State of the kart

About 10 years ago, a healthy curiosity and a need for speed jumpstarted Sarasota resident and Out-of-Door Academy student Olivier Bellanger to begin a journey that has taken him across the world.

With a room full of trophies and walls full of pictures, Olivier and his father, Patrick Bellanger, reminisced about the memories they’ve created together on racetracks everywhere from down the road to Las Vegas and Italy.

“We had no idea what we were getting into,” Patrick Bellanger says with a laugh.

Olivier, 15, recalls watching races with his dad on television when he was barely old enough to walk.

“When I was about 6, we found a track in Punta Gorda, and that’s where we were exposed to competitive karting,” Olivier says.

Since then, he has spent much of his time behind a wheel, speeding around a track and loving every moment of it.

“I always thought, ‘Well, at least when he turns 16 he can be a safe driver,’” Patrick Bellanger says. “As we got into all the different levels of racing, he just took the bull by the horns and wanted to do more — go bigger and faster.”

The Bellangers started at the local level as a father-son team, learning as much as they could at local tracks such as DeSoto Speedway in Bradenton.

With help from the friends they made, they moved full speed ahead from local races to regional races, then state races, and, eventually, national races.

In 2009, Olivier won his first state championship as a rookie in the cadet class, which harbored drivers ages 9 to 12 years old. Olivier won another state championship in the cadet class in 2011, his last year in the class. In 2013, he won another state championship in the junior class, which has drivers ages 13 to 16. After reaching state and national levels, Patrick and Olivier Bellanger realized how seriously people took the sport.

“It’s definitely addictive once you get to that level of competition,” Patrick Bellanger says. “The highs are extremely high and the lows are terribly low. It’s gut wrenching. You can win on an incredible performance, and then at a big event, everything can go wrong.”

In 2014, Olivier qualified for the Rok Cup International Final, in Italy.

At the race in November, Olivier had the chance not only to travel to race against the best drivers in the world but also to drive new equipment — something that happened only once before that race.

“It was such a different feeling,” Olivier said. “I had never driven on a new chassis (frame) and engine that was that well prepared. The kart could be placed exactly where you wanted it, which made a world of difference.”

But it wasn’t all easy riding.

With qualifying taking place on a Thursday, the Bellangers expected to receive the kart by Monday afternoon. They didn’t get it until Tuesday afternoon.

Olivier had four runs on the track just one day before qualifying, whereas other drivers spent up to two weeks there, preparing for the race.

After qualifying, there were three heat races, which eventually made way for the pre-final and the final.

“In the morning warm-up (before the pre-final), Olivier was the second fastest on the track,” Patrick Bellanger says. “I think he had the target on his back. Nobody expected anything from him. Nobody expected the American to shine.”

Olivier started the pre-final at the No. 12 position, with the top 20 drivers advancing.

“I made my way up to seventh or eighth on the first lap, just to be taken out by another driver,” Olivier says. “I was in dead last, trying to catch and pass other drivers. I wasn’t able to make it to the final.”

Although it was a disappointing end to the adventure, it’s one of the fondest memories Olivier and his dad have of racing.

Olivier, who will turn 16 in June, is nearing the end of his competitive karting career, but the road doesn’t end there. He and his father will transition to racing cars, specifically the Spec E30 class, which refers to BMW E30 325i models sold between 1987 and 1991.

The transition will also help level the playing field financially because in karting, competitors can use a variety of engines and frames, but BMW racing has more restrictions. That means the sport is more about the skill of the driver.

“I just thought I’d drive a kart for fun and race it sometimes,” Olivier Bellanger says. “I never thought it’d lead to this.”

The high cost of competition
The Bellangers realized early on that racing is not just about how good you are but how much money you put into the sport. At the Florida Winter Tour, an event that lasts several months and draws drivers from around the world, it costs $15,000 to $20,000 just to be competitive, Patrick Bellanger said. Some drivers spend more than $50,000 during that span.

The Bellangers spent about $20,000 at the Florida Winter Tour.

Pushing the limits
A kart isn’t a machine you buy from a toy store that goes 30 mph.

“With the power and weight, the acceleration and breaking is like you’re driving a Formula One car,” Patrick Bellanger says. “Those little 125 CC engines in a junior format will take any exotic car on the start. The acceleration is so intense. They can go from 0 to 60 in two seconds. It’s incredible.”

Although they’re not as fast as the cars in Formula One racing, karts are more responsive because they’re so small and powerful. They have to be because a mile-long track can have as many as 20 turns.

Simulator training
Olivier Bellanger has spent countless hours on a racing simulator in his room with an exact replica of real tracks.

“I’ve done thousands of laps on Sebring (International Raceway) on that simulator,” Olivier says.

Contact Jason Clary at [email protected].