This page was exported from Shelburne Free Press [ https://shelburnefreepress.ca ] Export date:Thu Mar 28 20:02:06 2024 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: Local racer has championship season --------------------------------------------------- Written By BRIAN LOCKHART In only his second year racing GoKarts, Shelburne resident Ryder Hare has recorded his first championship season. Thirteen year-old Ryder won his division at Goodwood Kartways in Stouffville after taking the checkered flag in nine of his 12 races for the season and winning the pole position in eight of those races. Over all he finished second in his class in a field of 132 drivers trailing the top spot by a single point. The season got a late start this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic so they lost a few races early in the season. Ryder became interested in Kart racing after first getting a taste of speed riding dirt bikes then taking a GoKart for a spin at a track in Wasaga Beach. His dad, Jon, looked into the sport, and found a good way to get into the competition at a reasonable cost. ‘Arrive and drive' karts are supplied and maintained by the track and allow a young driver to race a season to make sure they want to continue with the sport without putting out a lot of money to buy and maintain a kart. “It was fun – I liked it,” Ryder said of his first time in a race. “I was thinking about what lines I should be taking around the track. I need to know where to get to and where to turn on the track. It's called ‘hitting the marks.'” Ryder's new Kart has a 260 cc, four-stroke engine and gets up to around 90 kph on the track. Karts don't have a suspension system so the ride around the track is actually pretty bumpy. He had 12 starts in his first season and learned the nuances of racing. In his second season on the track, Ryder had the experience to take his racing up a notch. A typical track day allows for practice laps followed by a five lap qualifying session. Your time in qualifying determines your position at the start of the race. When on the track, driver's have a unit on board that allows them to monitor their racing performance and includes things like lap times so they know if they need to complete a faster lap to stay in the race. “I got the pole position in my first win,” Ryder said of his first checked flag this year. “I just held my position for the whole race. The biggest challenge on the track is to keep it consistent,” he said of finding the right line on the track, so he enters and exits the curves at maximum speed and the best place on the asphalt. “My goal for next season is to get podiums, meaning to get first, second or third in the race,” Ryder said. Now that he has a championship under his racing belt and his own Kart, Ryder and Jon plan to move up to a higher division next season which will require more travelling and visiting other raceways around the province. Their sponsors for this year included, SGR Plumbing, Scott Reinhart Trailer Sales in Shelburne, and Family Funland GoKart Track in Kincardine. Ryder said that after getting some experience and enjoying the sport, he'd like to see how far he can get in the racing world. He said his long-term goal is to race with NASCAR. Ryder will be back on the track when the next season starts in May. --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2020-12-03 11:20:59 Post date GMT: 2020-12-03 16:20:59 Post modified date: 2020-12-03 11:21:01 Post modified date GMT: 2020-12-03 16:21:01 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com