By Robin Wayne
written 2000
Flemington Kart racing celebrated it's tenth anniversary last year but,
it
owes its existence to Ace Lane Jr.
Ace, the son of the late, renowned Motorsports photographer Ace Lane
senior,
carries on his fathers work by capturing racing's defining moments at
local
racetracks in the tri-State area. He has won countless numbers of awards
for
his photography but, on Sundays, he is the Promoter and founder Of
Fastlane
Promotions. The go Kart racing program is held at Flemington Speedway in
central NJ.
It started with a dream of Lane's to develop a go kart program that
would be
safe, fun, and competitive with a variety of kart classes to meet every
preference and age group. Ace used his knowledge as a former racer to
design
a course layout that a racer would consider exciting and challenging.
Ace Lane Jr started racing in the 70's at New Egypt Raceway. After
winning
his tenth kart championship in the Tri-State area he decided to hang up
his
helmet. Ace says "I wanted to give something back to the racing
community and
give youngsters a opportunity to get involved in a sport that was safe,
fun
and the whole family could get involved in
Karting is considered to be the cheapest, most accessible form of racing
available. Anyone interested in learning the skills needed to drive a
race
car or simply wants to have fun racing on a closed course can get
involved.
Many current nationally known auto racing personalities credit go kart
racing
for giving them a start in their careers.
In 1990, Flemington Speedway changed from a dirt surface to asphalt. Ace
Lane
Jr received permission from speedway owner Paul Kuhl to establish a kart
racing program on the historic speedway grounds that same year. At
first, the
course consisted of hand built wooden straight-aways, orange cones and
hay
bales. Now, it makes use of Styrofoam blocks for the outside walls and
reinforced wooden guides for the inside. The pit area is greatly
improved and
there is now a sizable fenced in area for spectators who wish to cheer
on
their favorite drivers.
The twisting 1/2-mile road course is considered by many kart racers to
be the
most challenging and competitive course in the state. Each Sunday, the
track
averages around 200 driver entries. Drivers have come from as far away
as
Virginia, North Carolina and Massachusetts to compete at Ace's track.
Track owner Paul Kuhl said, "Ace Lane has put together quite a good
program."
"He has changed the configuration of the track over the years to make it
better and it's pretty competitive the way they have it set up." ' It
(the
kart racing program) gets a lot of interest."
Ace plans to continue running the kart racing program for as many years
as he
can.
If anyone is interested in racing a go kart at his facility or wishes to
volunteer their services to help Ace and his staff of volunteers at the
track. You can contact Ace Lane Jr at Tel 973 773-9509
