John Walko Racing
  • Home
    • About
    • John's Bio
  • Dorothy
  • Coachineering
  • Clients
    • Arms Up Motorsports
    • JDC Motorsports
  • Development
  • Contact

13-year-old Franklin Park kart star looking for major win

7/26/2019

0 Comments

 
Written By Tim Benz | Wednesday, July 24, 2019 6:15 a.m.
Luca Mars Kart Race
It could’ve been really bad.

A blow to the face after a Little League game. Right around the eye. He got knocked out.
“I was walking home, drinking my apple juice,” said Franklin Park’s Luca Mars, describing the worst injury of his life. “And a girl on the swings with cleats hit me right in the eye.”

The 13-year-old kart-racing champ lists that as his biggest mishap. Not one of his three racing-related ambulance trips, including the time he flew out of his car at high speed on the final turn and skidded across the pavement.

“I don’t know if my dad freaked out,” Mars said of his parents’ reactions to the spill. “My mom wasn’t there. But another time I crashed when my mom was there, and she flipped out.

Mars wasn’t rattled by the wreck. He was just mad he didn’t finish the race.
Cleated girls on swing sets at Little League fields? Different story

“So I guess that’s the justification,” laughed Brett Mars, Luca’s father.

Justifying — or embracing — the inherent dangers connected with auto racing is what has made Mars one of the fast-rising stars of the sport.

About to enter the eighth grade at Ingomar Middle School, Mars is making a name for himself in the racing community.
Luca mars Karting Champion
He won the 2017 Florida Winter Tour (Mini ROK), both the ROK and the SKUSA (Super Kart USA) Winter Series titles this February and the 2019 Florida Winter Tour Championship in Ocala last March.

Mars drives for Speed Concepts Racing. Mike Speed — whose son, Scott, raced on the Formula 1 circuit — formed the group. And he could tell Mars’ talent was special.
“A lot of these kids with talent, they are born with it,” Speed said. “He was one that you could tell. We just provide him with really good solid equipment and let him learn what he needs to do.”

Mars will race in the Rotax “Stars and Stripes Open” Aug. 2-4 at Wampum’s Pittsburgh International Race Complex.

“If he’s not one of the guys to beat, then we are doing something wrong with the equipment,” Speed said. “I do believe he is going to be one of the guys up front.”
If Mars’ car wins there, a ticket will be punched for him to participate in the ROK Cup Superfinal in October in Italy.

Mars finished sixth in that event last year in Brazil.

“I’ve been testing the car lately. I’ve been doing really good laps. I’ve learned a lot,” Mars said.

Mars’ father — who raced competitively as an adult — says his son’s consistency is what has allowed him to climb through the junior ranks.

“He finished in the top 3 about 88% of the time,” Brett Mars said. “It’s not about winning races. It’s about being consistent and not tearing up cars. So that’s the focus we put on. And it’s starting to reward.”

Mars has been driving since he was 6. He won the first race he entered. So he had some polish heading into the kart junior division, which is for 13- to 15-year-olds.

Having not yet hit his 14th birthday, Mars is already making waves against older drivers. And that hasn’t gone over so well. At times, he says, some older kids may have tried to wreck him out of spite.

“It doesn’t go over too well,” Mars said. “My first junior race, I was winning, and I got crashed.”

It’s not all track wars, trophies and globetrotting to exotic destinations for Mars. He admits missing up to 50 days of school isn’t as much fun as it sounds.

He’s relegated to playing a lot of catch-up for his assignments online and not getting to hang out with his friends as much as most 13-year-olds.

That balance could be even more difficult to strike as he moves up into the senior division, which corresponds with a more demanding high school course load.

Brett Mars says Luca’s career arc and the ability to mesh that with North Allegheny’s educational requirements will dictate whether he stays in the public school system. Or, he could go the private-school or home-school route.

But, pfft! C’mon! Details, details.

He gets to win money (sometimes) while driving 75 mph without a harness in 320-pound speed machines.

At 13 years old.

That’s three years before he can even approach 45 mph on McKnight Road as a regular licensed driver. That has to result in lots of street cred with your friends, right?

“It’s really cool, really fun,” Mars admitted.

A victory in Wampum in two weeks will give him bragging rights well beyond the halls of Ingomar Middle School.

He could boast all the way to Italy.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

0 Comments

Luca Mars and his team on their practice sessions that took place Monday for the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Brazil!

11/30/2018

0 Comments

 
Luca Mars Karting Brazil
Dan Schlosser
November 26, 2018  ·

So finally we get to the action today! We rolled through the gates at 6:30 (easy to do here with a 4:30 sunrise!) for three rounds of practice - 15 minute recon session followed by two 8 minute sessions. Not a lot of time to learn a brand new track and a new kart plus get back in touch with an engine package that Luca hasn’t driven since summer - but we were ready for the challenge!

The initial session was very good with Luca starting in the back of the pack and picking off 15 or so racers and looking really comfortable & aggressive. Our tactics rarely change and giving Luca the green light to hunt is always the best way to gauge his comfort level and pace. He was solidly in the top five most of the session but the last few laps had him cutting through traffic so we never really got a flier once the track came in.

A few twists were thrown at us as the day wore on including wildly varying weather where it ranged from sprinkles to raging sunshine (I swear you can touch the sun from here if you jump high enough...) to deluges to cloudy/windy. You really never knew what you were going to get when you pushed off for grid and Mother Nature rarely skipped surprises. We had a light rain as we were sitting on grid for round two and then a downpour two groups before ours for round three. Shockingly the track dried amazingly fast both times and within a few laps the drivers were at full speed.

The second session saw Luca finish P9 and looking really solid but the third session we dropped way down the charts after trying something outside the box on the kart. As we always say - when testing it doesn’t matter if your changes work or not, only that you learn something from it. We learned that change kinda stunk...

A few interesting technical tidbits from the day - the first of which is rain tires and the fact that you only get one set of a very soft tire for the entire week of practice and racing. Definitely an exercise in judgement as we weighed the what-ifs and decided to run full dry setups with dry tires regardless of the circumstances so Luca could experience the track as the rain changed the surface or the surface dried during a race.

The other curveball was that the technical regulations changed on us midday. After testing and then preparing a kart utilizing all the awesome tuning tools that Praga gives you, we were told we were unable to change steering column & spindle pick up points or front & rear ride heights. Certainly not the end of the world but it did require a change of plan & direction on the fly.

These twists and turns are the hook that keeps us coming back for more though and we have a solid plan for tomorrow after some time with Andy’s nose in the laptop! We’ll be ready for three more rounds of practice starting at 8:00 tomorrow - remember, we are two hours ahead if you are following on Live Timing.

Sorry for the lack of travel/culture notes today but in the end this is what we came to do. No matter if it’s in the middle of an Indiana cornfield or a continent away a few steps from the sun, once we are on track it becomes a bit all consuming!

If you’d like to see Luca’s perspective on the event follow the  Pittsburgh International Race Complex Instagram feed where they’ve allowed Luca to stage a takeover of their account! Thanks to the staff at our home town track for their support of Luca - very cool.
0 Comments

    Develop

    Here you can find out about our developments and experiences in coaching and engineering

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    July 2016
    November 2015
    June 2015
    June 2014
    August 2013
    November 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    November 2010
    March 2009
    February 2009
    September 2008
    August 2008
    April 2008
    February 2008
    January 2008
    December 2007
    November 2007
    October 2007
    September 2007
    August 2007
    July 2007
    June 2007
    May 2007
    February 2007
    November 2006
    October 2006
    September 2006
    July 2006
    May 2006
    April 2006
    March 2006
    February 2006
    January 2006
    December 2005
    November 2005
    October 2005
    September 2005
    July 2005
    March 2005
    February 2005
    December 2004
    November 2004
    October 2004
    September 2004
    July 2004
    June 2004
    May 2004
    March 2004
    February 2004
    January 2004
    December 2003
    January 2003
    December 2002
    May 2002
    October 2000

    Categories

    All
    Andersen Walko Racing
    Arms Up Motorsports
    Champ Car
    Dan Anderson
    Driver: Adam Pecorari
    Driver: Andrew Prendeville
    Driver: Charles Anti
    Dri/ver: Chris Livengood
    Driver: Chris Livengood
    Driver: Chris Winkler
    Driver Development
    Driver: Doug Prendeville
    Driver: Gerry Kraut
    Driver: Graham Rahal
    Driver: James Roe
    Driver: John Zartarian
    Driver: Jonathan Klein
    Driver: Kevin Lacroix
    Driver: Kevin Toledo
    Driver: Luca Mars
    Driver: Mark Bumgarner
    Driver: Michael Guasch
    Driver: Michelle Bumgarner
    Driver: Mike Andersen
    Driver: Mike Guasch
    Driver: Mike Hill
    Driver: Pablo Donoso
    Driver: Ramiro Scuncio
    Driver: Robbie Pecorari
    Driver: Ross Smith
    Driver: Russell Walker
    Driver: Scott Andrews
    Driver: Scott Willard
    Driver: Steve Welk
    Driver: Trent Walko
    F2000
    Firman
    Formula Atlantic
    Formula Continental
    Formula Ford
    Fuel Mileage Friday
    IMSA Prototype Challenge
    IndyCar
    JDC Motorsports
    John Walko Racing
    JWR Alumni Update
    Karting
    Kate Gundlach
    Ligier Norma LMP3
    LMP3
    Mazda
    NASCAR
    Norma Auto
    Pi Research
    Pitt FSAE
    Pittsburgh Auto Show
    PRL Motorsports
    Ralph Firman
    Road To Indy
    SCCA
    Sebring
    Star Mazda
    Track: Buttonwillow
    Track: Carolina Motorsports
    Track: Cleveland
    Track: Firebird
    Track: Fontana
    Track: Houston
    Track: Laguna Seca
    Track: Lime Rock
    Track: Mid Ohio
    Track: Mosport
    Track: NJ Motorsports Park
    Track: Phoenix
    Track: PittRace
    Track: Portland
    Track: Road America
    Track: Road Atlanta
    Track: Roebling Road
    Track: Sebring
    Track: St. Petersburg
    Track: Summit Point
    Track: Utah
    Track: VIR
    Track: Watkins Glen
    Trucking Business
    USF2000
    Van Diemen
    WKA World Karting Assoc
    WKA - World Karting Assoc
    Work Racing

    RSS Feed

Location

Contact Us

John Walko Racing
41 Wallace Avenue
Trafford, PA 15085

Tel:412.414.3304
© 2021 John Walko Racing.  All Rights Reserved
site design: Rapid Production Marketing
  • Home
    • About
    • John's Bio
  • Dorothy
  • Coachineering
  • Clients
    • Arms Up Motorsports
    • JDC Motorsports
  • Development
  • Contact