2025 Thor’s Throwdown Ignite Senior Heat – photo by Megan Woodson
Karting is a very expensive sport. From buying karts and equipment, entry fees, repair bills, it’s easy to spend 4 figures or more each year on racing, and in many cases, the most you get out of it is a plastic trophy or medal to put on a bookshelf and stare at. On the rarest of occasions, however, a track or a series will host an annual event with an actual cash prize on the line. Now living up north, I am lucky enough to have a couple of those events on my calendar.
Enter Badger Kart Club, and their annual Thor’s Throwdown race, with a $1,000 check and a big hammer trophy on the line for the winner. This would be my first time racing for an actual cash prize, and for my bank account to be at a net-positive after a race weekend. I would be running in the Ignite Senior class with Bobby Krug Racing Services wrenching for me, and after missing out on the Dairyland 8hr podium, we were on the path to redemption.
The menu for this weekend was a Saturday practice day and a Sunday race day. On Saturday I got to do 6 test sessions, which was 6 times as many tests as I had done the whole season up to this point. Needless to say, the extra seat time got me up to speed quickly and feeling great going into Sunday, looking to be one of the frontrunners in Ignite Senior.
The Sunday schedule was a simple practice, qualifying, heat, dash, and feature. All finishing/starting positions would be progressive from one session to the next, and a dice roll would decide how many grid positions get inverted for the 6-driver dash race.
Rolling out for practice we got off to a flying start, scoring the fastest time of that session. In qualifying, I was only good enough for third, missing out on the $50 pole bonus. Next was the 10-lap heat race, that would decide the 6 dash drivers and the starting grid for the final.
I started the heat third behind Ashton Wheeler and Louis Palmisano, who looked to be my biggest competition for the hammer. As the heat race got going, the three of us started to separate ourselves from the rest of the field, trading positions periodically throughout the race. In the end, the finishing order stayed almost the same way it started, with Palmisano taking the win, Wheeler in second, and myself in third.
Next was the 6-driver, 4-lap dash race for $100. The giant die landed on a 2, inverting just the front row, meaning I still start third. Since this race is so short, I would have to fire off fast and make moves quickly. The green flag flew, and immediately I started pushing by the outside lane to get second from Palmisano. After some scrambling in the first few turns I managed to get the position off of Palmisano with Wheeler just up the road in the lead.
Going through the boot I felt the kart bind up a bit, which pushed me back to third. Then in the next corner it happened again, and then the kart didn’t want to turn or accelerate. Knowing something had gone wrong, frustratingly, I had to pull off at the end of lap 1 and retire from the dash race. It turned out that my kart was missing one of its two motor mounts, and the engine had rotated to the left a bit, sending the chain out of alignment. No idea when the motor mount came off, or how, but it did.
Ahead of the feature race, to avoid a repeat issue, I put in a new motor mount and checked every part of the motor/drive assembly of the kart to make sure it was working properly. Checking if all parts were intact, screws were tight, possible frame cracks, sprocket alignment and chain tension, and then checking all of that at least two or three times over. I did not want anything to stand in my way of bringing home a hammer.
My result for the heat race would put me third on the grid for the feature race, for all the marbles. All I had to do was play my cards right, not make any mistakes, and wait for the right moment to pounce. The officials send us out on track for our warm-up lap, and before I even get to the first turn, the chain starts skipping. Then it happens again, and again. My kart had developed another terminal issue, and my hopes of winning the hammer were shattered before the race even began.
I then got to watch the rest of the field take the green flag as I wheeled my disabled kart back to the BKRS tent. The culprit was what I can only describe as a complete sprocket/sprocket hub failure. The chain had popped out, the sprocket had bent, and all 6 of the quick-change bolts in the hub had bent as well. I talked to Bobby about it, I talked to Jim Perry from CKT, and all the other drivers came up to me asking about it, and everybody was just as confused as I was. Another unforeseeable freak issue that took away a chance of a massive win.
There are only three times in my entire racing career where I have felt this defeated and hopeless after a race: the 2021 iDrive Shootout, the 2025 Quincy Grand Prix, and today. I had done everything right, I was one of the fastest, if not the fastest driver all weekend, and everyone knew I would be in contention to win the race. Per my luck though, something had to screw it all up.
Big thanks as always to Bobby Krug Racing Services and CKT Racing Engines for the help they’ve given me all season long. With only a couple big-ticket events left on the calendar for 2025, I can only hope that soon I can get a result that reflects the work that myself and everyone else around me has put in.