On Friday Forty-four young karters came together at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca tocompete for the 14th Annual Skip Barber Karting Shootout for $200,000 in scholarships for the2011 race season. In the first of the four day competition, the karters were split up into fourgroups and rotated stations throughout the day.

In the Skip Barber Racing School classroom building, the aspiring race car drivers wereindividually interviewed by on air Speed Channel personality Bob Varsha and Team USAScholarship founder Jeremy Shaw. Through these dialogs, Varsha and Shaw were able to get toknow the drivers and assess their public speaking and interview skills. Karters will be able totake home a video copy of their interview to critique and learn from far after this event.

The other three stations were dedicated to car control and driving safety, something that iscritical to teenagers today. In the second station, karters sat in on a highway safety course taughtby Skip Barber Racing’s own Randy Buck. Because several of these karters are too young toearn their driver’s license, there is still much they need to learn about every day driving. Onbehalf of the FIA Institute for Motorsport Safety Development and Safety, each driver was givena Skip Barber Racing One Day New Driver School to take back to their community to promotedriver safety.

In the third station, drivers strapped into Mazda MX-5’s and drove on a purpose built autocrosscourse with a Skip Barber Racing School instructor by their side, constantly giving them tips andpointers. From there, karters jumped out of the MX-5’s and into Mazda RX-8’s to drive on theskid pad at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. With the help of the sprinkler equipped of the skidpad, drivers were able to learn proper slides and recoveries and car control.

The final activities of day included drivers receiving an on track orientation with instructors KrisWilson and Mikel Miller. Drivers not only were able to become familiar with the track as awhole, but also specifically at each corner. Finally, the young karters were able to get into andfamiliarize themselves with the Formula Skip Barber open wheel race cars by receiving seat timeon a super auto cross.

At the end of the day, Skip Barber Racing School staff, Bob Varsha, Jeremy Shaw,MAZDASPEED Communications Officer Dean Case were all incredibly impressed with theoverall behavior and performance of the young karters. “It’s an impressive group of youngracers,” said Case. “I don’t envy the tasks the judges have ahead of them in choosing thescholarship winners.”