Starting my career in Motorsport with Shifter Karts!

[dutchmasterflex]

I've been holding out on making a post about this great opprotunity that sort of fell into my lap in the past couple weeks.

It all started back in Highschool when I met Tom Davey, a professional racer from the 70's (look him up, he raced VW Sciraccos in the 80s and Formula 2's in the 70's). I met him through a friend who was neighbors with him. A bunch of kids I knew from highschool would go over his house regularly to hang out and chill.

Everytime I was over there I would talk to him about racing and cars and get him to show off his Garage of memorabilia (sp?) and toys. (F2 and Karts)

He aquired the karts for free from his racing buddies who didn't really have use for them anymore. Throughout highschool he was always ready to start working on them to get them back on the track but none of the people he knew actually pushed him to do so.

So years go by, I go off to college and loose touch with him.

About a month ago I went to a local indoor Karting track just outside of Boston. I was always itching to go, and I finally got motivated to go with a couple of my friends. It was a blast, I felt the itch to go faster and faster, and practice anychance I got.

After that day I kept thinking about how I could get into racing and karting seemed like the most economical step for me.

And then I remembered Tom Davey and his karts. I tracked down his number through one of my friends and gave him a ring.

I was shocked to find out that the karts were still there, and still haven't been used.

I went down to NY that weekend and had a long talk with him about what I wanted to do and what he wanted to do.

Long story short (I know I've rambled on enough), He's retired, getting older, and doing nothing but drinking wine every day. Sure it sounds nice, but he's bored and does not want to get drunk all day long anymore.

He would much rather make use of the "Toys" that are just collecting dust in his garage.

So basically He has basically given me part ownership over the karts and we are both going to get them back on the track for use.

He is still close with many of the "Big Dogs" in Motorsport (in the US). Hopefully I can make the time to meet with them like he plans.

My goal out of all of this is to join a Racing Team, not as a driver but as a Computer Engineer working with Telemetry.
But we're also going to see just how fast I am.

I have completely "fell into shit" as Tom says. The karts are there for me to use, he has all the connections I would ever need to get started.

I am currently signed up for an Advanced Karting class tomorrow in upstate New York (just bout an hour north of NYC), hopefully the weather will be good cause I am calling in sick for work that day..

If all goes according to plan, we will have telemetry setup on the kart within a couple months so I can play around with it and improve my speed.
Getting the datalogging equipment for the kart will be a major step towards getting an internship with a Racing team.

Here are some photos I took in his garage while we talked.

100cc Kart driven by Emerson in the background. 125cc Shifter Kart I will be racing


Tom Davey and his F2


The 125cc beast


His Formula 2 - Racing before the help of computer engine managment and traction control.


More pics at http://www.putanginaka.net/photoalbu...4.01.nyweekend

I have also have Hi-res if anyone is interested..

If anyone has any experience with Karting or Telemetry, OR has connections with racing teams, let me know