Snap-On Stars of Karting, Stars of Karting, Bryan Herta, Hollis Brown, A.J. Allmendinger, Scott Speed, Jeff Gordon, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya, Bobby Wilson, Kyle Wiegand, Steve Eppard, Mark Dismore
Stars ascending
INDYCAR SERIES
INCUBATOR
The Stars of Karting series provides the breeding ground for greatness
Words/Photos: KartSport Magazine
I
t’s nearly impossible to list any of the
prominent names in motorsport without
following their early roots to the
battlegrounds of kart racing. Marco Andretti,
Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, Sam
Hornish Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kimi Raikkonen,
Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya; all of
them and more cut their teeth in the karting
ranks during the formative stages of their
careers. They learned the importance of
mental discipline, shifting, late braking, passing
and all associated basic fundamentals during
their stints in karting, and this form of racing
has become the de facto training ground for
up-and-coming champions of motorsport.
That trend did not escape the notice of the
IndyCar Series; enter the Snap-On Stars of
VIDEO EXTRA
KARTING
ACTION
40 IndyCarSeries 2007 winterspecial
VIDEO EXTRA
Watch Stars of
Karting action to
see why it’s such a
great training
ground for
budding racers
Karting series. Formed in 2000 as the
brainchild of Bryan Herta and his longtime
karting mentor Hollis Brown, the North
American-based series was formed in order to
create a well-publicized training ground for the
future open-wheeled heroes of tomorrow. And
with the power-to-weight ratio of a shifter
kart in the same ballpark as the top levels of
motorsport, the two founders asserted that
karters could make the jump into openwheeled
racing much more quickly than
previously thought. The evidence was
immediate; early champions of the fledging
series were none other than A.J. Allmendinger,
Scott Speed and Bobby Wilson.
In 2005 the IndyCar Series signed on as the
presenting sponsor, and the relationship has
blossomed ever since. It created a previously
unexplored plateau of exposure for the
national karting scene, and the IndyCar Series
got the first level of a feeder system that
creates a pipeline for young racers in search of
open-wheel glory.
That includes racers like Kyle Wiegand of
Greenwood, Ind. Long a fixture on the Stars of
Karting scene, the 21-year-old Wiegand has
earned a well-deserved reputation for being a
tireless worker and obsessive pursuer of
perfection. Throughout the Midwest, he’s
become one of the most respected and
admired karters of the region with a loyal fan
base to boot. Those who are close to him are
immensely fond of him, mainly because his
work ethic is second to none, his quiet
Courtesy Stars of Karting
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