Episode 338
November 8, 2020
UPDATE The remaining portion of episode 338 is not showing. I will work on this technical problem and post it when the problem is solved. Sorry TMH
Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame member garners another hall of fame honor
Race time at Bahrain International Karting Circuit
While a student of mine at Caribou Technology Center, Cole Disy of Caribou became President of the Caribou FFA, the student organization of agriculture education. His work in a leadership role helped the local FFA Agriculture Mechanics Team qualify for the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky in October 2003.
One of my highlights every year was taking FFA members to the National FFA Convention to join with over 50,000 like minded young men and women. When the convention moved to Louisville from Kansas City, my students and I would stay in or near Indianapolis for two or three days to take in the sites of the Racing Capital of the World.
One of my ideas was to visit as many motorsports sites in one day as possible which I named the “Gearhead Tour”. This one day whirlwind of immersion in motorsports in 2003 included Cole Disy, Tim St.Peter, Malcolm St. Peter, and my son Mike Hale. All these FFA members were from Caribou except my son who was from Westmanland.
I like to think that I provided a positive motorsports influence for these students as well as many others over the course of several years. On that “Gearhead Tour 2003”, the week ended with a session at a kart track located outside of Indianapolis (I do not recall the track name only that one lap was a mile in length).
Cole Disy went on after graduation from Caribou High School in 2004 to join the United States Navy. After several years in the Navy, Disy went home to help run the family business and became an active reservist.
Recently while on active duty Disy and friends was able to race at the recently re-opened Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) which had been shut down due to Covid-19 restrictions. The circuit located next to the Formula 1 track was built in 2011 and was top notch.
BIHC has hosted international kart races held at night, one of the first circuits to host such a type of kart race.
With no frost and little chance of precipitation the .9 mile outdoor track features multiple configurations for club races as well as private rentals.
Disy described his experience at BIKC saying, “The price was $155 USD for the “grand prix” race using 13HP karts.”
“The grand prix race consisted of 3 sessions. First session, 7 lap qualifying- your best lap out of the 7 is your qualifying time.”
“Once qualifying laps are completed, the racers stack up on the starting line according to their times. Ahem…yours truly got the pole position