By By Steve Swogetinsky / special to The Star
March 19, 2004
The red dirt will be flying Saturday as vehicles of all sizes and shapes will be making laps around the tracks at the Queen City Speedway and the Causeyville Raceway.
Go-kart races get under way at 2 p.m. at the Causeyville Raceway in a special benefit race for Tiffany Moulds Kidd of Enterprise, who is battling Osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. All ticket proceeds and money from barbecue chicken plates will go to Kidd and her family to help defer medical costs.
At Queen City, drivers will get to practice under the lights today from 5:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. The season opens Saturday night with a full slate of races, including the Mississippi State Championship Challenge for the Late Model Division. Pit admission is $25, and grandstands admission is $15.
The gates open at 5 p.m., with racing set to begin at 7.
Practice makes perfect
Queen City was open for practice laps last Saturday, and drivers from around the state were on and off the track all afternoon.
Cruiser Class team KUV of Newton County was there to break in a new driver and make some adjustments to their car.
Ray Coulter of Brandon, who competes in the Mississippi Modified Division, came over to test some changes he has made on his car.
Local driver Wiley Williams competed in Columbus the previous weekend, but took time to test some adjustments that he has made in the back of his No. 4 Late Model. "We made a few changes to the rear suspension," Williams said. "It felt pretty good at Columbus, and it felt good today."
Williams was running third in the Columbus race until a fuel pressure problem slowed him down. He finished ninth.
How late can they run?
Remember the days when it was two or three in the morning before the racing was over at the old Whynot race track? It's not supposed to be like that at the Queen City Speedway this year, according to manager Charles Thrash.
That's fine with Thrash. He and his wife Jannie manage the track and are usually there all day Saturday.
A family affair
The Thrashes have been involved in dirt track racing for 24 years.
He promoted and managed the Whynot Speedway until it closed a few years ago. Since then he has been working with the Riley family at Queen City.
Mini Cup racing series at Causeyville possible
Causeyville track owner Randy Rawson is hoping to bring the Mini Cup races to his track in the near future. The Mini-Stockar Race Car is a totally adjustable 1/2 scale model of a late model stock car, according to internet information. The Mini-Stockar Race Car can look exactly like a NASCAR Nextel Cup car, only half the size.
Go-kart divisions classified
by age and weight
In go-kart racing, you hear terms such as the Blue Division, Gold Division, the Stock Lite division, and so on. But what does that mean?
Those terms are the names for the groups of competition, which are divided by age or weight, depending on which applies.
The colors are for the youth division with Purple being for drivers 8 and under; Blue being for 10 and under; and Gold for ages 11-15. There is also a Rookie division.
Then you start dividing the go-karts and drivers by weight as follows: Stock Lite, driver and car must weigh at least 325 pounds; Stock Medium, at least 350 pounds; Stock Heavy, at least 375 pounds; and Super Heavy, at least 400 pounds.
And then there is the Outlaw Class which has no restrictions. "You race what you bring," said Randy Rawson.