Go speed racer

By Shane Frederick
Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO July 20, 2008 01:06 am

— Brandon Gieseke figured it out pretty quickly.
This was no Wisconsin Dells.
Gieseke was picked to drive the first leg of his team’s first heat in the third-annual MRCI Foundation Grand Prix Saturday afternoon, and he thought it would be like any other go-kart driving he’s done.
“It was harder than I expected,” said Gieseke, driving for the Unicel team. “I was talking trash, and saying, ‘I’ll be fine.’ But, on that first corner, I literally spun all the way around.”
When the green flag drops, the event isn’t at all like a family-vacation fun stop.
The racers are serious, the cars are fast and there’s plenty of bumping, passing and other jockeying for position.
“It’s 100 percent different,” Gieseke said. “They go a heck of a lot faster. ... When you take a corner, you have to brake.”
One of Gieseke’s teammates, Michelle Welckle, found out the hard way. She got bumped, slid out around on a hairpin turn and allowed just enough space for her nearest competition to slip between her kart and the two-foot-high plastic wall.
“It hurts,” Welckle said of the bumper-to-bumper action, “especially when your helmet’s too big.”
Unlike Gieseke, Welckle got some practice laps in on Friday evening. But the morning rain, which delayed the start of the racing and canceled the celebrity race — rain also delayed racing in the late afternoon — changed the conditions a bit.
“The track was faster than last night,” she said. “You spun and slid around the corners a lot more. It was tough.”
In all, 52 teams and 260 drivers participated in the Grand Prix, which has become the MRCI Foundation’s signature fundraiser.
According to foundation director Jennifer Hlubek, the event grossed $25,000 last year, with $17,000 going to support MRCI’s worker transportation program, which gets people with disabilities to jobs every day.
“This fundraiser is for them,” she said.
This year, Hlubek said, races are expected to bring in $30,000 in sponsorships and team fees.
Randy Knauss is the Grand Prix’s chairman and was working hard Friday and Saturday. But he didn’t miss his chance to get on the track, which was constructed on the MRCI parking lot. Since last year, WW Blacktopping and Southern Minnesota Construction gave a donation of a lot resurfacing so the race could be run smoothly.
Knauss said the racing isn’t easy. Drivers need to be strong on the wheel and figure out the right — and wrong — times to accelerate and brake.
“Your arms get pumped, and you’re sweating,” said Knauss, who raced on the Lawson Products team along with his sons Corey and Tony.
Gieseke agreed: “I thought you could just let up on the gas around the corner, but you have to brake a little bit.”
Each heat lasted 35 minutes, and the rules required all five team members to drive at least one lap. Many teams simply divided the race into equal parts, waving their teammates into the pits every seven minutes or so for a driver change.
The Unicel team also featured Welckle’s husband, Paul, her brother, Jon Brand, and co-worker Mandy Drews.
Brand, who races BMX bikes, said he has driven go-karts for fun in Brainerd, but, like Gieseke, said this was a little different.
At one point, Brand got black-flagged briefly and warned for spinning out a competitor.
Afterward, Brand, who wore his BMX helmet for the Grand Prix, made the comparison to bicycle racing.
“Pretty much, competition-wise,” he said. “Everybody’s in your way, and you’re trying to go faster.”

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