SPENCERPORT, N.Y. — Coyote Motorsports’ winning ways this year weren’t only at the sprint tracks. On the road racing scene, LAD Specialties racer Patrick Olsen proudly carried the Coyote banner with a pair of national championships in the super competitive Yamaha enduro divisions with the World Karting Association and American Kart Racing Association, the two most competitive series in the country for enduro-style road racing.
Olsen and the LAD Specialties team traveled all over the eastern half of the country in 2022 with their popular red No. 145 TKM Coyote Bullet chassis, and they accomplished some great success in the process.
The team opened the season with P2 and P3 finishes in 26-kart Yamaha Senior fields at Daytona KartWeek in December 2021 and returned to the southeast in March to finish P2 in both finals at Roebling Road Raceway in Georgia.
The AKRA National Road Race Series opened in May at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia, where Olsen finished P3 in Saturday’s 31-kart field before scoring his first national win of the year in Sunday’s race against another stacked field of enduro Yamaha racers.
(Kart Lounge photo)
Second-place finishes in a 40-kart field at Mid-Ohio in June and Nelson Ledges, Ohio, in July kept the Wisconsin native near the top of the standings into the late season. He capped off the year with another win against a 38-kart field at Pittsburgh International in September to clinch championships in the WKA and AKRA series.
The 30-year-old Olsen, a multi-time WKA sprint national champion in Yamaha divisions during the heyday of the Manufacturers Cup Series, pointed to Coyote’s and LAD’s Don and Scott Grenier’s development of the Bullet chassis as one of the key ingredients to the team’s success.
“With my sprint background, I always want the enduro to handle like a modern CIK kart, and this new Coyote Bullet really gives me the feel I’ve been looking for since I started road racing,” Olsen said. “Scott and Don Grenier have done a great job developing this chassis with Coyote. The kart responds to setup changes, there’s little steering input needed, and it handles well at any track we go to.”
A full-length enduro race is 45 minutes in distance, giving both drivers and chassis plenty of time to either gain speed or fall off. Olsen says his Coyote gives him the consistency he needs to challenge for wins late in races.
“Having good pace for the entire 45 minutes is one of the major priorities for us,” he said. “The kart handles amazing throughout the entirety of most races we go to. Everyone in the pipe class has consistently been running the Vega yellow compound tires, which are very soft, therefore it’s super important the chassis doesn’t fall off after even 15 minutes of run time. I would credit a lot of wins and both championships to that ability.”
Olsen wished to thank a long list of supporters for his success in 2022.
(Bruce Walls photo)
“My wife and kids’ support is No. 1, and of course Don and Scott and LAD Specialties and Mark and Jim Lipari at Coyote are all instrumental in this team. Tom Fehring at SMC for developing this outstanding new clutch, Kris McCrone with Three-Tenths Race Products, Vega Tires, RLV, Signature Signs, Scott and Doug Stauffer and Brian and Gary Ellis for helping develop the chassis data. And thanks to WKA and AKRA and the host clubs for putting on all the events. It was a great year and we’re looking forward to keeping it going in 2023,” Olsen said.
Olsen’s first race of the new year is only a couple weeks away with WKA’s annual Road Race Championships December 27-30 at Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile super speedway road course. Olsen is one of 24 racers already entered for the Yamaha Senior divisions at Daytona.
After KartWeek, he says the team’s tentative plans are to continue following the Dart Kart Club-hosted AKRA races at Mid-Ohio, Nelson Ledges and Pittsburgh, and they hope to make it to the East Coast as many times as possible for new WKA events at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Carolina Motorsports Park and Woodbridge Kart Club’s AKRA National at the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research (NCCAR).
TKM Coyote Bullet Road Race Chassis are in stock at LAD Specialties in Illinois. For information, contact LAD at 708-430-1588 and visit their website at ladspecialties.com.
Coyote Motorsports wishes to congratulate Patrick Olsen and the LAD Specialties team on a terrific multi-championship winning 2022 season.
Coyote Motorsports is an American kart chassis manufacturer located near Rochester, New York, since 1976.
To learn more about Coyote, visit our official website at CoyoteKarts.com, shop for parts and components at our online store at CoyoteKarts.com/shop, or contact the shop at 585-352-0806 10am to 5pm, Monday thru Friday.
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