Buff Goes to Bakersfield

After a great time in Riverside in February with the VKA event, we took Buff (the yellow Fox Kart) to Bakersfield (for the first time) in April.

The April event was sponsored by VKCA -- the Vintage Karting Club of America.  This year they put on a very special event -- in addition to the usual Kart judging and track time, they held a celebration of life for recently deceased Karting Pioneer, Faye "Ladybug" Pierson.  

Faye Marye Pierson was born on July 11, 1928 and passed on March 6, 2021.  She drove a Go Kart for the very first time on Christmas day, 1957.  Instantly hooked on Karting, Faye and her husband, Tom Pierson, enjoyed Karting as a hobby at first, then they began manufacturing Karts for sale, leading to the creation of Bug Engineering -- one of the most successful brands for many years.  Faye won races and championships, traveled across America and Europe to race, and even earned her pilots license.  Known as the "Queen of Karting" Faye continued to attend vintage Karting events up to the very end. 

VKCA Remembrance of Faye Pierson

Nan and I were lucky enough to meet Faye at various Karting events -- here she is in 2019 at the Adams Track in Riverside with her (and our) dear friend, Louie Figone.

Gary Crawford served as the promoter of the event assisted by Bill Parun and Steve Shaw.  The attendance was very high and the pits were jammed with vintage Karting fans.  Gary reports that there were 80 karts 51 drivers in attendance.  In addition to the usual awards, Bill presented the inaugural "Faye Pierson Best Bug Kart of the Show" -- a beautiful silver cup.  Following the awards ceremony, all the Bug karts in attendance conducted a Faye Pierson Memorial Lap, filmed from above by drone camera.  We are sure that Faye would have been pleased.

Before we headed to Bakersfield, I decided that Buff needed something for good luck.  Most of you know about "Jake" -- the mascot of Corvette Racing since 2004.  Legend has it that Jake brings Corvette Racing good luck.  

The Legend of Corvette Racing's Mascot, "Jake" 

I have Jake on our yellow Z06.  So I decided to put Jake on Buff too!

Buff had a good day.  It ran well on the nicely resurfaced Bakersfield Kart Track.  

When it came time for the Kart judging, we were overjoyed to learn that Buff won an award for "Best Restored Original Kart".

Many thanks to Gary, Bill, and Steve for a great event, and to the judges, Vince Hughes, Michael Jewett, Jack Murray, and Tom Thorin for the recognition!