How the Young Guns came to be…. It’s was a Sunday morning after a not so desirable night of quarter midget racing. It’s not that we were bored of racing quarter midgets, or that we were too good and needed something harder to do.  But all of the work on the track, cars and club had become “stagnant”.  My driver had shown me signs that he was ready to do something bigger and faster, but what?  He was too young to run a 270 micro at most of the tracks within 4 hrs of our home, and the few tracks he could race only had 3 or 4 other cars to race against.  Also, the “rookie” classes had adults in them, and tend to be a crash fest.  A Slingshot?…. NO WAY! I’m not the type of person to be told how much air pressure I can run, let alone who I have to spend my money with.  Plus I am an “Open Wheel” fan, and if I have anything to do with it, my son will be in a car with open wheels and open cockpit.

So I guess the answer was easy, start a new club for kids,10 to 15 years old in an open wheel car that is faster then a quarter midget, can run on a bigger track, have a motor that will be dependable, but have plenty of horse power to put on a good show, not be too expensive, be able to run any chassis or shock you choose, not too many rules, wingless, have a car that can be used after you are finished running with the YG390 club, and make it fun for the kids to drive… EASY, RIGHT?

So what is one of the most common open wheel racecar, I mean a “real race car”???

A 270 micro sprint was the answer. Lots of Good chassis manufacturers in Pa.  Lots of good used cars to buy. The car is small enough to get a 70 Lb. driver in it, but big enough to run the bigger tracks.  Plus the car is light and can be powered by a single cylinder motor. You can use the car after you have finished running with the YG390 crowd.  And the big factor, they look awesome wingless!  So some of my close friends from the quarter midget races sat down and hashed out my idea to make the “next big thing”.  It was funny how we all came up with the same ideas like what the club needs to do to make this a good thing, what the car needs to be like, and most important, the rules.  Not too many, just some to keep the cheaters at bay.  We needed to keep it fun with a motor that is the same for everyone. So, I made some phone calls to some of the big names in the motor sports world, RTS chassis, Penske Racing Shocks, Ultra Shield and Hoosier Tires. With the help of these people I built the first YG390 Jr. Sprint and they are proudly our Series Sponsors.  Now I needed a power plant.

Which brings us to the motor.  I ran a Honda 160 Mod motor with the quarter midgets. So why not build something like that, but only bigger?  They use the Honda 390 in Mini Cup cars, and Honda does make one of the most dependable motors in the world. Plus they have all kinds of great after market parts to make them even stronger. So with the help of Greg Souder , Steve Youtz and Terry Schaffer we fit our own, very tricked out, alky burning Honda YG390 motor into a RTS chassis.

We set out just hoping it would stay together for 10 laps, and it did. So we set our sights a bit higher. How would this thing do with an adult driving it?  So we asked Bill Case, an ARDC midget driver to test one of the two cars we brought to Snydersville Speedway in the Fall of 2007.   Not only could he not break it, he was truly impressed by the amount of “pull” the motor had coming off the turns. We also put several of our interested YG390 drivers in the other car and they were just as fast if not faster…. almost a full second and a half faster then the adult Slingshots.

It’s now the start of the 2008 race season and the YG390’s are competing full force.  We have spent much time showing off the cars and drivers, hoping to get more people signed on. We get faster and faster every week, and seem to impress more and more people with the mature driving the Young Gun kids have shown.

So if you feel your driver is mature enough, and is looking to hone their skills with some of the best young dirt drivers in Pa. The Young Guns 390 Jr. Sprints may be your new avenue to fun and fierce competition in a real racecar.

                        Jeff Sacks, Founder and President

                        YOUNG GUNS 390 JUNIOR SPRINTS

Rules

• Downloadable PDF format of the YG390 rules!