The St. Louis Karting Association opens a new chapter in its long history of racing in St. Louis ST LOUIS, MO - After almost a year of hard work and setbacks, the St. Louis Karting Association gets the pavement down on its new track. It was mid-season last year when the SLKA first announced a deal with Kenny Schrader, Ray Marler and the I-55 Raceway to construct a half mile sprint track on the grounds of the I-55 complex. Our goal was simple, take the best from the tracks we had raced at and combine them all and build a top-notch facility for the least amount of money. We had the talent, we had some equipment, we had funds, and we had the drive and the spirit, and now we had a place to build. We started with the obvious things first; we spent several weekends moving fences, and general site prep. We measured the area and laid out several track designs. When the final design was agreed on, we began to grade the track. Our original plan was to use some of the existing asphalt that had been the old drag strip as a base and pave over it with our new track design. Well, it was about the time we began grading our new portions of the track that Murphyıs Law came into play. As we talked to the paving company about the site and our plans, their inspection revealed something that really put the brakes on the project. We were fighting a condition known as elastic soil. For those of you that are not familiar with this condition, this is a condition that if not addressed, would allow the asphalt to actually move up and down when weight was placed on top of it, and eventually break up. We also found that the old asphalt drag strip was in no condition to pave over, as it too lacked the proper base. This was neither in our plans nor our budget to address a condition like this. Almost a month was wasted trying to come up with a permanent fix for this situation. It was at this time that Bloomsdale Excavating came into the picture. Thomas Drury, President of Bloomsdale, is a long time race fan and friend of Ray Marler and Kenny Schrader, promoters of the I-55 Raceway complex. We sat down with Tom and discussed the situation in detail, and he assured us he would take care of the problem. Bloomsdale brought in five pieces of equipment and stayed on site for over five weeks, and dug out all the bad soil. They hauled in just fewer than 300 truckloads of base rock ranging in size from heavy base shot rock to final grade minus. Countless man-hours were spent compacting the rock with heavy rollers and re-grading the final layers of rock to get the perfect base for the asphalt to be laid on. When Bloomsdale was finished with all of their work they met with Joe Laritz, owner and President of Laritz Paving Company. Joe was a committed race fan and welcomed the challenge of paving a premiere kart track, but the time was running out. It took about two weeks before Laritz was able to move their equipment on site and by that time, the cold damp days of fall were upon us. The track was wet and the paving company needed about four good dry days to complete the job. As the waves of weather kept coming, the window of opportunity closed for 2001 and the equipment was removed from the site. The track sat idle through the winter and the only work that could be done was the completion of the fence work and the addition of several gates for crowd control and access. As spring approached, so did the midwestern monsoon season. The spring of 2002 brought rainstorms that hadnıt been seen since 1993. The ground got saturated and the rivers rose. Though this ground is in a flood plain, it hadnıt been covered since 1993. The location was a calculated risk. Our old track at Widman Park had been covered every year since 1993, causing cancellations of up to an entire season. Once every five to seven years was something we could live with, if need be. Well the river did rise and the track was covered for two days. We were devastated. But when the water receeded we found that since it was only back water, and no current involved, it really settled the rock and the base was now harder then before the water rose. A couple weeks after the water went down, Laritz was on site to check the final grade of the track and once again prep it for paving. They spent two days rolling and spot grading the track until they felt it was perfect for the asphalt. The equipment was brought back in position and the paving was finally started. The first cap was laid and the officers of the club went on site to inspect the work and discuss the job with Joe Laritz. After it was determined all went well and the track was as expected, the final top layer was rolled into place and the paving was complete. Thomas Drury again brought some of his equipment on site to complete the final grading of the grounds around the track. The complex was really taking shape. The SLKA will now spend many weekends to make the track ready to race. The curbs will be installed, the striping of the track will be completed and the construction of the necessary buildings will be started. We are all in agreement that the track will be ready to race on for our July 20th - 21st race weekend, and we expect to run the rest of our season on our new track. Though the complex will not be totally completed this season, we at the SLKA invite you all to come and visit our new complex and race with us when you can. Our club will be racing on the following dates. July 20 / 21 July 27 / 28 Aug 17 / 18 Aug 24 / 25 Sept 7 / 8 Sept 21 / 22 Oct 5 / 6 Oct 19 / 20 Oct 26 / 27 We have already had discussions with various groups that have shown a genuine interest in promoting races at our new facility, and we fully expect to open our track to these people. The August 17th, 18th weekend will be a combined event with SKUSA. If you would like more information about our new track, the SLKA, and I-55 raceway, Visit our web site at http://slka.net and click on any of the contact links and we will be happy to answer any and all of your questions. Visit the St. Louis Karting Association's website Here!