PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. --- On Saturday's throughout the summer, the engines roar at Airborne Speedway. But this year a slightly smaller roar is announcing the arrival of a new wave of drivers at the track.

"Our main concern is bringing up new racers and having them here on Saturday nights.", says Airborne Speedway promoter Mike Perrotte.

Airborne is hosting go-kart racing for the first time this summer. Four divisions, with drivers from age seven to their mid-teens.

"Racing go-karts and racing cars, it's all the same.", says Mike. "It's all the same philosophy. A lot of hard work and a lot of teamwork and when they start at seven years old and start learning that, it caries over."

In year's past, racers competed at makeshift tracks built on a couple of local parking lots. Bringing everyone together here at the Speedway has allowed the sport to grow.

"We have the same number, strength-wise, of the local kids we always get.", says Go-kart organizer Craig Ormsby. "But we're getting kids from Vermont, we're getting kids from Albany, kids coming from Cornwall, Ontario up Massina way. It's been huge for the growth having a real racetrack."