The 14-year-old Kelowna boy is on the verge of the biggest race of his life and someone has stolen a vital piece of his racing equipment.

Precision Autos in Westside was robbed early Sunday morning and three professional go karts, including Brodie‘s $10,000 2008 CRG, were stolen.

Accessories such as CRG chassis, Vortex Rok motors, Vega tires, magnesium wheels, tools and VP 5 gallon fuel pails, along with a generator and compressor were also stolen between midnight and 1 a.m. Sunday.

Brodie, who has been driving go carts since he was nine-years-old, was supposed to be driving in Edmonton next weekend in the final race of the Western Canadian Rok Cup series.

If he does well at this race he could become the Canadian Rok Cup Junior Champion and win a trip to represent Canada at the Rok Cup World Finals in Italy.

He will not be able to replace the kart before the race.

“I’m really disappointed of course, that someone would do this. If the kart isn’t returned by Wednesday, my family and I will have to start looking for another kart for me to drive, which will put me at a bit of a disadvantage in the race because I am used to driving my kart,” says Brodie.

He says he hopes the person who stole the karts either return them to the police or are spotted.

“You can’t just drive these things on the roads without being spotted. I just hope we get it back because this theft is really setting my family and my team back. It’s difficult to come back from a loss like this.”

Danny Kacic, owner of Kacic Motorsports, says they too just want the karts back.

“I don’t think the person or persons responsible realize just what they’ve taken. These thieves think they’ve stolen some toys, but this theft could have a devastating impact on our business. The three drivers of the karts, especially Marcus, all had so much on the line in terms of this up coming race in Edmonton,” says Kacic.

He says because of the karts’ distinctiveness, they can’t be sold for parts.

“They are very well known in the racing community. They would be easily identified by someone in the community.”

Kacic says one of the karts was seen/heard on Westlake Road just past Rose Valley Elementary.

“The wife of a friend was driving just a few blocks from the shop and was passed by someone driving one of the stolen karts. This was around 9 p.m. Sunday, but RCMP couldn’t get to the scene fast enough to find it. Plus, they are very busy and recovering stolen recreational vehicles aren’t a priority for them.”

The karts have black chassis with black/silver/orange bodywork and are labelled ‘CRG.’

Two of the stolen karts are #22 and #35, they are missing the front bumpers, they are close to the ground, open wheeled and go up to 180 km/h on an open road.

Due to the fact that the items were in a trailer and a storage unit, they are not covered by insurance.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story–101-.htm

Kelowna RCMP have recovered one of three go-karts recently stolen from a Westside business.

News of the theft has generated local media attention because one of the karts belongs to 14-year-old Marcus Brodie of Kelowna who is in Edmonton this weekend for one of the biggest races of his young career.

Brodie is competing in the Western Canadian Rok Cup series. A win means a trip to Italy where he would be representing Canada at the Rok Cup World Finals.

Police recovered one of the stolen carts Wednesday in the Ellison area.

“The Kelowna RCMP were called to a residence in the Ellison area by the owner who found out the Go-Kart had been dropped off by acquaintances of a friend of his son,” says Sergeant Terry McLaughlin. “The owner immediately called the Kelowna RCMP to report the items being there. Two males in the local area were questioned by police as persons of interest and determined not to be involved.”

Sergeant McLaughlin says the recovered kart is not the one belonging to Brodie. But he says there is hope.

“The Go-Kart is not the one belonging to Marcus Brodie unfortunately, however this does offer the hope that his will be recovered shortly.”

Brodie races for Danny Kacic of Kacic Motorsports.

Kacic says the theft has been an emotional rollercoaster.

“I’m so disappointed in people — that somebody can actually do something like this, but I also feel that people actually care after learning that one of the karts has been recovered.”

Kacic says despite the thefts, Brodie will be racing this weekend.

“He’s still pretty upset with fact that the theft occurred. We’re preparing another setup for Edmonton but he’s not thrilled with driving another kart that he’s not familiar with. He’s also not thrilled that the one that has been recovered was not his.”

http://castanet.net/edition/news-story-40914-1-.htm#40914

BCKCA Regional Race two took place in Chilliwack on July 12th-14th. Team Kacic attended the event with drivers Marcus Brodie, Jesse Keller, Danny Kacic and Team Kacic’s newest team driver T.J Shopa from Quesnel, B.C. Davor Kacic was the Team Coach and Mechanic while Danny Kacic represented the team by Driving in the Supper Tag Class.

In the Jr. Tag Class Marcus Brodie completely dominated. Marcus was was consistently lapping over one second faster than that any other drivers in Jr. Tag. Not only did Marcus win every heat for the weekend but he also had the fastest lap of the weekend, 51.40 seconds. Marcus Brodie is now the 2008 Jr. three Regional Champion.

T.J Shopa making his first trip to Kart B.C had an exciting battle for for third place. T. J went on to finish the final on Sunday in fourth.

On Saturday Jesse Keller finished first in the Rok Cup class and took second on Sunday. Kellers performance in Cart BC was exactly what he needed to clinch the BCKCA Regional 2008 Rok Championship. Danny Kacic Qualified his CRG/Rok TT on pole and want on to win the pre final. Danny was disqualified from the pre final and had to start the final from last place.

For the Sunday Supper tag Race Danny once again qualified on Pole. In the Pre final Danny experienced a carb but was able to charge his way back through the field to finish in fifth, setting the fastest lap of the race. Danny Kacic started the final in fifth spot and started working his way to the front. Unfortunately Danny finished third in the final.

Here is the link to see photos from Race 1 in Quesnel submitted by George Fellner.

Photos from Race 1 in Quesnel submitted by George Fellner.

The weekend got off to a great start with Keller getting P2 behind teammate Kacic P1 and Saruk P3 in the Rok class. Rok class was on the track with the Leopards class and made for an interesting race. Keller got off to a great start jumping up to 3rd over all into the second corner and ended up holding off most of the field to finish 2nd in the Rok class. Key note the leopard motors rev up to 16000 RPM and the Rok motor rev’s to 13000. Marcus Brodie took 1st place in Junior TAG on Saturday.

Sunday’s TAG race was the main event of the weekend, with all the drivers from the individual Leopard, Rotax, and Rok classes coming together to race as one large class. Kacic and Saruk switched to the Rok TT engine while Keller stayed in the greatly under powered spec 125 Rok motor for the TAG main event. Kacic’s qualifying was cut short after only three laps when he drove into the dirt avoiding a stalled kart in turn two and was unable to continue, fortunately his first lap was still good enough to place him off pole, while Saruk qualified in 8th. Keller had starting issues and was only able to do 1 hot lap and started the Final TAG race in 15th.

In race one Keller made is way to the middle of the field to finish in 8th. Kacic gained the lead into turn one. It was a close race with several lead changes but Kacic led the last quarter of the race to take the win. In race two, Kacic led the entire race from pole position until the last corner of the last lap where he ran into lap traffic and ended up finishing 3rd.

I purchased a helmet camera and got the entire race. The race featured some of the best kart drivers in North America. Devon Sandee, Stars of Karting (spec racer) North American Champion 2006 and 2007

Thanks to all my sponsors for their support. Every kart that passes me is running a Leopard motor.

In the Rok Masters Class Team Kacic had Bruce Campbell and new comer Jason Boden. Bruce and Jason had a great battle for fifth position witch eventually went to Bruce Campbell. Jason brought home his Team Kacic/CRG in sixth.

In Canadian Sr Rok , Team Kacic had Davor Kacic, Jesse Keller and Johnathan Rasiah. In practice Davor was an impressive fourth fastest . For qualifying Davor could not match his practiced times and qualified a disappointing tenth. Jesse Keller had some miscommunication with the race director before qualifying and posted a disappointing 13th fastest time. Jonathan qualified in nineteenth. In Race one Jesse had an amazing start jumping up into 7th however a gamble with his set up left him without the pace of the top ten and finished the race bettering his qualifying position in twelfth. Davor finishing fifth.

In race two Jesse once again finished in twelfth and Davor decided to gamble with his jetting, witch unfortunately back fired and resulted in a drastic lack of power. Davor slipped from fourth to eventually finish in tenth.

Both Jesse and Davor took points in both races and need top 5 finishes in Regina to have a chance at winning the 2008 Canadian Rok Cup.

About Kon Kast Product Ltd.

Kon Kast Product Ltd. manufactures precast concrete products serving the Greater Kelowna area. For more information about Saxon Mechanical Ltd. please visit their web site at www.konkast.com