MEDIA

Local Drivers Race at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For NASCAR fans, there are few, if any, venues that generate the excitement and anticipation like Daytona. The same can be said for go-kart racing as well. Mason and Logan Mitchell were able to experience these thrills first-hand last week.

The week began by touring Daytona International Speedway on Thursday evening. However, this was not the normal walking tour or tram ride given by the NASCAR Experience at the track. Instead, as part of WKA’s Kart Week ‘07, all kart racers in attendance were given the opportunity to take rides in customized Impala SS pace cars around the 2.5 mile track at ~130 mph. As the Mitchell’s hopped out of the pace cars, their smiles showed that the rest of the trip would pale in comparison, or so we thought.

Friday was scheduled to be fairly uneventful with three rounds of practice on the agenda. For Logan and Mason’s kid kart class, 31 karts had arrived from all over the nation to compete in WKA’s Manufacturer’s Cup (including California, Wisconsin, New York, Texas, Florida and of course Missouri). Another Missouri kart racer providing excitement on Friday was NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray. After practice was over, the boys quickly forgot anything they may have learned on the track, to get autographs and the chance to talk to a “real NASCAR driver”. Once again, we thought that we had witnessed the highlight of the trip.

Racing action was then scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. In the Manufacturer’s Cup, kid karts do not go through formal qualifying so that more time is available for the older classes. Instead, random grids were posted for Saturday with Mason slotted in the 5th position for the first race and Logan in the 6th position for the second race. As one would expect from any Daytona race, the kid karts proved to have all the necessary carnage of the big track. As the first race began, Mason moved up two positions in the first lap only to get spun out and drop back to 12th (out of 16). He then worked his way back up to 4th place by the end of the 8 lap race. In the second race, Logan was able to take the lead by the end of the 3rd lap and held on to 1st place until the race was prematurely stopped due to a multi-kart pileup. Again, we thought there was no way to top 1st and 4th place finishes at Daytona.

Sunday however proved to be even more exhilarating. In the effort to once again save time for the older classes, all 31 kid karts would be placed into a single race. This time Mason had an excellent starting position of 4th while Logan was less fortunate with a third from last, 29th position. From the drop of the green flag (kid karts start from a stand-still), Mason started pushing the front group in attempt to take the lead while Logan started to pilot his ComerJet through traffic from the back. Before lap 4 was complete (half way point), Mason had moved up to 3rd place and Logan was in the top 10. By the end of the 8 lap race, Mason had held off other contenders to maintain his 3rd place finish while big brother Logan passed a total of 24 karts to finish in 5th place. Once the helmets came off, it was evident that Daytona had made two more lifetime race fans.

For more coverage on Logan and Mason from the Daytona International Raceway’s staff, view their article “Missouri brothers warm up to The World Center of Racing” at:
http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/news/track_news/543251.html.
Logan and Mason’s local race season will begin in late March at the West Quincy TNT Kartways track.