The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

•T he I FP • H al to n H ill s •T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 7 , 2 01 3 32 15 MOUNTAINVIEW RD. N., GEORGETOWN 905-877-2296 www.georgetowntoyota.com *$1,000 DOWN PAYMENT $27,815$27,815 LEASE FOR $299$299 Plus tax permonth for48 months. PLUS TAXES BFREVT-AA 2013 RAV 4 AWD LE2013 RAV 4 AWD LE SPORTS "Quote/unquote" 'You can't really think about stuff like that be-cause if you do, you're going to scare youself.'-- Go kart racer Arron Attard... see story below Although the scenario has played out many times in Arron Attard's mind, the lo- cal teen is determined not to get too rattled if it actually happens. Attard qualified earlier this year for what amounts to be the World Series of go-kart racing, the 17th-annual SuperKarts U.S.A. SuperNationals, which will run over five days in late November in the parking lot of a Las Vegas casino. Close to 600 of the world's top profes- sional drivers are expected to take part in one of several classes during that week, with Attard running in the KZ2 shifter cat- egory amongst about 40 other competitors in the 125 cc karts reaching top speeds well over 200 km/h. In past years, Formula One Michael Schumacher of Germany has taken part in the Sin City event and already a num- ber of NASCAR drivers have committed for 2013, including Jamie McMurray and Scott Speed, along with former IndyCar rookie of the year A.J. Allmendinger, and the son of longtime F1 star Nelson Piquet. Attard, a Grade 12 Georgetown District High School student, has visualized him- self pulling his vehicle up to the start line and having a world-class driver like Schu- macher line up beside him. "You can't really think about stuff like that, because if you do, you're going to scare yourself," said the 18-year-old Attard. "All of the driving experience someone like Schumacher has, how are you going to compare with that? In the end though, they're used to the F1 cars, right? Jump- ing into a go-kart is completely different. It's so hard on your body. The Gs on your ribs are pretty hard and I work out almost every day. You have to be fit because it's so demanding physically. It'll wear you down physically and that's when you start mak- ing mental mistakes." Racing, Attard explains, is in his blood. His dad Steve raced powerboats and Arron began his kart career at age 10. Sis- ter Kate also raced for four years and on most weekends in the spring and summer months, the Attard Racing/Maple Lodge Farms trailer and team bus are on the road to races somewhere in Ontario or Quebec, or in the winter months, Florida. "Nothing can be so low off the ground and go that fast," Attard said. "Our start is an F1 start, so once that flag drops, you're gone. I've tried other types of racing, like dirt bikes, but it's always been go-karts first. We grew up on a large prop- erty and that's what we did for fun." Ten family members are expected to make the flight to Las Vegas to watch Arron and also take a few spins around the track in recreational races open to the public. "There's so much time that goes into it, you couldn't do it well unless your whole family supports you," notes mom Cathy. "It's a 24/7 thing and we're all involved." Attard has been spending long days at the Innisfil Indy Karting facility to prepare for the SuperNationals, reeling off dozens of laps at a time. So far this year, he has been to the win- ner's podium on many occasions, winning the Ultimate Driver event in Hamilton along with the Northern Ontario Karting Championship, among other outlandishly large trophies in his collection, but the Su- perNationals event is his biggest stage yet. "Vegas is huge. It's bigger than the worlds and I'm just going to go where this takes me," said Attard, whose co-op placement this fall with his father's company involves driving an 18-wheel transport truck. "Everybody's going to be there to scout out drivers. All the top European drivers will be there and it's going to be really com- petitive. This will be by far the highlight of my career." Attard on the right track By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer Christ the King's junior girls earned silver medals at the provincial high school cross-country running champi- onships in Sudbury on Saturday, led by Mackenzie Cameron's individual runner-up result. Also contributing to the Jaguars' points total were Stephanie Knowles (34th), Maddie Shiell (70th), Nicole Waddick (94th) and Charley Truyens (199th). The Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association meet was held at Laurentian University. CtK's midget boys placed 20th in their category, which included fin- ishes by Tanner Ellis (20th), Andrew Whelan (94th), Benjamin Ray (189th) and Frank Srebernjak (247th). Georgetown's senior boys turned in a 36th place team finish, headed up by Ben Wanless (202nd); Liam Carson (208th); Braeden Silva (218th); Max Wanless (222nd). Other local finishers included: Midget Girls Meaghan Sippel, GDHS (24th); Ka- tie Sell, GDHS (129th) Junior Boys Steven Moore, CtK (106th) Senior Girls Irene Kiroplis, CtK (134th) VOLLEYBALL The powerhouse Georgetown Reb- els have had little trouble compiling a perfect record in the Halton Second- ary School Athletic Association's Tier I senior boys' division and the domina- tion continued in the opening round of playoffs Tuesday. The first-place Rebels downed eighth-seeded Notre Dame of Burl- ington 25-18, 25-15 to advance to the league semifinals today (Thursday) at 4:45 p.m. in the GDHS gym against their cross-town rivals, Christ the King's Jaguars, who finished in fourth place with a 7-5 record. After a 12-0 regular season in which they didn't drop a single set, Rebel coach Kyle Stewart's squad got a scare last week when its top player, Jake McNeil, rolled over on his ankle, but he's expected to be ready should the team advance to the Halton finals Tuesday afternoon at Sheridan Col- lege in Oakville. The Rebels are hardly a one-man show, however, with a pair of 6-foot- 5s at the net in Ken Kerr and Owen Martel, surrounded by a veteran cast. They have a 42-8 overall record, making the quarterfinals and semis at tournaments involving the best AAAA schools in the province, which in- cluded a two-game sweep of Whitby's Sinclair at an event in Uxbridge last weekend. Jr. Jaguars grab silver at OFSAA cross-country See JAGUARS, pg. 33 ARRON ATTARD Dylan Thring of the Georgetown Rebels unleashes a powerful serve against Notre Dame's Fighting Irish Tuesday in the GDHS gym in the first round of HSSAA playoffs. The Rebels swept the match 2-0. Photo by Chris Carvalho