©Trevor Hilliar trev@t-boneranch.com

Pictures by Trevor Hilliar, Katherine Hilliar, Sarah Delorso

In 1904 Essex, Connecticut, resident A. W. Comstock became the first to drive non-stop to the top of New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington, thus laying the foundation for America’s oldest car race, the Mt. Washington hillclimb. One hundred years later, another Essex resident is working hard to change the face of racing in America again. Trevor Hilliar has founded two new companies that he hopes will usher in a new genre of motorsports-backyard kart racing, T Karts and GrassPass.

Hilliar, a road racers, along with hill-climber Daniel Rutan, bought three oval racing karts long past their prime for $1500 in 1998. They planned to race the karts around in parking lots and driveways in an effort to get some seat time between races. Those three original karts have been multiplying like rabbits, and Essex now finds itself with over 35 karts, five local racetracks and a regular race series with participation that most "professional" sanctioning bodies would be jealous of.

After karting around a circular driveway for a few weeks, Rutan and Hilliar decided that the lawn would make a much better racetrack. At first, the two raced around in a big circle, but the track evolved quickly into the current T-Bone Ranch, an eight turn, 1/6^th mile road course. In the early days, five or six people would take turns in the three karts, until it became clear that more karts were needed. With the addition of several more karts, the fundamental law of backyard karting was discovered: F=2^K or, as Hilliar explains, "each kart we added doubled our fun."

Essex turned out to be the perfect incubator for this form of racing, with relatively large building lots and a population of hard working, innovative and resourceful Yankees. It was not long before Rutan, Hilliar and a few neighbors realized that the unmuffled, alcohol-burning Briggs and Stratton race engines were not the "hot setup." All of the karts were converted to Honda power, based on the reliability and near silent operation that Honda is known for. The two also decided that treaded tires, such as dirt or rain tires, were going to cause rapid track wear, and made slicks the only tire option. Some early wheel-to-wheel contact led to the requirement of a full width front and rear bumper, setting the ground rules for backyard karting’s first big growth stage.

From 1998 to 2003, the number of backyard karters in Essex grew by ten-fold as aspiring racers scoured the local classifieds for used karts. Rutan built a twisty six-turn road course on a small lot and two other karters built oval tracks. In 2004, a long, winding road course and a third oval were created, bringing the track total to six within a ten-minute drive.

It was in late 2003 that Hilliar began to contemplate taking the backyard karting idea "public." In his last three years working for Garden Iron, a local specialty ironwork shop, Hilliar became very familiar with the manufacturing process. One of Garden Iron’s fabricators built his own kart chassis and was instantly competitive, prompting Hilliar to consider manufacturing a backyard racing kart that benefited from his five years of backyard karting and 15 years of car racing experience. Hilliar recalls, "I figured I could design and build a winning kart for the backyard, and I thought I could offer it at a reasonable price." At the beginning of 2004, he left Garden Iron to form T Karts, LLC and begin the creation of a backyard kart and a network of backyard tracks across the country.

Since 1990, Hilliar has competed regularly in SCCA and Grand Am events including the 1997 SCCA Runoffs (FC), Pro FF2000 and two years in Grand Am Cup. "The Grand Am Cup experience really helped me get motivated about the karting idea," Hilliar recalls. "I was getting regular seat time, like three days a week, in the karts and it showed in my driving. When I had a bunch of Trans Am guys over for a Memorial Day two-hour kart enduro in my back yard, it really hit me. Stu Hayner, Bobby Sak and their team were blown away by how much fun they had and how great the racing was. I knew that we were on to something watching Hayner and his crew jawing after the race, which he had won co-driving with Dan Rutan."

With a twinkle in his eye, Hilliar envisions a sprawling network of backyard ovals and road courses. To create such a network, Hilliar founded GrassPass, an organization to promote and service backyard karting. The first service provided by GrassPass is a web-based community for backyard karters, GrassPass.Org. It was launched on January 1, 2005 to serve as the online home for backyard karting, offering discussion groups, articles, Track Tips and a place to register your track, kart and driver statistics.

Similar to a conventional sanctioning body, GrassPass will establish a set of kart preparation and procedural rules for events and participants. Track owners and local groups may choose to follow all, some or none of the rules. By adhering to the GrassPass rules, karters and track owners ensure that they will be compatible with the rest of the backyard network, allowing them to host events and compete at other GrassPass races. While the final rules have yet to be released, the international World Formula rules are being studied as a model for kart design. Essentially, the GrassPass legal backyard kart will have a racing chassis, slicks, full width bumpers, no gearbox, stock ungoverned Honda GX200 6.5 h.p. engine and rear brakes only. GrassPass is currently testing a Briggs and Stratton World Formula motor for backyard use as a possible power plant for a faster class; it is a factory-built race motor, with the same displacement as the Honda GX200, but makes 15 horsepower and is electric start.

Another item on the GrassPass agenda is to host a national championship for backyard karters, dubbed KartStock, starting in 2005. A single weekend event, KartStock would be held on neutral ground - in fact the racetracks would be built specifically for the event, two road courses and an oval, thus negating any home track advantage. Entry would be open to any and all karts prepared to the GrassPass rules. "I am not trying to exclude anyone from competing, or tell them what rules to run in their own backyard. It’s all about getting people involved, not excluding them," says Hilliar. "But most people can afford the $1000 it’s going to cost to put slicks and a Honda on their karts to come race against hundreds of other equal karts." The details of KartStock have yet to be released, but Hilliar promises entrants will get "hours" of track time each day, including heat races, feature races, the crowning of a national champion and a Saturday night enduro. Also planned are fireworks, kart show and swap meet, live music and a banquet. Hilliar likens the event to the Runoffs meets Woodstock, and having crewed at two SCCA Runoffs and competed in a third, he has strong feelings about that event. "It will be like the Runoffs, only enjoyable. You will work on your kart for 20 minutes and race it for eight hours, instead of the other way around."

GrassPass is also working with insurance underwriters to create an insurance package specifically for private track owners. While Hilliar and other track owners currently rely on their homeowner’s insurance, if there is ever a major injury (and there has yet to be one in five years), they all recognize the need for a racing liability policy. GrassPass hopes to be able to provide or arrange for just such coverage for track owners and event coordinators.

At first, building a backyard track sounds like a lot of time, effort and money, but Hilliar claims it doesn’t have to cost a thing. "We just started karting on my lawn and in a few days, it turned to dirt where we were running and packed as hard as pavement. After a week or so, you could do a donut on the new track and leave black tire marks." Hilliar points to a black groove on his track that seems to confirm his claim. "We roto-tilled the track six inches deep once, when it got bumpy, and in one day of karting there was a black groove again." For track barriers, a trip to the local circle track on Sunday morning provided a few hundred used slicks, and tractor-trailer tires serve as apex markers.

Last summer Hilliar purchased a transponder-based timing system from AMB and asked all of his friends to buy a transponder from him to help pay for the cost of the system. Adding lap times accurate to the thousandth has revolutionized their karting. In the past, when the group wanted to run a two- or three-hour endurance race, which they did several times each summer, Hilliar would hire high school students to count laps. "It worked OK at first, until we had a few events where the possible race winners never got any laps counted and we realized that we had to do something." After the purchase of the timing system, the group began a weekly race series called the Tuesday Night Fights. Running 50 lap races became as easy as starting the timing software, jumping in their kart, and racing for 50 laps. The Essex karters can now keep track of every lap they have ever turned on MyLaps.Com, a web site provided by AMB.

"A lot of people ask me, ‘What do your neighbors say?’" Hilliar smiles, anticipating the question. Excessive noise is something that almost every racetrack has to deal with. Many car and kart tracks need to restrict their running times to keep the neighbors happy, and backyard karting is no different. Yet, Hilliar and his friends have found a way to circumvent the noise issue. By requiring that all participants use a stock Honda 6.5 h.p. engine and stock muffler, something unheard of in motorsports, Hilliar and his fellow track owners can all but forget about the noise issue. Even when running 19 karts at a time, something they did for two hours last summer, the noise level barely exceeds that made by Hilliar’s Wheel Horse lawn tractor. "This doesn’t mean you can thumb your nose at the neighbor," he warns. "You are better off inviting your neighbor over for a few laps. He or she will never complain if they are involved in the fun."

Naturally, other issues can and do arise and Hilliar stresses innovation and accommodation. When a neighbor complained about the dust kicked up during one particularly dry summer, Hilliar and friends built a "water buffalo." Now they don’t even consider karting on a dry day without a few laps with the 500-gallon tank behind a golf kart or pickup. Hilliar stresses that with a little ingenuity, there is no challenge, objection or risk that cannot be managed.

Having considered the downside to building a backyard track and getting some potentially addictive karts, one must consider the benefits. Karting is hugely popular throughout much of the world, and most people know that many a champion got their start in karting. The karting scene in America has experienced recent growth and shows no signs of slowing. For evidence of this, count the kart-related ads in this issue and compare it to an issue from just one year ago. Yet, hampering growth of American karting is the multitude of confusing rules and classes. A recent World Karting Event (WKA) from Road Atlanta had 49 different classes, with between two and ten karts per class. In contrast, GrassPass aims to create a single, entry-level class for karts to be raced in the backyard, and plans to petition such sanctioning bodies as WKA and SCCA Solo to recognize the class. If successful, backyard karters who race by the GrassPass rules could take their karts to a kart race or autocross and have a class to race in.

The back yard is where Hilliar feels racing should begin, and maybe remain. Having raced cars for more than a decade, he used to think that there was no other way to enjoy the thrill and excitement of racing without the requisite time, effort and money. Headaches such as towing nightmares, registration issues and tech inspection, not to mention the huge expense of motorsports, have always been parts of racing. Another challenge is the time spent traveling to and waiting around the racetrack for a few short track sessions. Many people do not have the resources or desire to get involved in such an intensive undertaking.

Backyard karting, in contrast, can be virtually hassle-free. Maintenance and upkeep on a backyard kart is simple and inexpensive. Hilliar claims to have gotten more than 2,000 race laps on the last set of soft compound rear tires he put on his prototype T Kart, and the fronts last twice as long. Engines last for years and travel time is how long it takes for the garage door to open. Another dynamic of traditional racing that is blurred in the backyard is the distinction between "driver" and "crew." (See sidebar) At the racetrack, one man drives and gets the lion’s share of the recognition, while many more people work just as hard to make it possible, often for the fun of it. In the backyard, everyone is a "driver" and this role change can be enlightening and enjoyable. How many crewmen and women have privately wondered how they would fare going head to head with their driver?

There can be no denying that seat time makes a better racer, and that practice makes perfect. Because the cost of driving your own racecar is usually over the $1000-per-hour mark, it is very difficult for many talented amateur drivers to compete with better-funded ones. Organized karting is a good way to get less expensive seat time, but it still entails many of the logistical burdens of car racing. Backyard karting lets you get virtually unlimited seat time at your convenience, spend more time racing than wrenching, and improve reaction times and consistency. All this is available at an operating cost that Hilliar claims is below $10 per hour.

On paper, backyard karting sounds like a fun idea that would be great if you had unlimited time and money. Yet Hilliar and the group of Essex karters have proved that it is possible to create and sustain a backyard racing microcosm while raising families, working full time and pinching pennies. For their hard work and dedication, the karters get to enjoy the rewards of pure competition. Recently, at the T Karts 300 at Hilliar’s house, 14 teams raced for 2 hours and 20 minutes. Elivan Goulart, two-time SCCA F500 national champion, co-drove with Hilliar to finish less than one minute ahead of the second place team of Daniel and wife Deborah Rutan. When asked about the 300-lap race, Goulart said "Karting in [Trevor’s] backyard was the most fun I have had in a long time." Which, coming from the 2003 and 2004 Cooper Tires Formula SCCA Series Champion, says a lot for the experience.

There are many ways to find out more about the sport of karting, and backyard karting in particular, on the web. For people interested in backyard karting and how to get started, www.grasspass.org is a good launching point, with lots of information and links.

When a 7-year-old gets together with his grandfather, Spongebob might be a likely topic of conversation. That is unless the last name is Rutan, then it may be tire pressures and racing lines. For the last several years, Cole Rutan of Essex, Connecticut, has been competing directly with his father, Daniel, and his grandfather, William, in racing karts. In 2004, Cole finally started winning races, beating his elders in a fair fight, with equal engine, and a slight weight advantage. Thus prompting much speculation on "how long ‘till he is in a racecar?"

When William Rutan, two-time SCCA National Champion (67&69 Formula C), Pike’s Peak class winner and Mt. Washington record holder, wants to compete with his forty-year-old son and seven-year-old grandson, the backyard is the perfect place. And when mom (Deborah Rutan) wants to get involved, look out boys. Collectively, the Rutan family has won more backyard kart races in the Essex area than all other competitors combined. The team of William and Deborah is almost unbeatable in endurance races, and Daniel on his own is usually top dog.

On the kart track or at the hillclimb, the Rutans rely on smoothness behind the wheel and thorough preparation. To beat 16 other teams of talented drivers, one’s kart has to be perfect and not miss a beat on raceday. William is happy to share his 50 years of racecar preparation experience with his family and friends. It is this same attention to details that helped a better-known Rutan build Spaceship One and win the X Prize. The Rutans are an inspiration to any family who feels that there is no common ground between generations any more. Backyard karting may be the ideal activity to bring families together and strengthen intergenerational bonds.

A New Memorial Day Classic.

Anyone who has been to Lime Rock Park in Connecticut for the Memorial Day sports car races knows that the track is quiet on Sunday due to local law. While many racers, crews and fans are bench racing and watching Indy, at least three drivers and a dozen crewmembers were battling tooth and nail in another Memorial Day race. For the past two years, Trevor Hilliar has hosted an event for his friends from Lime Rock that is one of the most anticipated events of the season for everyone involved.

In 2003, Trans Am teammates Stu Hayner and Bobby Sak brought their Revolution racing team to Essex for a day of endurance racing. Team owner Don Sak seemed to be having the most fun, while Tri-Point Mazda driver Scott Bradley co-drove with Bill Rutan and Grand Am driver Trevor Hilliar was race director. Essex’s regular karters look forward to racing against the pros, and the local team of Spencer/Frasier nearly beat Hayner and Dan Rutan.

The Revolution team had so much fun that they wouldn’t leave until Hilliar agreed to do it again in 2004. This year’s event was preceded by a mention on Dave Dispain’s Wind Tunnel and boasted a lineup that again included Hayner, but this time with his Speed World Challenge Pontiac GTO team and BMW driver Jim Osborn. The schedule called for twin 100 lap races, with one in each direction. This year, though, Deborah Rutan beat eighteen challengers, pros included, winning both races. Deborah co-drove with her husband in race one and her father-in law in race two, in a different kart no less. All the drivers involved are looking forward to the 2005 event, and Hilliar is adding a 4^th of July race for his friends in the American Le Mans Series. About the backyard experience, Stu Hayner recently said "I have only done backyard karting twice in my life - both at Trevor's house. Without a doubt one of the most memorable two days ever!"

Pictures

WRC Co-Driver Therin Pace fights for a corner in a T Kart

The start of a race at Hilliar's T-Bone Ranch Track

The fight for the lead. Note the black track.

The results are posted.

Le Mans Start

Dan and Cole Rutan

Trevor in his prototype T Kart

Midrace in a 300 lapper, 3 Generations of Rutan in one turn.

Elivan Goulart climbs out to let Hilliar in.

VIR Grand Am Cup, 2003, Hilliar in #93 car.

Waiting for the spring in Connecticut, T Karts is working on marketing backyard karting. T Karts T1 chassis #6 will be used for trade shows and promotions. It is shown with optional enduro fuel tank and steering wheel and lightweight Caliba seat.

Hayner and AGT owner Woodson Duncan at the Memorial Day event, 2004

© American GT