Mario Pazos, today OTK Head of Foreign Markets, remembers his 1976 trip across Argentina to race with the pros. 

In 1976, many of you readers weren’t even born yet. Yet, folks were already getting serious with go-karts, far and wide around the globe. I was one of them.
That year the South American Championship was being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
I talked about it with my buddy-mechanic Juan (Sanchez, years later he joined Comer-Top Kart as an engineer) and we decided we just couldn’t miss it. We were young, full of dreams, and without a penny to our name.
Hugo Scarlatto, the defending Argentinian Champion, owed us a couple of favors, so we convinced him to let us borrow his red Méhari: a 2 CV jeep-style cabriolet Citroën with a glass-fiber body.
Before leaving, we spent the morning breaking in the only engine we had on a closed strip of highway that was a karter hot spot. And it seized on us!
It was an English ZIP, so we set off on a pilgrimage visiting every preparer in Buenos Aires to find the right piston. In the end we got it from the “Turk”, Salmun Feijo, the Swiss Hutless importer. After reboring and doing another break-in.…