I stopped by the new kart track to watch Bruce and Vince run a couple Sunday's ago. That got me thinking that this is a great opportunity to get my 9yr old Colin introduced to motorsports with some lessons.

The current track insurance only allows kids 12 and older on the track. Pats Acres Kart track just south of Portland offers lessons for kids 5yrs old and older (http://www.patsacres.com/Schools.htm). If I need to drive down to Portland/Salem to get Colin in a kart his first time I will but I would sure rather cut my drive time down and support the local track.

My thought is this. There are a number of us on this board who are car/race enthusiasts with young kids. Our kids come with us to Exotics @ Redmond Town Center, drives, the race track and "help" us clean and work on our cars. Lets give them an opportunity to DRIVE!

I would like to use this thread to gauge interest and find out who would be into doing a kids day at Pacific Grand Prix. If we have enough people interested we could A) rent the track for the day and sign waivers to satisfy their insurance company or B) show them that there are enough interested parents in the area with kids younger than 12 who want to hit the track so they get a kids program in place ASAP.

It would be a blast to have the kids in "class" on one track while the parents run on the other track in the morning. Then in the afternoon we could do Parent/Kid races by combining the lap time of the parents and kids together.

If Pats Acres can run a program for kids, I am sure Pacific can too. Come on H20, Vincent, Senna, Kuzi and all the other parents/aunts/uncles lets make this happen! (I don't know how old your kids are I just listed you guys because I know you have kids who have come to events.) Greta did it with her kid and had a blast! Ok, that is a bit different

PJ, you have to come too and support us because we are lying the ground work for what could be a great program by the time your little one(s) are old enough!!

1. Buzzed / Colin
2. H20 / Zach (?)
3. Senna / Nephew (?)
4.

 

I asked them last time I was out about bringing my kids out. He didn't say anything about the age 12 cutoff, but did mention size. My son is kind of short, and after adding all the padding and adjusting the pedals, it becomes a safe seating position issue. If they've changed something, I'd be happy to bring him out though.

 

I am not coming out to watch other people's kids flail around in go karts

Besides I am trying to get my daughter all psyched up for dental school after she completes her 4 years at Stanford on a full tennis scholarship...