to meet some
more of the newer members later in the year. I have some pictures posted at (yes - I fixed the link)
westkart webshots. Feel free to check them out and click on
the full size link, then right click and choose to "Save Picture as" (or whatever your browser says that is
similar) and you can get the picture on your computer. If you see one that you would like to make a print from, you can
email me with the file name (a number) and I'll email you the full sized file which you can get printed. That or you
can order from Webshots themselves - but I have had no experience with them in this way and can't say if I think
they are good that way or not.
• Greg Moore
I was recently at the opening of the Greg Moore Gallery at the BC Sports Hall of Fame. The orginal opening date was
postponed due to the roof deflation problem at BC Place, the home of the Hall of Fame. I was invited by Greg's Mom,
Donna (who is a life member of Westwood Karting) to be there and report back to the club. It was a great opening! Squire
Barnes of GlobalBC TV was the MC and they read out some letters from Greg's racing friends the are still active
in the series, so could not attend. Then we went for the ribbon cutting, performed by the Moore family - his Dad Rick,
Step-Mom Donna, birth Mom Donna as well as Aunts and (I think) maybe a Grand Parent or two. The exibit was now open
to us and it is really great. They have the car that Greg drove to his first CART series win and also found and restored
his Road Race kart that he won his 2 Grand-National IKF Championships in. Dave Klassen and Richard Whitman (former
Westwood Karting racers) were there as they were the ones responsible for putting the kart back in race shape. They also
have a racing simulator so that you can get the feel for racing at 200 MPH.
The gallery is great with lots of Greg memorabilia and well worth the visit. Pictures are in an album at
webshots. To keep a picture from there, save it using the download
link and then rename it (including the extension) to "anyname.jpg" where anyname is whatever you want and without the quotes.
I also got to wander the rest of the Sports Hall of Fame - for the first time since it left it's old home at the PNE -
and it is really good. Well worth a visit,
in my opinion. So - Gate A at BC Place. Go there! Also, check out their website at
bcsportshalloffame.com
• My View on Westwood- a mini rant
I haven't been talking karts much for a while and now I think I want to share my views. Westwood was (and may still be)
in trouble. We became a club with a reputation of being for serious racers only, a "no fun" organization.
At one time we kind of deserved that too. The ICA class, the elite class worldwide for 100 cc karts, was hotly
contested at Westwood events. Often the top 8 at club races were names that regularly finished top 20 at the Stars of
Karting (Stars of Tomorrow) series. Super racing to watch with lots of entries, but a weekend warrior having a great
race could finish
8th - maybe - behind some huge talent. The kart teams used Westwood as a testing ground against each other and this
helped keep entries up. Not any more. The 2006 season didn't have enough ICA's to actually run as a class for
most of the year. Sad. ICC's too have taken a beating. Once the elite class at Westwood races, the shifters are almost
extinct within the club. JICA - still considered the way for a Junior to start up the road of serious racing in
a large part of the world - had trouble fielding a class for most of the year. For a while there, if you weren't with
a kart shops team you were not going to finish in the mix at all. Not so now.
There are many reasons why these things are happening, many quite legitimate. But facts are, the kart shop teams are
not supporting the club races like they once did and the entry numbers are way down at race weekends.
I think that the club has started to make it's way back to weekend warriors again. Karting for the fun of it. I
have seen lots of good things starting to happen and I hope that the club's Executive stays it's course to make
Westwood what it once was - a great place for families to come and have fun racing. Get the shops out of
controlling things and go back to making decisions based on what is BEST FOR THE CLUB, despite what anyone says.
That's how I see it.
Archie Henderson
• Forum
I am going to revive the forum (button to left) and see how it goes. Now has an instant registration for posting but
still needs me to give the final okay. The forum is provided free, so there are pop-up ads and stuff -
the costs of free! I believe that the ads are non-offensive. I will be setting it up properly over the next
week or so but it is still functional as it was.
• 2007 Executive
The new Westwood Executive has been chosen for the 2007 year. They are:
- President - Vacant
- Past-President - Richard Frost
- VP Administration - Gordon Chandler
- VP Sprint - Bob Haffner
- Secretary Treasurer - Daryl Redlin
- Recording Secretary - Helmut Buhl
• Got stories for this site? Contact me. I would love to hear from anyone!