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"  You&amp;#039;d be hard-pressed to find a livelier racing event than the Robo-Pong.com 200. What? Never heard of it? You might recognize some of the drivers: Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon, Katherine Legge, Sarah Fisher, Tomas Scheckter and Ricky Rudd. Does that pique your interest?   And they weren&amp;#039;t in stock cars. No, these top-notch racers competed in karts, each powered by a 125 cc motor producing 30 horsepower.   The 220-mile endurance race is the creation of Mark Dismore, retired IRL race winner whose karting roots are deep.   Dismore designed, built and owns the karting track in New Castle, Indiana. Three years ago, he decided to start a signature event and invited a few of his friends to inject glamour. It&amp;#039;s grown from 30 entries to 80.   The field is eclectic, with many of the best karters in America. Some are headed for professional careers in cars. Others fit the recreational category. Most jumped at the chance to race against the big names.   The primary motivation was having fun, but everybody took it seriously. Beyond bragging rights, it had a $20,000 purse, with $5000 to the winner.   Rudd \u2014 who won $35,869,397 in an impressive 31-year NASCAR career \u2014 has been karting actively for the past three years. And as a youth, he and Dismore were rivals. &amp;quot;In 1971, I won the IKF nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Mark was 4th,&amp;quot; Rudd said. &amp;quot;We raced together some other places, too. We kept in touch. Mark called me and I thought it would be fun, but I hadn&amp;#039;t raced a kart in 35 years.&amp;quot;   Former F1 and Indy car driver Derek Daly was responsible for delivering Legge and Fisher, who teamed together.   &amp;quot;Derek organized everything for us,&amp;quot; Legge explained. &amp;quot;It was a good opportunity to get back in a kart, get back to my roots. I&amp;#039;m having a blast. They&amp;#039;re so much fun to drive. You can race wheel-to-wheel in them. I&amp;#039;m rusty, but the challenge is what makes it fun.&amp;quot;   Wheldon and Mark Dismore Jr. won the event in 2005. They were teammates in Formula 2000 in 1999 and Wheldon has remained friends with the family, which took him to his first Indy 500 that year.   &amp;quot;You never want to forget where you came from,&amp;quot; Wheldon said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the purest form of motorsport. There aren&amp;#039;t a lot of politics involved. In terms of expenditures, you can afford good equipment for a sensible amount.&amp;quot;   Fourteen-year-old Conor Daly, Derek&amp;#039;s son, led at halfway of the 200-lap race on the 1.1-mile track before brake problems forced a prolonged pit stop. He and co-driver Timmy Megenbier finished 6th, five laps down.   &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s really cool coming up on Dan Wheldon and passing him,&amp;quot; Conor exclaimed. &amp;quot;I caught him in the first stint. I got caught in traffic and he passed me back and I passed him back later. Racing with an Indy 500 champion was pretty sweet.&amp;quot;   Fifty-six karts started the event at the track east of Indianapolis. Wheldon and Dismore Jr. also had brake issues and finished 35th. Legge and Fisher had problems with a chain and brought it home 32nd. Scheckter crashed on the opening lap, but came back to finish 15th.   Rudd, quite the mechanic, co-drove with Paulie Harraka, a 17-year-old from Wayne, New Jersey, and won the race going away, by a lap.   &amp;quot;I kept the seat warm for Paulie,&amp;quot; joked Rudd. &amp;quot;I had fun. I&amp;#039;ve seen a lot of guys race and this guy has talent. He&amp;#039;s exceptional.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s an awesome event with so many big names,&amp;quot; said Harraka. &amp;quot;With eight IRL and Champ Car drivers here, it was won by one retired Cup driver and, I hope, one future Cup driver. It was awesome to win and a dream to drive with Ricky Rudd.&amp;quot;   Dismore plans to expand the format next year. He also needs more seating capacity, as the large crowd had to squeeze into every vantage point to watch the best race you&amp;#039;ve never heard of. Until now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a12796/indy-all-star-karting-race/>