It’s called” the junior box stock class,” but calling it “the generation class” may seem more appropriate.
Go-kart racing is back at Oxford Plains Speedway, and the pits are filled with second-, third- and fourth-generation racers.
Colby Brackett, 7, is a first-year driver, but he has lots of depth on his pit crew.
The second-grader from Buckfield was born into a family of racers.
“We don’t know what else to do,” said Brackett’s grandfather, Tim Brackett, a two-time track champion.
A few car-haulers down from the Brackett crew is the Morgan family of Lewiston.
Missy and Corey Morgan are working on getting the No. 26 go-kart ready for 10-year-old Mitchell Morgan to race while Grace Morgan, 6, runs around the pits with friends.
Grace races karts as well, but chose to take the night off to play instead.
“My goal is just to have fun and to teach the kids to play well with others,” said Grace’s mother, Missy, a racer herself. “As race car drivers, we don’t do that so well.”
Missy Morgan said she gets a bit nervous when Mitchell or her husband, Corey, is behind the wheel, but it’s a different story when her daughter hits the track.
“I freak out with Grace,” Missy said. “She’s a little airheady behind the wheel.
“Mitchell’s getting the hang of it,” she added. “He has that drive like Corey.”
The Morgan kids are third-generation drivers. Mitchell’s first go-kart was a Christmas present and he has since given that one to his sister.
Mitchell had to borrow Grace’s ride during a recent day at the races, following a busted part.
A sorrowful look on the 10-year-old’s face told the story — he was not happy driving a bright pink go-kart.
“Daddy won a lot of races in a pink car,” Missy Morgan said while trying to convince her son to “just race.”
Back at the Brackett camp, Colby Brackett tapes four lucky shark teeth to his go-kart.
“Pokemon, snowmobiling and race cars,” is what Brackett likes to do when not attending second grade at Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway.
“When I’m out front, I’m thinking about getting a trophy,” Brackett said while sitting in the No. 61 kart, the same number as his father’s late model.
“Winning an actual trophy is what it is all about with the kids,” said Trudy Marshall of Jay.
“Trackside Trudy” and her husband, Jeff, are sponsors of the 2014 go-kart racing season through their company, Jarracing Photography.
This is the first year back at the track after go-karts took a two-year break because of not having a title sponsor.
“I see improvement every time out,” Tim Brackett said while watching his grandson race.
Brackett and Colby’s dad, defending track champion T.J. Brackett, bought Colby’s go-kart from a man who needed money to buy heating oil. It arrived in December on top of the family minivan.
“Racing go-karts is all about family,” Marshall said.
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- Colby Brackett, 7, of Buckfield celebrates with his father, T.J., right, and grandfather, Tim, after Brackett won the qualifying race during the Jarracing Photography Go-Kart Series at Oxford Plains Speedway. The second-grader is the fourth generation of Bracketts to have raced at OPS.
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- Colby Brackett, 7, of Buckfield burns down the backstretch during the feature event of the Jarracing Photography Go-Kart Series at Oxford Plains Speedway. “When I’m out front, I am thinking about getting a trophy,” Brackett said. Brackett finished second to Logan Spencer, 8, of Oxford. Brackett and Spencer attended preschool together.
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- Corey Morgan of Lewiston works on the go-kart of Mitchell Morgan’s sister, Grace, at Oxford Plains Speedway. Mitchell, 10, broke a part of his go-kart and had to race his sister’s kart. The fifth-grader at McMahon Elementary was not happy that he had to drive a pink kart. “Daddy won a lot of races in a pink car,” Missy Morgan said while trying to convince her son to “just race.”
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- Trudy Marshall of Jay fist-bumps Mitchell Morgan, 10, as Morgan waits in the pits with his dad, Corey, for racing to begin at Oxford Plains Speedway. “Trackside Trudy” and her husband, Jeff, are sponsors of the 2014 go-kart racing season through their company, Jarracing Photography.
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- Colby Brackett, 7, of Buckfield and his grandfather, Joe Martin of Norway, tape lucky shark teeth to Brackett’s go-kart at Oxford Plains Speedway. Brackett finished in second place in the feature event.
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- Colby Brackett, 7, of Buckfield and his grandfather, Tim, walk across the pits to watch a go-kart race at Oxford Plains Speedway. Colby Brackett is a fourth-generation racer at OPS.
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