Nice stories being told amid buzz of Superkart SuperNationals

By RON KANTOWSKI LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

There was a buzz around the Las Vegas Convention Center and Westgate Las Vegas this week that had nothing to do with the annual Marijuana Business Conference and Expo. This was a buzz created by 250cc engines at the Superkarts! USA SuperNationals.

Everywhere you turned there were kids in racing coveralls and helmets, and some of the helmets were so large they made the small kids wobble or list to one side. There were grown-ups racing karts, too, such as Alexander Rossi, the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion. I was told Rossi wanted to give something back to the youngsters. But if truth be told, I think he was mostly here because racing karts seems in a parking lot like tons of fun, even for grown-ups.

In the paddock, where dads worked on the karts and sons (and daughters) wobbled about in their helmets, was a woman from Boulder City and a younger woman from the Indianapolis area waiting for the latter’s heat race to start.

The woman from Boulder City was Angela Savage, who father, Swede Savage, was a racing star in the making when he died in 1973 as a result of a fiery wreck at the Indianapolis 500. His daughter was born a few months later.

The younger woman from the Indianapolis area was Abby McLaughlin, who has been racing karts since she was 5 and is the highest ranked female in her class. Her father runs her multi-kart race team.

Angela and Abby have forged a relationship, and now Angela, who for years was bitter because auto racing had taken her father, has at long last embraced the sport. She is promoting young Abby. They are part of an all-female racing team headed by Pippa Mann, a female racer from England who has driven in five Indy 500s and finished 18th this year.

Abby said she was captivated by Angela’s story, her epiphany, how she came to embrace the sport that had taken her father. Angela said she imagined her dad would have loved watching the young kart racers blister the asphalt, how she is sort of living vicariously through Abby in her quest to follow in Pippa Mann and her father’s tire tracks.

Abby McLaughlin wants to discover what auto racing might bring her. Angela Savage wants to recover a little of what it has taken away.

The engines were buzzing again. In a little while, Abby would be going out for her heat race.

QUICK DRAW MCCAW

Former UNLV star Patrick McCaw, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant combined for 70 points in the Golden State Warriors’ 127-121 victory at Toronto on Wednesday. Curry had 25, Durant had 20, McCaw had 5. But McCaw earned the most plaudits from Warriors beat writer Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News.

McCaw played a career-high 21 minutes, and looked resplendent in a yellow-gold headband. He played the final 7:35 of a competitive game. (He played 16 minutes scoring two points in a win over the Celtics on Friday.)

Wrote Kawakami: “If (Warriors coach Steve) Kerr is this comfortable with McCaw now … there are some implications for the rest of this season. Big implications.”

GOING TO POT

Ryan Clement, the former Miami Hurricanes quarterback and starting QB for the defunct Las Vegas Outlaws of the equally defunct XFL founded by wrestling impresario Vince McMahon, was back in town this week after having gone to pot.

Clement is an attorney — take that Vinny Testaverde — in the Denver suburbs, and a lobbyist and advocate for the legalized marijuana industry, which held a convention here this week.

Nevada passed Question 2 on Election Day, which will permit adults 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis or cannabis concentrate starting Jan. 1. Similar questions were passed in California, Massachusetts and Maine, and other states — Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota — made it legal for doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to patients.

Clement said this was great news for him — almost as great as throwing a couple of touchdown passes against the Memphis Maniax. It also means some of his ex-Hurricanes teammates probably will start calling him again looking for jobs.

BABE ROOF

This was mostly a week to celebrate and sing hosannas to Kris Bryant, the local slugger named National League MVP after helping the Chicago Cubs win their first World Series in 108 years. But there also was a strange report of a Japanese slugger hitting a ball through the roof of the Tokyo Dome in a World Baseball Classic exhibition game against the Netherlands, and that rekindled a memory of Bryce Harper, Las Vegas’ other swatting sultan.

When he was still in high school, Harper swatted a baseball estimated to have traveled 502 feet before hitting the back wall of the dome at Tropicana Field. It was to said to have flown over railroad tracks and loading docks and stuff.

Shoehei Otani, who plays for the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League and has been called the Japanese Babe Ruth or Madison Bumgarner — he’s a pitcher, outfielder and designated hitter — drove a ball through a small hole in the roof against the Dutch. Otani was awarded a ground-rule double.

The announcers oohed and aahed in Japanese. The umpires looked pretty clueless about what to do.

TAKING A KNEE

* Who knew UNLV was a soccer school? The Rebels were one of just four programs from mid-major conferences (Charlotte, Albany, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) to send both their men’s and women’s teams to their respective NCAA Tournaments — and the men still are playing. After ousting San Diego State in a penalty-kick thriller, UNLV will face undefeated Denver in a second round game in the Rocky Mountain shadows at 4 p.m. Sunday.

* And what about the College of Southern Nevada men’s soccer team? The Coyotes, featuring an entire roster of local players, made it all the way to the National Junior College Athletic Association championship tournament before being eliminated in pool play by Monroe College of New York and Daytona State College of Florida. They finished 16-2-2.

* “This is just the beginning …” That’s the first thing Mike Bryant said when a reporter asked about his son, Kris, being named MVP of the National League on Thursday. That is what it also said on the bricks beyond the Wrigley Field ivy that Kris Bryant signed in chalk as part of a new Red Bull video campaign. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMGuamYegQM

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.

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