Karting Spotlight

kart track

SPOTLIGHT

Words by Chris Romano Photos by Dave Higgins

CJ Sweatt runs in the Open Division.

MOUNTAIN CREEK SPEEDWAY

A dirt kart track in rural North Carolina and a former midget racer from Long Island. It’s been a long, strange trip.

Derek Pernesiglio and his brother Pete raced the family midget in Northeast Midget Association events before Derek moved south to begin a career in television. The family business is still thriving with his nephew Michael now racing a NEMA Lite.

Pernesiglio ultimately became a much sought after pit road reporter for NBCSN’s coverage of the Whelen Modified Tour and the K&N Series, along with many track announcing gigs. He still had the racing bug, however, and on off weekends raced an outlaw kart, which led him to Mountain Creek Speedway in Catawba, North Carolina.

“The track is about 43 years old,” said Pernesiglio. “What people don’t realize is that the track sits on a historic family farm. You’ve got to travel through about a mile of cow pasture to get to the track. It is nestled in the beginning of the Catawba Mountains at the base of Mountain Creek, hence the name Mountain Creek Speedway.”

“The track is owned by Adam and Rebecca Stewart. They are people that just like racing. They made this track on their property to race go-karts and ATVs. That’s really all it was for, but then it started to evolve and more people began coming out to the track. At first, it was just go-karts, but then the Stewarts went to the East Coast Nationals at the Iredell County Fair which is the only outlaw kart race they run there.”

It was there they met Kyle Beattie, who owns SKE Chassis, a premier kart builder, and, according to Pernesiglio,

Kyle Busch’s son Brexton is getting some laps early in life at Mountain Creek.

“The next thing you know they are buying outlaw karts to race at their speedway. Their only intention was to do this for fun. They had no intention of getting into running a race track. But as more racers showed up they started getting more advice on what to do.”

Pernesiglio, who had already won a winter championship at his home track, Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina, showed up as a competitor and word got around that he was in the pits.

“I just wanted to race my kart,” said Pernesiglio, “and I found out that I was surprisingly good at Mountain Creek compared to Millbridge. The two tracks drive completely different and I guess Mountain Creek just appealed to me. The moment we set foot there we were always fast, always competitive, and I had the track record there for a short time. We did the Clash at the Creek one year and there were 30 karts there. I qualified third ahead of Kyle Larson, Rickie Stenhouse, Jimmy Elledge, Kyle Beattie, Tanner Thorson and Rico Abreu.

“Millbridge is just flat out, bounce the kart off the wall all day. Mountain Creek is D-shaped, so you’ve got to back off in the corners. When I got to Mountain Creek I approached it a little more timidly than Millbridge, which is exactly the way you have to drive it.”

It wasn’t long before Adam Stewart and Pernesiglio met. “Adam always saw me at the track, and enjoyed talking with me, and I always enjoyed giving him advice.”

Stewart eventually approached Pernesiglio about coming to work for him at the track, but the timing wasn’t right. Then came 2020. With racing on the national stage on hold, and for a time no one knew when it would resume, the TV gigs dried up. Pernesiglio needed to reinvent himself to stay in the sport.

“Adam said come take a look at what we’re doing,” said Pernesiglio. “They brought in new dirt, resurfaced the track, added banking, built a tower, a nice competitor observation deck, paved part of the pits and expanded them.”

The little ATV track was becoming a highly successful racetrack. Pernesiglio agreed to take the position of Public Relations and Promotional Director. “I saw they were making a serious step in promoting races and wanting to take it to the next level,” said Pernesiglio. “Dirt racing and outlaw kart racing are growing. Kids are going from box stocks into 600cc micro sprints. Open and Intermediate divisions are being skipped over so Mountain Creek and Millbridge are trying to keep those divisions going. All the Box Stock divisions are thriving.”

Karts are attracting the next generation of racers. On any given night at Mountain Creek, you can find Dale

Kerry Earnhardt’s son Wyatt Miller turns some quick laps in his Beginner Box Stock.

Earnhardt’s grandson Wyatt Miller, Brexton Bush, son of Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson’s son Owen, Clint Bowyer’s son Cash, and Kevin Harvick’s son Keelan.

Talent always seeks the next rung up the ladder, and Mountain Creek is preparing for that next step.

“Right now, we’re getting a lot of questions about when we’ll start running micros,” said Pernesiglio. “I tell people we have to build the track strong enough to accommodate those cars. We have strong enough bracing for the walls but we have to steel plate them. Right now, we have wooden walls but the bracing behind them is all heavy duty 6x6 bracing all four feet apart. What we started doing last year was plating turns three and four. The problem now is we were getting steel for $80 a plate and now it’s $200. And we have to erect fencing as well because the last thing you want to do is put a kart in the creek.

“We’ve had midgets and micros come and test,” said Pernesiglio. “We know eventually we have to go the micro route because it’s just a natural progression.”

“One of the issues we face is Millbridge races Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Mountain Creek also races flat karts on Saturdays and we’ll get anywhere from one hundred to 100125 of those in the pits. But we were also running outlaw karts. We’d have 17 different divisions on a Saturday so we came up with the idea of splitting them over different nights.

“We run flat karts on Saturday nights and outlaw karts on Sundays. We open at 1PM on Sundays and we’re finished before the sun goes down.”

Racetracks in general are struggling to emerge from the pandemic. Many pavement tracks were struggling even before the pandemic. Kart racing, on the other hand, is thriving, and especially in the southeast. Why are karts on dirt so popular?

“I think it’s the economics of it,” said Pernesiglio. “It’s cheaper to go kart racing than almost anything else out there. You can get a kart for around $5,000, including the budget for entry fees, and go race. People do it because it’s fun. I think another reason they do it is, to take a line from Ayrton Senna, it’s pure driving. It’s a kart, an engine and a driver. It’s the simplicity of it.”

“In the Southeast, they do more kart racing on dirt than any other region in the country,” said Pernesiglio. “In other places you’ll see pavement and road courses.”

Pernesiglio brings a unique perspective to his role, drawing on his experience as a competitor and a media professional. “I do have some street cred because I’ve competed,” said Pernesiglio. “So, I know what’s like to come in hot after a race. Sometimes I just tell parents that this is like Little League. Let kids be kids.”

Mountain Creek stresses its family atmosphere, and in addition to the physical improvements they’ve also invested in spectator amenities. While there is a grandstand at the top of the hill surrounding the speedway, most spectators are content to bring lawn chairs and enjoy the rustic charm. And there is no lack of food.

“We don’t have concessions,” said Pernesiglio, “so we decided to go with food trucks and the fans love it. You can get a salad at the racetrack. You can get falafel or a chicken wrap. If you want dessert we have frozen cheesecake dipped in chocolate.”

“I tell everyone this is a short track racer’s field of dreams. You’d never believe there is a race track here on the banks of Mountain Creek.”

Carson Kvapil, son of Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, runs the Open division. This division uses 4 stroke 450cc or 500cc 2 stroke dirt bike engines.