The season ended with a bang and a whimper for Team Rapid Racing at the newly named Robopong 200 TAG endurance race at NCMP.

The Robopong 200 has quickly (very quickly) become one of the premier races of the season. Track Owner Mark Dismore’s stated goal is to make the 200 the “Indy 500” of kart racing and it is well on its way.

A massive entry of 86 machines (remember this is a one class race for TAG) and with only 56 (only?) machines making it to the feature qualifying was like another race unto itself. The top 50 in timed qualifying went straight to the race. The remaining 36 teams competed in a Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) race of 20 laps duration with the top six transferring to the final field.

The massive entry coupled with many pro drivers including, Tomas Sheckter, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon. Jeff Simmons, Katherine Legge, Sarah Fisher and Ricky Rudd. Not to mention pro kart drivers like Kyle Wiegand, Adam Johnson, Caleb Loniewski and more were entered. The end result was several thousand pure spectators that came just to watch the spectacle. I would venture a guess that there were many more spectators than have ever watched a kart race in this country.

The poor folks in the sign up line and working the restaurant were plainly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.

As it was due to a number of reasons including just plain old bad luck Team Rapid Racing got stuck in the first qualifying group while the temps were still in the 30s and although we were the fastest in the first two qualifying groups we didn’t make the cut as the bulk of the field qualified when the track had gotten much warmer and much, much faster.

Lining up 17th in the LCQ things weren’t looking very good and despite a strong and aggressive (with a capital A) run by yours truly we didn’t make it to a transfer spot. I’m also pretty sure that I didn’t make a friend out of IRL driver Jeff Simmons with my aggression. Sorry Jeff I was kind of in a hurry.

Horribly disappointed (ain’t over it yet) we were relegated to spectator status.

The race itself went off great with remarkable performances all through the field. Many top seeded teams were plagued with brake problems and assorted other maladies. In the end the race was won by young Paul Harraka teamed with NASCAR Legend Ricky Rudd.

A well deserved win if I may say so myself.

Next years version of the 200 will be a two day event with qualifying on Saturday and only the feature race on Sunday.

This year’s race was taped by the Speed Channel and will be broadcast three to six times over the winter. Dates will be announced so watch this spot for news.

Other exciting developments at NCMP for 2007 include the expanded 200 Mile endurance race, finally a round of the WKA Manufacturers Cup, and a round of the FIA/CIK World Championship.

That noise you hear in the background is the fat lady singing bringing the 2006 season to a close all too soon. Team Rapid Racing is at this time going to stay the course and run NCMPs KRA series in TAG Masters, plus the TAG World Championships, The Annual Race for Riley, and of course the 200. You never know and we might run the WKA race just for snicks as well.

It’s gonna be a long cold winter, but spring will get here and once again the scream of racing engines will bring us all out of our long winters slumber.


OK Folks, ‘til next time, Race Hard Race Safe, and God Bless America