BIG THRILLS IN A SMALL KART : Costa Mesa Driver Loves to Zip Along 1 Inch Off Ground
As you come out of the turn into the straightaway and the speedometer pushes 145 mph, the ground whizzes by at 212 feet per blink. With your bottom bouncing along an inch from the ground and other racers whirling around, you have entered the world of kart racing behind the wheel of a 250cc Superkart.
Brad Calder of Costa Mesa has been racing for three years. Calder, 31, spends his weekdays as the bar manager of the Pacific Club in Newport Beach. But come weekends, on goes the leather and he’s off to Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, near the Mojave Desert.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Oct. 20, 1988 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday October 20, 1988 Home Edition California Part B Page 4 Metro Desk 2 inches; 72 words Type of Material: Correction
Some California Assessment Program scores for the third grade at 3rd Street Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District were inadvertently omitted from last Sunday’s listings in The Times. The school’s scores for 1987-88 were 286 in reading, 316 in writing and 317 in math. An incorrect third-grade reading score was listed for La Canada Elementary School in the La Canada Unified School District. The correct 1987-88 score was 365.
“All I want to do is see how far I can go,” Calder said. “I’ve always wanted to race.”
He started racing on the street as a teenager in a Mazda RX2. “I’d take (freeway on-ramps) sideways at 90 mph. People were amazed that a Mazda could go that fast.”
Calder’s interest in Superkart racing began in 1984 when he met Bob Hyman, owner of Zip America West, importer of the English Zip kart. He was invited to Hyman’s home and saw three karts sitting in the garage.
“I looked at them and sat in them and was just blown away,” Calder said. “I knew right there I was going to have to do something (to get one).”
Calder saved $5,800 to change into British currency, and when an English co-worker went overseas, Calder had him purchase a 250cc racer and ship it back to the United States.
The 250cc racer is the epitome of kart racing; it has a six-speed gearbox, four-wheel disc brakes and the ability to go 150 m.p.h. There are other classes of kart racing, including the smaller 125cc racers and karts that have no clutch and are basically single-speed.
The Superkarts give Calder the thrill of professional Indy-style racing within his budget. Today, it would take about $7,300 to get a race-ready 250 kart, and Calder figures he spends between $3,000 to $4,000 a year on his weekend racing.
“I can feel a lot of the same feel as the Indy cars,” Calder said. Indy cars, which also run on the 2.5-mile road course at Willow Springs, take a lap in about 1 minute 6 seconds. Calder can zip around the track in 1:23.
“It’s definitely me against the course,” Calder said. “If I am not beating the guy in front of me, then it’s because I am not going through the turns like I should. It’s phenomenal what this thing can do. It’s scary.”