Famous Car/Kart Drivers

[Dan Flanders]

A bunch of us are heading to V.I.R in a couple weeks to run at the Heacock Classic. We'll be sharing the track with vintage race cars and I thought it would be a great opportunity to educate a broader audience of non-karters to the importance of karting in the motor sports world. What I would like to do is compile a list of drivers that drove karts back in the day...Here are some names I came up with, but would appreciate more:
Sterling Moss
Ricardo Patriesse
Aryton Senna
Ricky Rudd
Jeff Gordon
Danica Patrick
Michael Schumacher
Kimi Raikkonen
Fernando Alonso
Lewis Hamilton
Daryl Waltrip
Alain Prost
Juan Pablo Montoya
Jenson Button
Tony Stewart

[Tom Smith]

here are a few more
Wolfgang von Trips (imported first 2 karts to Italy from California as excess baggage)
Dan Gurney (drove for Go Kart team at Nassau)
Bruce Mclaren (Trokart)
Jack Brabham (Trokart)
Pedro Rodriquez (Satelite)
Ricardo Rodriquez (Satelite)
Ronnie Buckman
Ronnie Peterson
Emerson Fitipaldi
Michael Andretti
Jimmy Bryan (Moss)
Tom Pistone (Xterminator)
Troy Ruttman jr
Brabham and Fitipaldi were both world champions
Couple of karters who drove race cars: Mick Rupp, Bobby Allen, Rocky Moran, Kevin Cogan, Mark Dismore

[CarlBuchanan]

Dan,
You might consider Jimmy Bryan, 1958 Indy 500 winner, raced his own Moss Cart. Both the "Belond' Indy car and Moss were designed by George Salih. Both chassis' were designed for a specific engine (Offy and West Bends) and featured laydown engines to lower the center of gravity.
CB

[ted johnson]

Al Keller: drove in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1954-1959 and 1961 seasons with 32 starts, including the Indianapolis 500 races in '55 thru '59 and '61. He finished in the top ten 13 times, with his best finish in 2nd position, in 1956 at Atlanta and in 1961 at Milwaukee. His best Indy finish was 5th in 1961. He once was owner or part owner (I can't remember which) of our local speedway in Eau Gallie, Florida. Dad and I introduced him to karts at the speedway, and he later joined the Homelite team. He competed in Nassau, I believe in 1960. He was a real decent chap, and was the one who was instrumental in allowing us to use the speedway on Sundays, as well as running kart races during intermission of the stock car events on Saturday nights. He was the first driver in the history of NASCAR's top division to have won a race in a foreign-built car, winning the 1954 Grand National road-race at the Linden Airport in New Jersey, driving a Jaguar owned by big band leader Paul Whiteman (from Wikipedia). He was killed at the Arizona fairgrounds in a champ car in '61.
Al Unser, Jr.: Don't know how much he raced, but there used to be a Bug ad showing his mid-seventies Wasp.
One of the early karting mags had a photo of Darryl Waltrip in competition. TJ

[ted johnson]

Oops! How could I have forgotten Eddie Cheever! TJ

[Tom Smith]

's kart .jpg

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's kart 1.jpg

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Here's Unser jr's first kart. I don't know if he ever raced it or not. It's the first kart a friend of mine built, he didn't actually know how to build a proper kart so this one had adjustable wheelbase, adjustable ride height, adjustable camber, and removable steering arms. The sprung front spindles used Offenhauser valve springs with Polaris snowmobile shocks for damping mounted inboard.

[ted johnson]

Tom, It looks a lot cooler than I'll bet it drove ! I wonder if Faye still has the pic of Little Al's Wasp? I can't remember if it was sitting alongside his Indy Car. Anybody remember more "big car" karters?
Oh, Yeah, Scott Pruett and Scott Goodyear, two of the very nicest and best, also Lake, Jerry Nadeau and Kevin Harvick. T

[Mark Brubaker]

Didn't Jeff Gordon start in karts?

[Phil Parkinson]

I have to put the 'Aussie' input..
Mark Webber
Marcus Ambrose (Was Australian Champion)
Ryan Briscoe (won heaps of titles as a Junior. )

[Andy Stevenson]

How about Lake Speed, Scott Speed, and A.J. Almendinger?