WKA's Pit Board: Former Indy Racing League Competitor And Rolex 24 Champion, Mark Dismore, Talks About The Upcoming Daytona KartWeek By Cometic Gasket

The historic motorsports facility will be transformed into a big playground as hundreds of go karts will be camped out throughout the infield of Daytona International Speedway and at nearby Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium for five days of racing.

Many of the stars of motorsports competed in go karts at Daytona International Speedway including NASCAR stars Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Brian Vickers and former Indy Racing League competitor and Rolex 24 champion Mark Dismore.

Dismore has been racing go-karts at Daytona since the 1970s. This year, he’s not expecting to compete but his son Mark Dismore Jr. will race. The Dismore family will load up the hauler in Greenfield, Ind., and begin the drive to Daytona Beach, Fla., on Christmas day.

Dismore, who operates Comet Karts Sales as well as a go-kart track in Indiana, discusses why racing go-karts at Daytona International Speedway is so special.

How long have you been racing go-karts at Daytona?

“Myself and my father we started going down there when Daytona allowed the WKA to host the WKA Enduro World Championships. We’ve been coming since then which I believe is somewhere around 1976-77. We’ve been coming to Daytona every year since. We may have missed a couple of years due to business commitments but we’ve been there pretty much straight through and we’re coming back down to participate in the sprint track that Daytona sets up every year in Turn 3 area.�

When you were racing at Daytona in the late 1970s, did you hope to have a racing career?

“I never even thought about it honestly. I was just having a really great time racing karts. Racing was something that I did because I loved it. I never had any intention of it becoming a career for me. I just wished I had the opportunity in a race car before I was 34 years old. I never had any plans of being a race car driver. I really loved karting and I still love karting. Like Dan Wheldon said, he thinks it’s the purest form of motorsport that there is and I have to agree. It’s like jumping on the back of a horse. Everyone has got the same tool and can afford the same thing. It’s a motorsport that even a working guy can afford to do and compete at the top level. It’s more about knowledge than a spending account.�

Do you plan to travel to Daytona Beach on the Christmas holiday?

“We'll spend Christmas at home and then we'll jump in the truck and trailer and haul down there Christmas day after we have Christmas lunch. The only reason we would leave prior to that was in case we had bad weather warnings. We've had to do that a couple times where we had to leave a few days earlier than we intended too. We typically try to spend Christmas afternoon at home, jump in the truck and register and go back to the truck and sleep.�

Talk about some of the other memories that you have of racing at Daytona International Speedway?

“I won the 24 hour race in 1993 with Dan Gurney's Toyota team. Myself, P.J. Jones, Rocky Moran were overall winners in 1993. We finished fourth there with Gurney's team the previous year. I ran there with the Chrysler program and the Viper. I ran there with the Oldsmobile Aurora program. I've run the 24-hour race like seven times. My fondest memory of IROC was (in 2001) with Dale Earnhardt. In that particular race, I started toward the back or the middle with him. I latched onto his rear end and we ran 1-2 for probably 15 or 20 laps. He was first and I was second. He kept telling me to keep doing what we were doing. I had no intention otherwise. Ironically we got freight trained after about 15 or 20 laps by a herd of cars. Two IRL drivers, I believe Buddy Lazier and Eddie Cheever, started a big melee that both me and Earnhardt got caught up in. That's my fondest memory of the IROC deal being able to hang onto that guy. I thought if I stayed there the whole race it wasn't going to be too bad.�