The recently completed TAG USA World Championships held at New Castle Motorsports Park (NCMP) have to be considered at least a qualified success.

The turnout was decent but not huge partly due to some manufactured controversy by a few of the uninformed. TAG Sr. had a great field, TAG Masters was strong as well, TAG Pro looked good, TAG Jr. was also reasonably strong although I am still bothered by the performance of this class. Somehow Jr.s running as fast as or faster than the Pro class just doesn’t seem right. TAG Cadet (1 & 2?) was fairly well attended, but TAG Sr. Heavy and TAG Expert were embarrassingly light.

The exhibition TAG 4 Cycle class was interesting but was not indicative of anything that is going to reform kart racing in my humble opinion. There were new engines debuting on this weekend in this class including the new Biland, the Vampire (?), and the Oral. No jokes about the last engine please.

I have to admit that I really like the format of this event. Not as much emphasis on qualifying and having the opportunity to race your way into your starting position for the finals.

Example would be Team Rapid Racing; we had the bad luck to get crashed during qualifying and only got one flying lap which put us in 12th. By the time we progressed through the heat, and the pre final we were in position to at least get a strong top ten with a 7th. The Team Rapid Racing Top Kart/Parilla ran strong all weekend but the Masters race was dominated by old friend Bill Wolters piloting an incredibly strong Arrow/Biland.

This all leads me to the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced at a race track. I have been at the track during tornadoes, Hail storms, Torrential rains, snow, and even a sand storm once, but I’ve never been evacuated before.

It seems that there was a bomb threat and a suspicious package at the truck stop basically next door to the track. The grid steward was lining up the pre final for the TAG 4 Cycle race including Bilands, Vampires, but no Oral. (That Sucks!!)

Suddenly the grid steward signaled to cut off the engines (All of which sound to me like a burrito fart) and the announcement was made for all personnel on the grounds to come to the club house immediately. Upon arriving race director Terry Riggins explained to us how we had to quickly car pool and line up behind a fire truck that proceeded to lead us about five miles from the track like a manic family of ducks.

The local bomb squad did its duty exploding the device safely and then the manic family of ducks paraded back to the track and racing began anew.

All in all a well run, professional event, and if you are a TAG racer it has to be on the list of must do events in 2007.

Well that’s about it for now, ‘til next time Race Hard, Race Safe and God Bless America.