Quarter Midget Racing

[chevy3100truck]

I had started a thread on this before, but since i have a new login name now and can't find the old thread figured I start a new one....

Anyhow - I've gotten my little guy into Quarter Midget racing at our local track (Langley BC), he seems to be hooked! (hahaha) We're still very new at all of this, but he's having a ball and it's a ton of fun hanging out at the track with the little man. He turned 5 last weekend, so it was the first official race he could be in vs. other cars (he had run as a hotlapper previously - solo laps)

Here's a couple pics of our setup - old beat up car, but after this season (where he's bound to beat it up tons more), I'll tear it down and repaint / repair bodywork. For now it's mechanically good, just the cosmetics aren't great.

Us getting to the track - first race of the year that wasn't rained out.....


Out on the track



First points race of the year (and his 5th birthday)

This one had a 4+ hour rain delay. He didn't get to run his main until 8:00pm, and the racing didn't get finished in total until about 11:00pm. Pretty cool seeing the cars run under the lights late into the night, not so cool waiting for tech to be done....

[chevy3100truck]

And for those that are interested in how close the racing is - look at this sequence......






and one other one when I happened to have the camera in my hands....



The cars are VERY safe, safety is definitely the top priority. The walls move very easy to absorb impact (still don't want to hit them that hard...) I've already had to build new rod ends for the car a couple of times from smacking the wall....

[JRoberts]

This is so cool. Congratulations on what you and your son are doing. Keep us informed on his, and your, progress.

[Stich496]

nice,,

[BOOOGHAR]

living in AZ a few guys I raced with had boys who also raced the 1/4 midgets, it got to where a couple of them sold thier fullsize racecars to fund thier kids racing

[Stich496]

nice c-10 also..

[studemax]

We have thriving midget and cage cart tracks around south central Kansas.
Love to see the kids get started young.

[LORENSWIFE]

How amazingly fun that must be for a kid...

[milner351]

HMMM Lee is 16 months, I have to wait until he's 8 for junior dragsters - I may have to look into these little rockets - see if they run them at Toledo or Flat Rock.

[PatricksDad]

I love the racer next to the bike with training wheels. Awesome.

[chevy3100truck]

Another day of lousy weather at the track today, 4 1/2 hours of waiting in, finally called it a day and cancelled the race. My little guy REALLY wanted to go for a spin as a couple of others had gone out on the wet track, so we suited him up and let him run ~40 laps in the rain. Let's just say he got practice drifting & spinning, I got plenty of exercise running across the track to push start him again. Hopefully the weather is better by the next race in early June.....

nice c-10 also..

Unfortunately the ol' GMC 3/4 Ton is really only good from a distance.... in the dark...... but hey, the car & cart fits in it - can't do that in the back of my '09 Silverado crew cab.

[chevy3100truck]

I love the racer next to the bike with training wheels. Awesome.

haha, didn't even think of that when I posted the pic - can drive a car at 20MPH with 7 other cars around him on a 1/15 mile track, but needs training wheels

(removed the training wheels the week after the pic was taken - he really hadn't needed them in a while, but was conviced he did....)

[chevy3100truck]

Well little man had his first race in about a month this weekend, got his first #1 qualifier (granted this was the first race with qualifying, the rest have been random draw heat & then mains). The car was pretty loose during qualifying, lousy old tires & dad who still doesn't have the whole setup thing down, he spun on each of his first two warmup laps, then laid down the fastest 3 laps of his class (his worst of 3 was a 9.604, his best 9.305, the best of anyone else in their 3 timed laps was a 9.84 - he was super excited about that)

The race didn't go so well (was in 4th then pulled off during green flag run, he didn't realize that if he left the track with the green flag out it was an automatic DNF, he had seen a couple of others pull off during caution flag times - I'm pretty sure he won't do that again). He pulled off because well, the setup wasn't good for the race.... I had too much caster in the car and his arms were getting really tired (LOTS of caution laps trying to get everyone lined up properly - LOTS.....)

Live & learn, it was only the 4th race of the year (3 rainouts so far). We get another one in 2 weeks, a night race which should be fun under the lights. Hopefully I'll get the setup right so he will be able to be comfortable for the whole race this time.

[SuperBuickGuy]

sounds like you're both having a blast.

[chevy3100truck]

Little Man got his first Main Win!


Beau won his first race! Little guy was WAY excited to get a victory (it was his 5th race of the year in the Junior Novice Class). Little man led from flag to flag, the group of 5 year olds actually got through a 30 lap race caution free. Apparently pulling a bunch of caster out helped as he says the car is real easy to steer now....

He can't wait for the next one - this was a really good confidence booster!

Now I just need to make a new front bumper before the next race - got a little smashed in on the warmup laps.......