(St. Louis, MO - April 23rd, 2006) -- We were really excited to head back to our home kart track (SLKA) for their season opener Sunday April 23rd. We came into the event with many spare parts and a very organized trailer. We also loaded 2 sets of rain tires just in case the weather permitted them. Shane was running the Tag 125cc Senior class while Evan ran the TaG 125cc Jr class.

(Click here to see Photos of Evan's New 2006 Kart) Shane's will be posted soon.

Both driver had a pretty good qualifying run. Evan jumped right out on top with a 40.911 and an average speed of 48.398 mph followed be Christian Vogel in qualifying. Shane was able to pick up 3rd with a 39.299 and an average speed of 50.383 mph. Matt Riggs went on to grab the pole.

In the pre-final, Evan would go on to lead flag to flag and take the checkered. Once again Vogel was right on his bumper for a few laps during the middle of the race. Shane would make a few adjustments to his kart and improve his lap time but not the results. Shane is in a much heavier class this season. As a result the brakes were much more sensitive. On the last couple laps Shane would loose most of his brakes and he would be forced to drive many corners a lot different to try and save the brakes and make them last until the end. He would make them last and come in 4th.

In the feature, both drivers would have major problems. On the first lap of the race Evan while in the lead would drop a wheel coming off turn 9. This would cause him to loose a chain. He would be forced to a DNF after a great weekend performance up until that point. Shane would have another goal in mind at the start of his feature, FINISH. We knew our brakes had major problems and it would be a struggle to make them last the entire 16 lap race. We were correct and around lap 8 he again developed spongy brakes. Shane was forced to drive very conservative with the brakes. For the second time he would make them last and come home with a 4th place finish.

The brakes were very bad when Shane came of the track. When the crew grabbed the brake as hard as he could you could still turn the axle with you hand. This happened in both the pre-final and feature. We bled the brakes after the pre-final but it did not help. We are going to up out brake system on our Intrepid Chassis. We are going to put a drilled rotor on for sure and we might add dual calipers as well. This was a major problem and could have turned out a lot worse then it did since SLKA is so hard on brakes.

Next week Walters Motorsports will head to I-55 Raceway Saturday. We will also head to Tri-City Speedway Sunday if the car does not get tore up that bad on Saturday. Both events will be in the Impressive DIRT Sportsman Car. Last time at I-55 we had the best DIRT car we ever had. we took a ton of notes and we will match the set-up we had the last time. We will look for some good results with a goal of a top 10. After the event and stay tuned to the website for a race report, photos, and results to be posted on both Shane's 2006 schedule.

Walters Motorsports would like to thank all our sponsors for there continued support to the team and racing in general. Those include; Caribbean Creme, Champion Racing, Intrepid Kart Technology, Walters Web Design, WMS Race Parts, Home Service Oil Co., Shane Walters Photography, Impressive Race Cars, Hovis Racing Engines, and Mayhem Motorgraphixx.

Media Contact: Walters Motorsports -
Shane@WaltersMotorsports.com
www.WaltersMotorsports.com