Kiddie Karts

Daylight is breaking over Saugus Speedway and Tom Pacheco and his 4-year-old son, Alex, pull into the raceway parking lot, a sleek Italian-built kiddie go-kart in tow.

The early-morning quiet is soon broken by the roar of engines as other kid drivers and their parents ready their racers.

Team Pacheco goes through its pre-race inspections, checking the tire pressure, spark plugs, brakes, accelerator and steering.

For the first time this year, the Los Angeles Kart Club of Saugus and Gold Coast Karters of Willow Springs are sponsoring baby-kart races, a racing class of 4- to 7-year-olds.

“This is a place where kids [are introduced] to racing, learn driving techniques and gain knowledge about racing, so that they can move up,” says Pacheco, a member of the Los Angeles Kart Club. “We started out with only two or three kids, but now we have about nine kids.”

A kid-sized go-kart and racing outfit can run about $1,600. But before parents break out their wallets, Pacheco says, his club lets first-time drivers take a road test after weekend races.

“We let kids drive our karts to see if they like racing,” he says. “We don’t want parents to spend the money before they know if their kid is going to stick with it.”

In most cases, Pacheco says, once kids get behind the wheel they don’t want to let go.

“The kids are very sharp,” he says. “It doesn’t take long for them to learn how to step on the gas, turn the wheel, slow down and brake.”

The club places as much emphasis on safety as it does on fun. “The go-karts are built low to the ground, so it is really hard to flip them over,” Pacheco says, adding that adults are stationed around the track carefully watching the racers.

“The kids drive better than the adults,” Pacheco says. “They are so little that the competitiveness isn’t there yet. They are not battling the guy next to them, they are just enjoying the driving.”

Back on the track, Alex is getting ready for “seat time,” about a half-hour of warm-up laps to sharpen his driving skills and to see if the go-kart needs any final adjustments before the race begins.

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After the practice session, the racers and pit crews huddle for a brief meeting before steering their cars to the starting line. The racers rev their engines and floor the accelerator as the green starting flag unfurls.

They careen around the track at 30 mph until the checkered flag is waved. In baby-kart racing, however, there are no losers.

“With little kids, we don’t declare a winner,” Pacheco said. “Everyone participating gets a trophy. There’s no need to get too serious.”