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Not just for kids: the stars of tomorrow karting program is looking to narrow the open-wheel racing divide between the U.S. and the rest of the world

Auto Racing Digest, Oct-Nov, 2003 by Chris Dolack

BESIDES BEING SOME OF THE best racers in the world today, what do Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Helio Castroneves, and Sam Hornish Jr. have in common? Each one started his career in karts.

For Brazil's Castroneves and Colombia's Montoya, the karting systems in their homelands are organized to propel the best racers to careers in top open-wheel series. It must be working because for the past four years, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 has had roots in South America's karting system. Montoya won the 2000 event, followed by Castroneves in 2001 and '02 and fellow Brazilian Gil de Ferrari earlier this year.

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"We started very early in go-karts, as young as 11 or 12 years old," says Castroneves. "We already [had] experience with open-wheel cars, so all those mistakes that you might have--crashing into cars, having a hard time getting up to speed, spinning out of control when you are in the lead--we already understood those situations.

"Because of that, we adapt easier to a high-speed series such as [the IRL] than drivers that don't have much karting experience."

The United States might have been a little slow to accept karting as a driver development system, but it is catching up in a hurry. The World Karting Association assisted drivers such as Ricky Rudd and Tony Stewart on the path to NASCAR. Now the CART-sponsored Stars of Tomorrow Series is helping the development of new kart-only courses, such as the Wilson Circuit at BeaveRun Motorsports Complex outside of Pittsburgh.

Partly owned by former CART champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, the Stars of Tomorrow series draws some of the top kart racers in the world, including Montoya's younger brother Frederico. The Stars series features six national classes with drivers as young as eight years old. The senior divisions follow international guidelines so the racers know they are competing on the same level as Europeans and South Americans.

As Rahal is quick to point out, these aren't your average amusement park go-karts, either. Some divisions feature gearbox (or shifter) karts that can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and pull more than 2Gs of lateral force. They also have a power-to-weight ratio that is similar to the Champ Cars that Paul Tracy and Bruno Junqueira race in the top level of CART.

The idea is to create a competitive atmosphere at an early age, and the rewards for being successful are endless. In 2000 and 2001, Stars champions were given the opportunity to test a Team Rahal Champ Car. Former karting star A.J. Allmendinger went on to win the Barber Dodge Pro Series in his first full year (2002), and he is now making a rookie run in CART Toyota Atlantic Championship. This year, the racers are chasing a fully funded seat in the 2004 Formula Dodge National Championship.

Most of all, though, Rahal hopes the series locates talented American drivers and helps them move through the ranks to the top levels of racing. "The whole purpose to our series is to create an environment where those who want to race against the best or those who aspire to go on in racing--Formula One, CART--that we have given them the venue to learn their craft," says Rahal. "If you look at the field in Formula One, CART, or the IRL, 80% of the drivers come from outside the United States--and the reason is because they grew up through karting.

"Americans can compete at the highest levels, but you have to give them the environment to learn the craft. You have to be in the right situation to be able to get there. That's what we're trying to create here. If we do our job, you'll see more than one American in Formula One in the years to come. About 80% of the guys in the CART series will be American or Canadian. That's the intent of this whole thing. If you ask any of the young people Who are out here competing, they'll say they want to go to CART or Formula One. Some might want to go to NASCAR. If they go through karting, when they go to NASCAR they're going to be tough because since they've been eight or nine years old they've been in a hugely difficult and intense environment. That's what we're trying to create here. By the time they're 15 or 16 years old, they've raced wheel-to-wheel lap after lap alter lap with differences of one-hundredths or one-thousands of a second. They're used to doing that."

Montoya's father, Pablo, believes the Stars series has put karting in the United States on the fight course. "The problem here in America is that they are wrong in the way they are working with the go-karting," he says. "That's why they don't have any Formula One drivers right now. I think that part of that is the tracks and the way that karting had been done up to now. This [Stars of Tomorrow] series id much more European, much more international. For sure, after this, very soon there will be an American Formula One driver.

"It won't take very long to do so, either, because 90% of the education one needs to become a Formula One driver you can get here. The rest you get when you jump to cars because they're a little bit different than go-karts. The racing skills, I would say, you get [in karts] not in the cars."

Not just for kids: the stars of tomorrow karting program is looking to narrow the open-wheel racing divide between the U.S. and the rest of the world

Auto Racing Digest, Oct-Nov, 2003 by Chris Dolack

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