Father and son TEKA racers Brad and Max Howard competed in the 2018 Battle of the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the weekend.
The duo was part of the Margay karts team (which also included six Kiwis), both competing in the Senior Ignite Briggs & Stratton 206 class, Brad also racing in the 206 Masters division.
Max qualified an impressive fifth out of 52 karts and was third in the opening heat race. While going for the lead in the Prefinal, a slight touch with another kart pulled the valve stem out of the rear wheel. This dropped him to grid 50 for the final, but he worked his way back up to 24th.
With Brad running two classes, he said he “picked the wrong group to work with in qualifying” (drafting being the special skill at this race track) to qualify ninth in Masters. He moved up to fourth in the first heat but “got hung out to dry, so my American mechanic told me” in the Prefinal.
After taking 9th, Brad then ran with the lead group in the final, eventually coming home seventh. The distance from 2nd to 10th was just 0.143 seconds.
In the senior division, Brad qualified 12, finished heat 1 eighth, the Prefinal 12th and 17th in the Final.
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“This was a super event ran under USAC control with complete cooperation from Indianapolis Motor Speedway” Brad told KartSportNews.
“All competitors from all classes got to do one lap of the famous circuit. With nearly 480 karts on track, it was a sight to behold.
“To do a lap of Indianapolis is a dream come true and never in a million years did I think this would happen. But to also do it with my son, I guess that is something that is truly special.
“A big thank you goes out to Sean Kennedy, Greg Dingess and my American mechanic Ken Williams from Margay Racing (who was given the privilege of an Aussie nick name, ‘KDub’).
“I don’t know how they did it with the effort they put in and to the whole Margay team working their backsides off looking after everyone which made it so special.
“For all the 4SS people in Australia, put this event in your gun sites – you will not be disappointed.”
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