EAST LANSING, Mich. — Racers of all ages and their families are gathered in East Lansing for the Cup Karts North America race. More than 200 drivers are taking to the track.
“This is the Cup Karts North America held here in East Lansing. It’s a five series national event it covers this side of the country but we have racers here from as far as California," said Kevin Haun who owns the East Lansing Kart Track, where the event is being held.
Racers as young as five and as old as 65 are racing Saturday and Sunday. Greg Jasperson who was part of the effort to organize this event tells me the race is both fun and special because of how age-inclusive it is.
“I grew up go-karting many years ago and as my son was getting into the sport we didn’t really see a great opportunity for him to grow or do any type of traveling with four-cycle racing," Jasperson said. "So we decided to create a series ourselves and it’s really turned into a really cool family atmosphere and really the families are what keeps us doing it.”
The races are broken into age brackets and different heats but there are opportunities for everyone to win prizes, Jasperson explained.
“At every race we just do trophies for the top three but what we’ve decided to do is to use all our sponsorship money to buy prizes and do giveaways that we just do as door prizes," he said. "The reason we do that is because with a performance-oriented sport like this oftentimes we get a few winners who win a lot and we didn’t want those people to be the only people getting anything."
The prizes, it seems, aren't on the forefront of the racers' minds. Instead, they explained, they just love going fast.
"I get to go fast and get to pass people," said Andrew Dean who is racing this weekend.
"[I love] just the joy it brings and the challenges, if it was easy anyone would do it."
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