SALISBURY, N.C. – He may not have done it with a flashy kart or spectacular heroics, but Tyler Letarte completed a successful debut in Millbridge Speedway’s Open outlaw kart division on Saturday night.
Letarte rolled a plain white machine out of his trailer for his initial start in the top class at the one-sixth mile dirt oval, complete with black, duct-tape numbers on the wing.
By the night’s end, he had tallied a podium finish, crossing under the twin checkers third behind outlaw kart veterans Tucker Scanlon and Derek Pernesiglio.
Letarte’s end result came despite a spin on lap four that sent him to the work area with a broken chain. He then came from the rear of the field over the final 16 laps back into contention before the end.
“When we lost the chain, the car snapped so fast around, I couldn’t do anything but hang on at that point,” noted Letarte. “It was like in those surfing competitions where the guy does the 180 (degree turn) with the turn where you blink and you’re like, ‘What happened?’ That’s what that was like when we spun. Then I had people driving at me really fast and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get hit or not. It gets kind of scary, but we were fortunate to be able to fix things and get back out again.”
Letarte, the son of NASCAR on NBC analyst Steve Letarte, jumped out of his kart following the feature and gave high-fives to his entire crew, the excitement on his face clearly visible after a night that he classified as “way more than we expected.”
“Dude, this was awesome! I’m used to racing in the Intermediate, where I’m really heavy and can’t compete well because it’s hard to get close to the leaders on the bottom … but now that I’m in the Open and we actually have to put lead on to make minimum weight, we can really compete much easier,” said Letarte. “I felt like I could put the kart wherever I wanted to. Overall, it was just a really amazing experience.”
“With the added power, I could get off the top whenever I wanted, I could pull to the bottom whenever I wanted … it just gives you so much more freedom as a driver in the line you run and the way you’re able to handle the car,” Letarte added. “That’s something I’ve never had before and it was a really cool feeling … a good change from what I’ve been used to.”
The biggest change for the teenager was in the engine he had in front of him in the top class, compared to the 250cc motor he’s been used to racing with in the Intermediate division the last two years.
“For me, the learning curve was (adjusting) from the four-cycle (engine) to a two-cycle,” said Letarte. “With the two-cycle open, the throttle is very, very different. Up to about 50 percent, it’s pretty consistent, but once you pass the 50 percent mark (on-throttle), it’s like a light switch and it’s all the way up. In the four-cycle (intermediate), it’s very smooth and consistent on the throttle, so getting used to that while running the bottom groove in the corners was interesting, to say the least.”
While he wouldn’t say exactly when, Letarte did stress that his Open kart will make an appearance during Millbridge’s premier Wednesday night series in the near future.
He’s hoping that day comes sooner rather than later.
“We’re going to bring this kart to a Wednesday night show before long, but we wanted to shake it down tonight and we ended up with a podium finish, which is really cool,” Letarte said.
He also added that the kart may stay black and white for a little bit, as opposed to his traditional blue and gray.
“I’m kind of in love with the duct tape (numbers),” Letarte grinned. “Dad will say we have to get rid of it … but we’ll see,” he laughed.
