All the ingredients to make it all the way to the top!

 DIRT TRACK MAINE PROMOTIONS 

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For whatever reason, the Bartlett Bridge Raceway exceeded my expectations by a good deal. I’ve seen quite a bit of go-kart racing both flat kart and caged kart in my time. If I had to guess I think I’ve seen somewhere around 300 different go-kart tracks.

I have never ever seen any go-kart racing better than what I saw tonight at Bartlett Bridge Raceway. I think coming from someone with my experience that’s a pretty strong and positive statement.

It didn’t take me long to be introduced to Eddie the track promoter. As a matter of fact when I signed my pit release the woman yelled over to Eddie to come over and say hello. Later in the night he and I would spend quite a bit of time talking. He explained the background he has had with Bartlett bridge.

He told me that he didn’t own the property but he had built the entire kart track. The facility was outstanding. It seems like Eddie approached the owner of MX 207 and convinced him that he could be a good go-kart track promoter.

The owner of MX 207 told Eddie that he would provide and pay for all of the equipment needed to make a quality go-kart track. All Eddie had to do was supply the labor. That program started eight years ago.

The track is a minorly banked dirt oval racetrack. The lighting is good. They have a small amount of grandstand seating as well as a food trailer that permanently sits on the site.

In addition to the racing, I was super impressed by the tracker announcer and the track’s PA system. The announcer was pretty much as good as any announcer I would hear at any other short track all season long. During intermission, I stopped by to talk to the track announcer, Charlie.

I asked Eddie why they chose Friday night for their racing. It turns out that quite a few of the track officials, as well as go-kart drivers and go-kart team members race somewhere around New Hampshire or Maine on Saturday nights. That made Friday night the default choice for karting.

They were racing about six classes of karts at Bartlett Bridge. Only one of those classes met trackchasing’s rules. That would be the winged champ kart division which is new this year. Tonight the winged champ cards brought eight competitors.

The pro stock flat kart class is the only flat kart group that competes at this track. They also have a number of “rocker” carts that are caged. These cages are bolted on to the chassis and not built into the chassis like a champ cart would be. A flat kart with a bolt-on cage is not a countable class. Why? I don’t really know!

I must admit that I am truly embarrassed when I talk with a flat kart race promoter and have to tell him or her that flat karts were not approved by trackchasing’s founding fathers. I can see the race promoters react with a furrowed brow to that news. They are certainly not understanding where the trackchasing founding fathers were coming from. I’ve got to tell you this. I’m with the promoters 100% on this one. It’s just downright embarrassing to tell someone who’s got a very successful kart program that this kind of racing isn’t even considered racing by the trackchasers who started the hobby. Shameful.

Eddie told me the track’s average crowd is about 500 people. For local go-kart racing that is simply outstanding. Right off the bat I can’t think of a single other kart track that gets 500 people on a normal night. Tonight was not exactly a normal night because the weather was so cold. When the features pulled onto the track I checked the temperature. It was 41°. That’s the coldest non-ice racing trackchasing I’ve done in 2020.

I’ll ask that you take a close look at my YouTube video as well as the photo album that I will submit with this report. The video clips will give you a strong understanding as to why I can say that I have never seen better go-kart racing than what they were doing tonight. Please don’t misunderstand. I’ve seen a lot of quality go-kart racing that could be as good as what was offered tonight. It’s just that when someone has a really good program it’s difficult to say that one outstanding program is better than the next.

The race program started on time at 7:15 p.m. They kept everything moving. There were a couple of spins but not really very many. The karts ran just one heat race and one feature race. They took a short intermission between the two. Everything was wrapped up by 9:30 p.m. which was fine for me because I had not dressed all that warmly.

I’ve had a lot of unusual trackchasing trips in my time. I’d have to check if I’ve ever seen racing in Maine and then the very next day racing in Texas or vice versa. If I had to guess I would say I’ve never done that. However, that’s the plan for this weekend. I’ll get about five hours of sleep in the hotel tonight and then get up early tomorrow morning and catch a flight to Dallas, Texas.

I want to thank Eddie for all of his hospitality tonight. It was really nice having full access to the facilities at the Bartlett Bridge Raceway here in Lyman, Maine. It was great being able to talk to the announcer, Charlie, who is also a racer on Saturday nights in the area. All nice folks and excellent racing at a very solid and well above average facility. If they didn’t have all of this going for them they couldn’t attract 500 people a night. They’ve got it going.

Good evening from the Bartlett Bridge Raceway in Lyman, Maine

Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,658 tracks.