In 1960
Everet Regal started building
and racing go carts. In his words, he was very heavy at the time, about
190 lb and that was a major drawback in cart racing. Everet had a little
580 West Bend which he used to race at the
Weedsport, New
York Race Track on Sunday afternoons. He carried the cart back and
forth in the trunk of his car.
The race track was run by an old fellow by the name of
Carl Schram,
right next to the New York State Thruway. During that time, Everet competed
against some good drivers, who were a lot lighter than he was, and were
a lot more skilled than he was.
One such driver, at 17 years old,
Fay Parmley. According to Everet,
"Fay could drive like Mario Andretti. I was so impressed. He always
passed me on the straights like I wasn't out there." Everet determined
the only chance he had against Fay was to find a way to build some more
power to make up for his lessor driving skills. He took the crank shaft
from one West Bend engine, modified it and put it into another. This
gave the new engine a longer stroke.
The following weekend they raced again. "I passed Fay on the back
stretch for the first time ever! He was so impressed with that engine
he came right over and asked me what I had done. I told him my modification,
but didn't tell anyone else. I knew he had the driving skills needed
to win and I believed I had the mechanical skills needed to build a
winner."
Everet never ran that single engine again, but asked Fay if he would
like to race a twin engine cart if he built it. "He was so excited,
as he was just a school kid and had never raced a twin engine cart before!"
Everet put a pair of stroked,
610 West Bend engines side by side
and they raced them in the 820 cc class all over the state, winning
everywhere they went.
"The first night we raced in
Fulton, New York at the blacktop
Milray Stockcar Track and averaged
92 mph! They announced over
the loudspeakers that it was faster than the stockcars were turning! That
was l961. After that year, I don't believe I saw Fay again until 1968."
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