Posted by Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Sabrina Byrnes
Sudbury's Derek Demers will be taking on the world's best at the 2009 Florida Winter Tour kart racing series Jan. 10-11 in Homestead, Miami, where he will be representing S.R.A. Karting International and the Durkac Karting Arrow Team.
S.R.A. Karting, the main North American Arrow kart dealer (located in Montreal), allows each of their dealerships to select a driver to race.
Sudbury's Durkac Karting chose Demers to represent them in the competition. Demers will be driving the new ARROW KART X1 chassis in the Senior Rotax Class.
"It's overwhelming actually," Demers said about the upcoming competition.
"It's going to be crazy," he laughed. "I hope I can keep up."
The Florida Winter Tour is one of the longest running and largest kart racing series in the world. Drivers from 23 countries, including 24 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, will be taking part in the competition.
Pierre Luc-Ouellette is last year's world champion. Demers will have the opportunity to practice with and race against Luc-Ouellette during the tour.
"I've never raced against a world champion before," Demers said. "I have no idea what to expect."
Demers, who started racing when he was 15, has had a very successful 2008 season.
The 20-year-old won 10 out of 14 races, including the Sturgeon Falls Grand Prix and the Sudbury Kart Club Sr. Rotax 2008 Championship. Demers also holds the record in the Sr. heavy and Sr. rotax classes at the Sudbury Kart Club.
Demers will now be starting the 2009 kart racing season at the Homestead, Miami Kart Club speedway.
"I should be able to learn a lot," the young racer said. "As of right now, we're going down there to learn, to have fun."
Demers said while they have a good chance of doing well, he's not expecting to win it. The main purpose is to learn and improve while racing against the best of the best, and interacting with the engineers.
Demers' father Pete said that his son has really matured as a driver this past season.
"Last year he really came into his own as a driver going down south and competing. He was right up there with the top 10 drivers," said Pete.
He said that Demers learned a lot about the car set up as well. He noted that if the car is pushing through a corner, his son knows what he has to do to straighten it out.
"It's not all the driver, it's not all your capability, it's also the car as well," Demers stated.
Demers' love of racing began five years ago when his father's friend from work, who was also involved in racing, invited him out to give it a try.
"The next week I went and bought one," said Demers. "It's fun. I love racing, any form of it. Good competition, it's pretty friendly here in Sudbury."
"It's a pure adrenaline rush. We do some tracks 100 mph in these things," Demers claimed.
The sport of racing also involves extreme mental focus.
"To hit the same marks on the track every lap for 20 laps, 80-100 mph, you have to stay focused," said Demers.
Demers is currently a student at Laurentian University, studying mechanical engineering.
"My dream would be to work on a racing team as an engineer," Demers confessed.
"That's my goal."
While Demers has his long term goals mapped out, his immediate goals are to learn as much as he can during the Florida Winter Tour to use to his advantage in the upcoming season.
Demers would really like to thank his sponsors, which include Durkac Karting, Quality Transmissions and The Car Lot.
Demers left for Florida Jan. 4 and will practicing in the new car beginning on Wednesday before the competition series begins Jan. 10. Demers is one of seven Canadians on the Arrow Kart team.
