NEW CASTLE, Ind. (By Jeff Brown) — On June 15th the Vintage Super Nationals were held at New Castle Motorsports Park in New Castle, Indiana. The large modern facility owned by Mark Dismore is located on 35 acres with several configurations of racing surface.
A sea of canopies, trucks, trailers and karts filled the pit area with close to 300 vintage machines. Overall, 211 drivers entered to compete on the 1 mile road course over the 3 day event. Drivers and their families came from California to New York and Canada to Florida. The weather couldn’t have been better with temps in the high 70’s and low 80’s with no rain. Thursday was open practice from 10-5 with a welcome party held in the restaurant and bar.
Friday practice in the morning followed by the drivers meeting with a prayer from Lake Speed karting world champion and vintage driver. Lake also gave a safety driven speech which helped carry us through the event with no incidents. The 1st heat was completed in about 3 hours which consisted of 12 groups.
Then the kart show was conducted by Romero, lots of great karts were present and 140 karters attended the banquet at the track restaurant after the kart show, a great pasta meal was served by the Dismore’s team.
Don Thomson and Mark D’elia were special guests and they told the story of how they attended the first Vintage kart event in the north east. They were involved in starting the Vintage karting organization and the 1st website. The whole story is on the VKA website.
Al Hazefratz presented a special award to Don Axe for all his support to the karts making parts and helping us keep our machines running! Four new hall of fame members were inducted this year consisting of Robert Stanton, Gary Wlodarsky, Mike Lotz and Jerry Nagel all great members of our organization.
Saturday morning the weather was clear and sunny, perfect for our motors to perform. Heat 2 and 3 went off smoothly with some very close racing. One of these was the dual sidewinder class involving Lake Speed and Mike Giessen — the young contender vs the world champ in his 70’s, lap after lap they chased each other with blistering speeds never touching each other.
Awards were presented with 7 juniors receiving a well deserved recognition. Several ladies and girls received awards, Amy Scroggins and Autumn Nagel showed the men in their class the fast way around. Goodbyes were said trailers were packed up and the event was a success with the largest turnout ever at a Vintage event. Thanks to the Dismore family and their team and all the others that supported this event. Hope to see you all again next year.
God Bless you all.
– Sherri and Jeff
CLICK HERE to view 2023 Vintage Super Nationals race results and award winners.
CLICK HERE to view Thursday and Friday New Castle photos by Leah Bennett.
CLICK HERE to view Saturday New Castle photos by Leah Bennett.