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ANNE LINDBERGThe whine of go-carts at Sunshine Speedway may soon be supplanted by the roar of machinery building a new highway.
PINELLAS PARK - They've already begun lining up when the gate to the Sunshine Speedway opens at 7 a.m.
Within minutes, they've parked and begun setting up: Tents. Grills. Gurneys bearing low-slung go-carts. They gather around the gurneys like doctors in an emergency room, tinkering and adjusting until it's time to wheel them over to a paved area just outside the track.
The carts are placed on the ground and the drivers, some as young as 4, climb in. As each cart is started, the noise grows, like angry bees gathering. The kids buzz on to the track where they whiz around a twisty route several times before swooping off the track.
This is just practice. Later in the day, they'll return for racing, the next-to-last set of races at the Sunshine Speedway for the members of the Tri City Kart Club before the track permanently closes Nov. 20.
The Florida Department of Transportation paid $20-million for the 125 acres where the speedway sits off Ulmerton Road to build a connector between I-275 and the Bayside Bridge.
Once the track closes, club members will have no local place to indulge their passion. While some will be able to travel to tracks farther away - DeSoto, Ocala, Jacksonville - others will likely be forced to give up the sport.
"That's it for us probably," said Craig Coleman, owner of Honest Engine Auto Service in Seminole. "Traveling with this circus, that's a logistical nightmare."
Coleman oversees the Honest Engine Racing Team, which is about 15 strong. The youngest member of his team is 8 or 9; the oldest, 47. Most of the racers own their carts but Coleman supplies three or four of them. He also helps with parts and repairs.
In the past, that cost him about $20,000 a year. But this year, he hopes to spend closer to $5,000 on racing.
Despite the expenditures, Coleman said, "We're all friends. Just a bunch of dads . . . We're just out here for fun."
Others, like Blake Lehr, will move on. Blake, 14, and his father travel to races most weekends. He's raced as far north as Pittsburgh and Buffalo, N.Y. He's a national champion and wants to drive NASCAR as an adult.
"You do all the effort and after you win, the feeling is incredible," said Blake, who has been racing since he was 8.
Even so, Blake and his team will miss Sunshine.
"This is a nice training ground for us," said Greg Lehr, Blake's father. "(It) keeps him sharp."
Officials with the Tri City Kart Club have been trying to find ways to keep the track open.
They note that Sunshine Motocross and Tampa Bay Dragway have agreements with the state that will allow them to stay open at least for the next two years. The motocross track is on the southern portion of the speedway property. The dragstrip is to the immediate west of the main track.
The carters, who use the main track, have offered to rent the facility so they, too, can stay. But the family that owned Sunshine wants to tear up the main track before leaving the property for the last time.
"Why? For 40 years, the community supported this facility. Now they have the chance to give back and they're totally opposed to it," said Rich Gregorski, a club officer. "Just leave the pavement and let the kids race here."
Frank and Bonnie Hill, who sold the speedway to the state, could not be reached for comment.
Unless some agreement is reached, the last go-cart races will be Nov. 7, said Mark Roberts, club president.
"It's really remarkable how this has affected everyone here," Roberts said. It's the prospect of a lost lifestyle that really upsets folks, he said.
Martha Avera of Sarasota, whose 5-year-old grandson Jarred Komyati races, said carting is something that's in the blood.
"He grew up in the shop," Avera said. "Dad, mom, everybody's together. It's just awesome. You don't have to worry about your kid at the track. Everybody keeps an eye on them."
Losing Sunshine, she said, is "sad."