We Join Dan Chiradonna at SLKA
MIRAFIORI at the Kart Races

It was a sunny Saturday October 4th, 03 that Dan Chiaradonna and Kris Dickson decked out in his Mira shirt and FLU hat, traveled to Pevely Missouri to participate in the St. Louis Karting Association's practice/race session on their track adjacent to the I-55 Raceway park grounds. Most of you will Remember Dan as a longtime MIRA member and from MOFLO where he brought his 131 and his soon to be bride Libby. In addition to his karting addiction, he is currently working on two Lancia Betas for the 2004 event.

The SLKA is a beautiful facility with a smooth roadcourse layed out with both off camber, banked, uphill and downhill sections featuring a 750ft. straightaway where the shifter carts get up to about 90mph and the TaG carts with their 125cc Italian Parilla engines get up to around 70mph. Plenty fast at about 1inch above the ground. .

Dan had mentioned on Mira that he was going to be racing last weekend and invited anyone to come down and check it out. Kris and I had Sunday open so we drove the short hop down to Pevely, MO and after asking around found him in the paddock working on his shifter kart.

Dan is a sponsored professional driver with PG Racing, a prominent kart team in Kirkwood near St. Louis. He has a fully equipped trailer and access to team staff and facilities. Dan was putting the final touches on replacing a blown engine that had dropped a shift fork earlier that morning. He placed fourth with a replacement 80cc honda in the feature later that afternoon.

These shifter karts are serious business. They use converted motocross engines rated at 50hp through a six speed gearbox and top out at 125+ mph. Dan drives an Italian Intrepid Kart with a Honda engine. Dan's trailer proudly proclaims 0-100-0 in 9.6sec. This is faster than the famed Ferrari Enzo, and after watching Dan in the kart run, I can believe that it would take a Cart or F1 car to surpass the on road performance of these little pocket rockets.

The picture here is of Dan's TaG or "Touch and Go" kart that he raced in the afternoon with Kris. In the background is the trailer and canopy that makes this a comfortable activity. The PG Racing Team is right next door with a complete kart shop on wheels. There is a steady stream of customers and competitors coming and going during raceday. It was refreshing to see how friendly and helpful the club members were.

Here I am on the left with Kris and Dan on the grid before one of the TaG kart practice sessions. We're between Kris's yellow #1 and Dan's Black #78. Saturday is practice day for all classes and they run a revolving schedule of about six different class karts and Kris got his first chance to get out on the track and see what he could do.

Greg Yocom of PG Racing had acquired a number of promotional karts from Margay with the Parilla Leopard water-cooled engine for "Arrive and Drive" service. After a quick trial run Sunday, Gred invited Kris and I to return the next Saturday to give Kris a shot at qualifying and participating in the race. The A&D service is a complete pleasure to experience. It is all the fun of racing with none of the worries about the equipement. The karts were clean, tuned and ready to go when we arrived. A simple air adjustment on the rear tires for Kris's 210lbs and he was on the grid for his first practice session.

The TaG karts are a "Hands off the Engine" class where an electric start full race "stock" engine is installed in the chassis of your choice and you go racing. There are minimum weight limits and you are allowed only rear brakes, but other than that, there are few rules or restrictions. The engines put out almost 300hp/Liter so you get an idea of how highly tuned these little wonders are.

These are full race karts with all of the bells and whistles including a computer that monitors many of the engine functions in realtime. There are also transponders on the kart that relay information to the officials and Greg's staff as to lap times and other valuable information. These engines are 125cc and about 27 horsepower. This is plenty to propel this kart from 0-60 in about 3.5 seconds. The karts develop about 3Gs in the corners and, according to Kris, just simply amazing in performance. The Arrive and Drive service is just that. Show up and Greg handles all of the details. For a reasonable fee he provides a competitive kart, helmet, and all of the rest of the safety equipment you need to protect yourself if you have a mishap. He also shares his considerable knowledge of karting and the track during the morning "walk the track" session.

In the above picture, Dan, in blue, is giving Kris some pointers about the SLKA turn 1 sweeper at the end of the straight. Kris has been driving concession karts (including the famous MOFLO Grand Prix) since he was 18months old, but this was his first time in real competition with other experienced and novice drivers. He was next to slowest in qualifying, but improved his lap time by over 5 seconds by the end of the day and was still improving in the main event. He was as high as fifth in the race but after a shunt and two spins, he finished 10th out of 13. Not bad for the first time out of the box on a rented kart.

Both Dan and Greg were perfect hosts and a great time was had by the entire family on a beautiful fall day. We are all hoping that the TaG class will become a "Sunday" event. Right now our Saturday schedule is booked, but when they go to Sundays, it will be hard to resist all that performance in such an affordable package. For more information about the TaG karts, PG Racing or SLKA I invite you to click on their banners and visit theirwebsites.