Tony Gualda, 9, is racking up accolades in go-kart racing , and
is looking to make a career out of it
Some fathers build their sons tree houses. Tony Gualda’s dad
built him a caged go-kart with a five-horsepower flathead Briggs
and Stratton engine.
Same difference, really.
Tony Gualda, 9, is racking up accolades in go-kart racing , and is looking to make a career out of it
Some fathers build their sons tree houses. Tony Gualda’s dad built him a caged go-kart with a five-horsepower flathead Briggs and Stratton engine.
Same difference, really.
“My dad took me to the races [when I was 6] and I liked it, so he built me a kart,” said Gualda, now 9, an incoming fourth-grader at Sunnyslope Elementary School in Hollister.
Gualda’s go-kart, which was built practically from scratch three years ago, may have been just the beginning, however. He has since moved on to bigger and better things as any youngster would – like a Briggs and Stratton World Formula 200cc winged go-kart – but his passion for racing hasn’t subsided one bit, as the excitement surrounding a brand new tree house would certainly decrease with time.
“I was told by various amounts of people, they felt he had the potential,” said Gualda’s father, Tony Sr. “Just his mannerisms and his driving style and how smooth he was behind the wheel, they were pretty astonished he had the concepts already.”
What is perhaps more astonishing is Gualda’s preferred career path. The 9-year-old with a lead foot has already racked up several accolades during his three-year journey – he is currently in first place for his 8- to 16-year-old age group in the open winged four-cycle division at the Tulare County Kart Club – and his favored future plans would involve the World of Outlaws sprint car series, and not necessarily the more popular NASCAR.
“If I got a chance [with NASCAR], I’d take it,” Gualda said. “But I really want to be a World of Outlaws driver.”
The WoO, like NASCAR, is a motorsport sanctioning body. It began back in the late 1970s and features dirt-track racing. But instead of stock cars, the WoO revolves around winged sprint cars, and are essentially muscled-up versions of what Gualda is currently driving.
“I like the World of Outlaws a lot. I like the dirt and I like the wings,” he said. “I just like the teams that they have and how much speed they have and the kind of races that they have.”
Gualda, who seems to like just about everything the WoO offers, including idols Jason Meyers of Clovis and Salinas’ Ronnie Day, also prefers the added challenge of racing on an ever-changing dirt surface, although having dirt kicked back into your face is an entirely different matter.
Shortly after he attended one of his first races as a 6-year-old, Gualda and his father were invited to a friend’s house to go karting. It was one of his first experiences behind the wheel, and although he lost, the action may have only whetted his appetite.
“Once he got the dirt on his face,” Tony Sr. said, “he wasn’t having any of that anymore.”
While his first victory came when he was 6 in the box stock class at the Chowchilla Barn Burner, Gualda has since been named champion at the West Coast Shootout in Tulare after compiling two main-event wins. He also earned top honors as the 2008 Winter Series champion at the Chowchilla Barn Burner with six first-place finishes and a pair of runner-up standings, while last season at the Tulare County Kart Club, Gualda finished second overall despite six first-place finishes over the course of the year – he blew his motor and was forced to skip a race, leaving him just short in the overall standings.
Earlier this season, in the Turkey Shootout at the Hills Ferry Raceway in Newman, Gualda took second place. It was his first time on a quarter-mile track, however, and he clocked a top speed of 70 miles per hour.
“He’ll take second or third and he’ll be upset,” Tony Sr. said.
Usually hovering around 60 to 63 miles per hour, though, Gualda says speed is part of the attraction, and he is currently leading the Tulare County Kart Club standings by 35 points through seven races this season; he has five first-place finishes to date, and even took the top spot just last weekend.
With nary an injury in three years of racing – along with a roll cage, he is strapped in with a five-point harness and wears a helmet, in addition to head, neck and arm restraints – Gualda is already on track toward making a career out of go-karts. He has two more years, at the very least, with his current 200cc kart, at which point he would increase his engine to a 250cc and move another step forward to his be-all, end-all goal – the World of Outlaws sprint car series.
“When I saw their speeds and lap times,” Gualda said, “it’s all I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid.”
Added Tony Sr., rather quickly, “You still are a kid.”
