Joe Drennan
Sports Editor

The first green flag fell around 10:15 a.m. Saturday morning at the track at Northland Mall and the final checkered flag fell around 6 p.m. at the Forest Lake Rotaryís Internationalís first ever Race for Rotary.

ìI think it was a big success for our first year,î race organizer Chris Johnson said.

Forest Lake Police Department Chief Clark Quiring attended the Race for Rotary as a volunteer.

ìItís a good thing it was a closed course,î Quiring said. ìWith all those accidents we could have been tied up out here all day writing out reports.î

The Race for the Rotary was a one day event where racers raced state of the art racing karts that travel at speeds around 40 m.p.h. The track was a third of a mile with two hairpin turns and one long sweeping curve.

The original goal for the FL Rotary was to have at least 400 racers sign up, but they also realize that is a lofty goal for their first year. Leading up to the race the registration number was hovering around the 200 mark, but on race day, thanks to some late registers, the number jumped over 200.

The racers were put into heat assignments and the top three racers from each heat in the first round advanced. As the latter rounds went on the number of racers who advance dwindled down until Jeremey Houle was the last racer was left standing. Waldoch Sports was the team champion.

Houleís for being the best racer of the day was a trip for two to Las Vegas and two ride-a-longs at the Richard Petty School of Racing.
Being the first time for the Race for Rotary, organizers asked racers to fill out racer feedback forms.

ìJust from looking at some of the feedback forms it seems like everybody had a real positive time,î Johnson said. ìJust from the indications of the large crowd that turned out it looked like everybody had a good time.î

Race for Rotary was the Forest Lake Rotary Internationalís fundraiser that replaced Summer Fest. Itís still too early to put a figure on how much was raised, but Johnson says theyíre happy with the ballpark figures theyíve seen.

Based on some of the feedback from the racers and thoughts of organizers, Johnson says next yearís Race for Rotary will most likely be a bigger event.

ìWe tried to keep things fairly simple for our first year only having the race and a raffle bucket,î Johnson said. ìIn future years we may expand to include other activities.î

Johnson says some racers suggested other side attractions such as batting cages, a dunk tank or a bouncy house for kids to play around in.

ìWeíll consider those things for future years,î Johnson said.

With only the race to watch and food to eat, many race fans backed pickup trucks up to the track, lowered the tailgate, and enjoyed the good weather and racing.

ìIn the end, everybody had a good time and we obviously had good weather to help our cause,î Johnson said. ìEveryone seems to have come away with positive feelings and hopefully itís something we can build and improve on.î

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Forest Lake Times
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880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
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