The 17th annual Faye 'Ladybug' Pierson Memorial Vintage Kart Reunion

Following the cancellation of the 2021 event because of COVID-19 the event was rebranded as the Faye 'Ladybug' Pierson Memorial Vintage Kart Reunion and dedicated to the memory of Faye who was forever referred to as the Queen of Karting and quite rightly so. Faye was at all tines a very regal person and worthy of the title; sadly Faye passed on the 6th of March 2021 aged 92 having driven her Bug kart for the last time at the 2020 Adams vintage reunion just before the onset of the dreaded virus and lockdown.

Since 1959 Adams Motorsports Park has been Southern California’s home of kart racing and is said to be the longest continuously running kart facility in the world. While the original layout from 1959 remains, the track has grown and changed to become one of the most challenging kart racing circuits anywhere; its famous Monza banked corners are legendary.

Many of the enthusiastic reunion participants began arriving on Wednesday 2nd of February to prepare for practice starting on Thursday. Another very good reason to be in attendance on Thursday was to savour the complimentary lunch provided by Max-Torque, the legendary Chicago clutch manufacturer, a company that has been associated with karting from the early days of the sport to the present, some 62 years of continuous clutch production.

As well as availing of the complimentary lunch many attendees took the early opportunity to search the swap meet tables looking for an elusive part needed to finish up an engine, clutch or chassis project. The largest trader by far was a gentleman called Randy Coons whose late father-in-law John Motley owned Yamaha of San Luis Obispo which back in the day had an associated kart shop. It appeared that Randy had brought all the contents of the kart shop including a Sunnen hone to Adam in the back of a huge trailer!