{"id":20100,"date":"2018-03-14T15:21:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T19:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20100"},"modified":"2018-03-14T15:23:30","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T19:23:30","slug":"20100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/20100\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora\u2019s Thompson making moves on the karting track"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

At just thirteen years old, Jake Thompson is burning rubber.
\nThe young Auroran added a number of accolades to his ever-growing trophy case in the 2017 go-karting season, and Canadian Karting News\u2019 \u201cUp and Coming Driver of the Year\u201d is ready to return to the track in 2018.
\nBehind the wheel since the age of ten, walking in his father\u2019s footsteps after doing some recreational karting himself, Jake took home four track titles as well as being named a top-ten junior driver in North America by Briggs and Stratton, a leading small engine supplier with a significant hand in the karting community.
\nThompson\u2019s home track is Stouffville\u2019s Goodwood Kartways, a historic track covering over a full kilometer of paved roadway and helping drivers hone their skills for over sixty years.
\nOn the track almost every day in the summer months for up to a hundred laps, Goodwood named Jake their most improved driver of the year last season.
\n\u201c\u2018Time in the seat\u2019 is a mantra all drivers talk about,\u201d said Jake\u2019s mother, Kerri Thompson.
\nWith multiple configurations, the ten-turn course attracts drivers from all across North America each summer, and provides the perfect setting for up-and-comers like Jake to perfect his craft.
\n\u201cGoodwood hosts weekend races which are open to the public and offer a lot of adrenaline and excitement,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cFor people who want to experience the sport, Goodwood offers an \u2018arrive and drive\u2019 program where they supply the kart, helmet and suit and run races nightly. It\u2019s super popular and tons of fun.\u201d
\nThough Thompson sings the praises of the fun, tight-knit community of kart racing, those without knowledge of the sport may not realize it is much more than just child\u2019s play. Having previously raced a four-cycle engine in his kart capable of reaching speeds of 70-80 kilometres per hour, Jake is taking it up a notch this year with a newly-released two-cycle engine with the moniker \u201cROK\u201d, reaching racing speeds of over one-hundred kph.
\n\u201cJake is moving up a level to race with more experienced and older racers this upcoming season,\u201d said Thompson. \u201c\u2026The two-cycle shifts even faster.\u201d
\nLike any good driver, Jake has a dedicated pit crew behind him, namely his coaches and former karters Dave Anderson and Lon Herder, as well as his father, who doubles as his mechanic, a job Thompson said, \u201che loves every minute at the track with Jake.\u201d
\nWith the track reopening in early April, the young karter will have plenty more checkered flags in his sights in 2018.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At just thirteen years old, Jake Thompson is burning rubber.
\nThe young Auroran added a number of accolades to his ever-growing trophy case in the 2017 go-karting season, and Canadian Karting News\u2019 \u201cUp and Coming Driver of the Year\u201d is ready to return to the track in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-15-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3D2k4-20100","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 15:41:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}