24 hours, 200 laps, drive to survive

Build a go-kart in 24 hours. Check. Manoeuvre 200 laps around the track. Pending. Win The 2025 Spark Plug Cup. Pending.

Joël Grenier’s team, Moonshadow Hogs, are the two-time defending champions at St Labre 200.

St Labre 200 is a weekend long go-kart racing event. On July 4, teams had 24 hours to build, weld, and test drive their vehicles to prepare for racing on the dirt track the following day.

“Nothing exists prior to the weekend,” said Joël. “Especially with the heat it is a challenge. The first little bit goes well, but after that: fatigue, heat, humidity, and opinions start getting different. The whole team building aspect gets pushed to the limit.”

The competition is split into two heats where drivers try to complete 100 laps, and those with the best times move towards the finals where they loop around the track for another 100 laps.

Teams receive a go-kart kit with 15 mandatory parts. The engine can’t be modified, but the frame of the vehicle is up to the crew.

“Every time you make one change, it will affect what you do later during the build. To be 10 steps ahead is very difficult,” he said. “The running joke is that I’m never satisfied.”

Joël is quality control of the crew and will know if he is satisfied depending on where they place in the race, he said while laughing with his teammates.

There were 20 teams competing.

“The track falls apart as the race goes on. We start off it’s nice. And as the little wheels start going through, they start cutting up the entire track. It falls apart. Then you start driving to survive,” said Joël.

The key to build a kart for survival and performance which got him a two-peat championship: little to no suspension.

“We don’t run any suspension. We just run tough drivers,” he said.

Joël said if they win a three-peat championship, the debate of suspension or no suspension will be put to rest.

Suspension helps absorb bumps or impacts on the road.

His team finished building their pink kart at 11 p.m. Friday.

“It’s the camaraderie. The fun rivalries. The put downs,” he said. “When you’re driving it’s a lot of emotions… but cool heads always prevail on the track.”

His crew’s average pit stop time is around 13 seconds.

The race hasn’t started yet, and the bleachers are full, and many people are sitting on the grass. Over 2,000 people are expected to attend the event.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Joël. “We put St Labre back on the map.”

There were around 75 volunteers for the event.

He said some people in the community have weekends circled in their calendar, and St Labre 200 is one of them.

“I’ve made so many friends through the event and then seeing them continuously come back they tell me: ‘there’s Christmas and there’s St Labre 200,’” he said.

Their profits go to their Giving Back to the Community program, where they donate money to local organizations. The total amount raised this year has not been finalized.

“We’re still human, we can still get together. It’s up to us to build and shape our communities how we want them to be and be a positive influence,” he said.

Joël recently resigned a couple months ago as the president of the St Labre 200’s board.

“I don’t have the same passion as I used to,” he said. “Busy. Life. It’s just a feeling I have, I guess. It’s just time to pass the torch.”

He plans to spend more time with his family.

“This is my backyard,” said the 42-year-old.

His house is visible and walking distance from the track.

Joël and his brother started St Labre 200 16 years ago, but their go-kart build-offs and racing started earlier with their dad.

“Instead of buying video games, I’d buy them a motor, and we’d build something,” said Adrien Grenier, Joël’s dad.

Adrien said they always had older cars that didn’t work, and his kids would make karts.

Francois Grenier’s team, Who?, has four drivers including three driving for their first year.

The track had a bumpy and sharp turn where Cédric Chartier went off-course.

“I still didn’t know how to take that corner at that time, so I just did it how I was doing before, and it got worse at that point,” said Chartier, 17, one of the debuting drivers for team Who?. “All I know is, I hit the first bump, I’m not touching the seat anymore, the kart is in the air, and I have no more control. My goal here is just to stay on the kart and hit the brakes, so I don’t get a penalty at least.”

Mahoulé Sevi was also one of the debuting drivers and was nervous.

“At first I was really nervous, overthinking a lot of things, and the pressure of getting our team to win,” said Sevi.

Team Who?, did not make it to the finals to complete in the last 100 laps.

“It was more fun than I expected it to be. Once you’re driving the stress just goes away,” said Sevi.

Team Compteurs de Bines won The Spark Plug Cup, while the Moonshadow Hogs placed fifth.