Spencer Conrad doesn’t remember much about his earliest kart races. That’s not surprising, as he was only in kindergarten.
Six years later, Spencer, 11, has won a national championship in his sport. The Suffolk resident has grown comfortable racing at speeds of up to 60 or 70 mph, following his father, grandfather and great-grandfather’s passion for motorsports.
“I love going to new places and new tracks and just having fun,” Spencer says. “My only nervous part is probably the start. We’re sitting there all clustered up and I have my game plan and just want to get off well.”
Karting features open-wheel, four-wheeled motorized vehicles that sit close to the ground. Unlike the go-karts familiar to many people, racing karts are much faster, can accelerate rapidly and are designed for high-performance competition.
After getting his start at age 5 at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Spencer joined Nitro Kart, a North Carolina-based race team and chassis manufacturer focused on youth driver development, two years ago. The team works with about 50 kids a year from different states and even a few foreign countries, most ages 5 to 15.
On Oct. 13, Spencer won the World Karting Association’s Top Kart USA Grand Nationals race in Micro Swift Cadet, a class for drivers ages 7-10 at the start of the racing season in December. He also was the top points finisher in the WKA Manufacturers Cup, a 12-race series capped off by the prestigious Grand Nationals at a track near Indianapolis.
“It felt awesome,” Spencer says.
A sixth-grader at Isle of Wight Academy, Spencer was racing four-wheelers in the woods by age 4, chasing after his older brother Sawyer, 13. Sawyer, who also plays football, still races karts at the club level.
“I knew it would be good family fun,” says Scott Conrad, who raced at Langley Speedway as a teenager in the mid-1980s. “I used to do it with my dad, who did it with his dad. My boys are fourth-generation hard-heads.”
Nitro Kart team owner Nick Tucker, Spencer’s coach, says the young driver is focused, determined and responds well to constructive criticism. This year, Spencer has improved his track awareness to better position himself and make smart decisions about passing.
“He’s real quiet except when he gets on the racetrack,” Tucker says. “That’s when his personality comes out. He’s laidback on the outside, but then this fire comes out when he’s in race mode and ready to get aggressive.”
Like any motorsport, karting has its risks. Kids wear protective gear such as helmets, neck braces, suits and gloves, and Scott Conrad notes that cars sit just an inch off the track, and most accidents involve bumps during turns, at speeds of 20-25 mph.
“The most serious things I’ve seen are collarbone breaks,” he says. “Most of the kids are very clean drivers.”
Spencer has flipped once but never broken a bone; he’s usually just sore for a few days after competitions, especially his arms and hands from steering on sometimes rough tracks and gripping the wheel so tightly.
Spencer enters about 35 events a year, including club races at his home track in Mooresville, North Carolina, a four-and-a-half-hour drive from his Chuckatuck neighborhood. National events through WKA, the United States Pro Kart Series and SuperKarts! USA have taken him to Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin and Nevada. Next up is Las Vegas in late November.
During the Manufacturers Cup, Spencer won five races, finished second in two and fourth in three more, mastering unfamiliar tracks quickly to beat some of the best racers in the country. He also racked up high finishes in several other prominent events.
Scott Conrad, who runs a heating and air conditioning business; his wife Laurie, a dental hygienist; and Sawyer travel together. When Sawyer isn’t racing, he helps his dad maintain the two karts that Spencer drives.
While Spencer sometimes misses school on Thursdays and Fridays, he has kept up with his classwork and is an honor roll student. To stay fit, he plays soccer and basketball and has taken nutrition and exercise classes at Nitro Kart’s summer training camps.
When Spencer turns 12 in July, he will move up to the even more intense Junior class for ages 12-15, which has vehicles that can accelerate more quickly. He hopes to advance in karting until he can switch to cars, which his family likely won’t consider until he is 14 or 15. Given the significantly higher expense, Spencer also would need to land a sponsor first.
Looking even further ahead, Spencer may try to compete in professional Formula One/Indy car open-wheel racing or possibly NASCAR. A number of high-profile drivers started their careers in karting, including Jeff Gordon and Danica Patrick.
“I always can’t wait to get on the track,” he says. “My dad says I pretty much loved it the first time, so I just never stopped.”
And these days, Spencer remembers every race.
Alison Johnson, ajohnsondp@yahoo.com
