Mini Indy’s ‘Ridgetop Raceway’ out-paced prior years; STGnews Videocast

ST. GEORGE – The American flag descended from 16,000 feet onto the the runway turned racetrack at the old St. George municipal airport site, as a patriotic race day launch for over 35 racing participants of SkyWest Airline’s Mini Indy.

The City of St. George and SkyWest Airline’s 13th annual Mini Indy is a go-kart race that raises funds for United Way Dixie and the SkyWest Scholarship Fund. Donors, team and go-kart sponsors from local businesses and others around the world participate in the event which has, since its first race 13 years ago, raised over $1 million for charities. It has risen to tradition in pre-spring St. George and takes a year in the planning.

“As soon as we finished up our last year’s event we were planning this year’s” SkyWest’s Vice President of People Lori Hunt said.

For the last few years a NASCAR pace car has been a part of this event. At today’s event, ExxonMobil sponsored NASCAR driver Tony Stewart’s stand-in to lead the Mini Indy racers in the first loop around the track.

(story continues below)

Videocast by Sarafina Amodt, St. George News

In the year 2000, the Mini Indy race only had 13 racers. Today, 13 years later, the Mini Indy had over 35 racers participating, one of who was also in the 2000’s original 13: Fred Reina, with Embraer Aircraft Holding, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, calls himself one of the “bad boys” for being an “original 13.”

How did Reina get into racing?  “SkyWest brought it out of me,” he replied.

Also racing today was the Pink Ladies team, a team of women who all work for the City of St. George. This was their first year and first time racing with a custom pink go-kart painted by Jeremy Holmes.

Some of SkyWest’s employees and aircraft manufacturers also raced in today’s event.

The grand champions of the Mini Indy 2013 race were the Wencor Group, an aftermarket aerospace parts manufacturer and distributor, and Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, a seals manufacturer. They also took 1st in the Daytona Division, and 2nd in each of the divisions for best uniforms and best themes – they came dressed like the Beatles and their go-kart was a fitting “yellow submarine.” It was the second year in a row that they’ve won the grand championship and they said they didn’t expect it at all and it came to them as a surprise. With 10 years competitions under their belt, the Wencor / Trellebor team plans on coming back next year hoping for three wins in a row.

Complete results are still posting – visit Mini Indy 2013 results webpage for a complete listing.

Related posts

SkyWest’s Mini Indy returns for its 13th year, race day Friday

SkyWest’s Mini Indy returns for 2012

Mini Indy celebrates SkyWest Airlines going strong at 40 years

Mini Indy Championships Returns to St. George

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.

Mini Indi 2

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.