New sport is less competition than camaraderie
Staff writer
Cyclekart builders are driven to drive — not to win.
Racing is more of a gentleman’s sport than a competition. It’s the pride of building a cyclekart and cruising it down the street with others, the camaraderie of a shared love, and the thrill of the occasional win that binds cyclekart builders and racers.
Florence’s first cyclekart race was Sunday, part of its Labor Day weekend.
Several cyclekart builders arrived Saturday and pitched tents to sleep near the vehicles they’d built and would race Sunday. Most of them knew each other from previous events, and all pitched in whenever someone needed help.
When Ben Terwilliger, Albuquerque, New Mexico, drove onto the gathering ground in a pickup towing his Blitzen Benz cyclekart, several other racers scurried over to help him unload his cyclekart.
Neil and Wendy Maloney, Aurora, Illinois, brought their red cyclekart modeled after a 1912 National Speedster.
The car it’s modeled after won the 1912 Indianapolis 500.
They built it in 2018 and have taken it to Canada, Washington State, Texas, Utah, Indiana, and Kansas.
“I thought if I could build a cyclekart after a car, that would be the one,” Neil Maloney said.
He predicted the Florence course would be tough on the karts because of brick streets.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to see how good our karts are,” Maloney said.
They run on motorcycle wheels.
“You have to make sure you’re taking a lot of care,” Maloney said.
It would be easy to get hurt if a driver failed to see something in the road ahead of him.
“You have to be very cognizant about what is going on around you,” Maloney said. “When something goes wrong, you are very cognizant.”
Wendy said racers put a lot of emphasis on safety and didn’t want the sport to become high profile.
“If this turns over, you will get hurt,” Maloney said, pointing to his cyclekart.
They got involved in cyclekart building and racing after a friend built one.
“The curious thing is that he built it and he waited a year to tell me,” Maloney said.
Drivers carry spare parts — not just in case they need them, but in case another racer needs them, Maloney said.
He learned about taking along spare parts during his first race.
His cyclekart can go 45 mph on a flat street, but he mostly drives about 40 mph. He placed third in Sunday’s race.
Many cyclekart events have contests for such categories as most innovative car. At one event, Maloney won a prize for the kart that broke the most stuff.
“The prize is handed off the next year,” he said.
“I don’t think there is any monetary prize,” Wendy Maloney said.
Their kart has many medallions and stickers to show where it’s been.
“It leaves a permanent, surgically removable smile on your face,” Maloney said.
He said he and Wendy were happy to be in Florence and wanted to help support the town.
Terwilliger built his Blitzen Benz so anyone could drive it. It is his second of five cyclekarts.
He’s spent about $3,500 on it. That includes replacement parts.
“We’re so happy to build one ourselves and drive it,” Terwilliger said.
People have built their cyclekarts out of harvested scrap metal, he said.
A builder needs problem-solving skills.
“God bless my wife,” Terwilliger said. “She asks me, ‘Is it a garage day?’”
One specialized part of the kart is the hub that holds the wheels on the body, he said.
Terwilliger raced in six states including Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas in the last year.
At some events, ladies dress in 1930s attire.
“One of the downsides of this hobby is that there aren’t a lot of places,” he said.
But he liked Florence.
“It’s a win just to be here,” he said. “This is a cool community.”
Sunday top finishers were Tim Kern from Anderson, Indiana, in first; Randy Wright from Anson, Texas, second; and Maloney in third place.
The winner of a drag race before the main race was Carson Reimer from Tulsa, Oklahoma.