Tag Archives: Nascar

Shifter Carts Are The Hobby To Get Into

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The world of racing is bracing and exciting. Millions of viewers tune in to watch Indy cars and NASCAR cars fly around turns on television every year. Not everyone will be able to slide into the seat of a race car and know the intense feelings that come from making a move through the infield or the mere sensation that is breed from speed. Many people have found an outlet for such desires. It’s called shifter cart (or kart) racing and tuning.

The shifter cart is often falsely associated with go carts. This view could not be any further from the truth. Shifter carts are designed to function like a race vehicle. They can be extremely fast, easily hitting speeds of 100 miles per hour. Shifter carts are extremely agile given their size. Most carts have 150cc engines, but there are smaller ones at 125cc and larger ones at 250cc. Some carts are built, while others are manufactured and sold retail.

Shifter carts with a 250cc engine are often the size that is raced on the competitive circuit. Though there are a number of children that compete in the sport, adults and parents do so as well. The sport itself is just a step down from motorsports, but very comparable in many aspects. In order to race, drivers need to be age 8 and older and be licensed. It is a sport that seems to have everything for everyone.

In order to race on the competitive circuit, you must become a member of the International Kart Federation (the governing body of the sport), file an application for a license, and pay the fees associated with the two. Events will have entry fees specific to themselves with will also be required.

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Richie Evans Biography

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The undisputed “King” of the NASCAR Modified racing Richard Ernest Evans, known as “Richie”, was born on 23rd July 1941 in Westernville, New York where he lived with his family on his father’s farm.

Always having a keen interest in cars Richie left the family home at the age of sixteen to begin training as a motor mechanic at a gas station in Rome, New York and it was here that he had his first experience as a racer, beginning with some success as a street racer he progressed to drag racing.

After winning in drag racing a colleague suggested that he build his own car and have a try at stock car racing at the Utica-Rome Speedway. His first race was in the Utica-Rome Hobby Division in 1964 after building his car, a 1954 Ford Hobby Stock, numbered PT-109.

He progressed to the Modified in the premier division in 1965 and had his first victory on the final night of the season. In 1973, his first serious attempt at point chasing he won his first NASCAR National Modified Championship but he did not win another Modified Championship until 1978 and from there on it would seem there was no stopping him. He won the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Championship a further eight times, from 1978 to 1985, reluctant to relinquish his crown and setting a record for any NACSAR racing division even to this day.

Over a period of thirteen years Richie finished first nine times, second twice and only finishing out of the top ten one in all those years. His driving career was an awesome success taking a total of twenty six championships on eleven different tracks in four states, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. He won countless track championships across the North East and had a thirty seven victories season during 1979 whilst competing in stretch of sixty races.

In 1980 he entered for eighty four races and won fifty two of them. He won the Modified Race of Champions three times, taking the 1.5 mile at Trenton Speedway in 1973, was the last driver to win the 2.5 mile at Pocono in 1979 and the first to win the 3/4 mile at Pocono. The list of victories is seemingly endless. It is no wonder that his nickname was “The Rapid Roman”.

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